They also realized that customers are far more willing
to listen to their peers, competitors, industry experts, neighbors, and bartenders than the
vendor itself.
That idea has not been lost on the web medium. Today, third-party, independent validation
manifests in different ways, including the following:
Case studies
Testimonials
Press releases
Reviews
Awards and other recognition
All of these pieces of content involve someone talking about the product or service
voluntarily. We??™ll cover all of these in detail as the chapter progresses.
You??™ll also notice that none of the people providing validation are compensated. It??™s fairly
easy to buy the services of William Shatner, Alex Trebek, Fabio, or another celebrity
endorser, but the public sees right through the cash exchange, and it carries little weight
compared to someone talking about the product or service voluntarily.
Integrating this validation into a corporate website is vitally important. It proves to potential
customers and clients reading the marketing-heavy material that there are in fact
people out there using the product or service, and they are pretty darned happy with it.
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