It’s all well and good to put your best foot forward when speaking to your Ideal Clients in your marketing.
And a while back, I gave you a whole bunch of ideas about how you can create what we call your Persuasive Persona to attract those Ideal Clients to your message.
But (buzzkill alert)…
No matter how good your marketing makes you look, most of the people you’re trying to attract are going to look at it with some amount of skepticism.
And that’s not your fault. It’s just the way things are nowadays.
Today, we’re bombarded with so much marketing and advertising–and so much of it is spam and slimy weasel-wordcraft and high-pressure sales tactics–that we’ve learned not to take any marketing at face value.
I, for one, think it’s a shame that we’ve become so jaded. But it is what it is.
Why Social Proof is So Important
But this state of affairs has led to another way for marketers to stand out. It’s called “social proof,” a fancy term that simply means, “Forget what the business says about itself and pay attention to what other people say about the business.”
Bottom line: people trust an objective third-party opinion about a business more than they trust what the business says about itself.
That’s why you need a social proof strategy for your business. And, it’s why you need to have a social proof strategy for analyzing what clients think about your competitors.
Third-party opinions come in a variety of forms, but the three most common are:
- Testimonials–What a customer or client of the business says about their experience with the business’s products or services
- Case Studies–Basically extended testimonials with additional details, usually in a narrative style
- Reviews–Comments about the products or services themselves by customers
Up to this point in our competitor research, I’ve had you looking at things that your competitors say about themselves–Home Page content, their lead magnets and emails, their social media profiles, etc.
But today, you’re going to ignore all that and focus on what other people say about your competitors.
Ignore the Fluff: Your Social Proof Strategy Needs to Dig a Little Deeper
Now, a quick word of caution is in order. When you look at your competitors’ websites, you’re only going to see glowing opinions in the testimonials and case studies you find. After all, the business owner chose those pieces of social proof to go on the site, so it’s going to sound like a bit of a love-fest.
So, when you read those proof elements, look deeper. Ignore glowing generalities and look for what specifics the person says they like about the business and its services. No specifics is quite likely a red flag.
Product reviews might give you more insight into what people think about your competitors. If your competitor has written a book or teaches an online course on a course platform, readers and course students can leave reviews without running them through the business owner’s filter. So, that feedback might be a little more honest.
That leads me to today’s action step for you…
- Look at your competitors’ websites for testimonials and case studies. What kind of testimonials do you find (written, video, long-form case studies, a combination)?
- What types of people are they getting testimonials from? Do they match your Ideal Client, or is it a different group of people?
- Finally, what specific features and benefits of your competitors’ products or services are the testimonials praising?
- Then, do a Google search for “[your competitor’s name or business name] books” and “[your competitor’s name or business name] online courses.” Go to those sites (probably Amazon for books) and check for reviews of the products. Read through some of the 5-star reviews and also the 1- and 2-star reviews, if there are any. This will give you a good idea about what people liked and didn’t like.
Finally, add a column in your database for “Social Proof” and record your findings and thoughts there.
Once you’ve completed today’s action step, you’ll have completed the data gathering part of your competitor research. Woo-hoo!
In my next post, I’ll walk you through the next step–analyzing that data to identify opportunities for your business. That’s the really exciting part!
So, get ready. It’s about to get real!
See you then…
To Your Success,
Willy
P.S.–Before we dig into your competitive analysis in my next post, it might be a fun exercise to reflect back on what you’ve learned about your competitors over my recent posts–starting with when you first created your competitor research database and all the way through the process of filling it out.
Think about what you knew about who they were and what their businesses were like just a few weeks ago. And think about all you know about them now.
If you’ve done all the action steps as we’ve gone along, there should be quite a big difference.
And starting with my next post, you’ll start to identify all the opportunities this competitor analysis has opened up for you.
I hope you’re looking forward to it as much as I’m looking forward to sharing the process with you!
Have a question or comment about this whole process, or any part of it? Hit me up in the Comments. I’d love to hear from you!
