What’s Influencing Your Next Sale?

What’s influencing your next sale?

The most significant stat I’ve seen in a while is that 83% of people trust the referral of a friend, while at the same time only 13% trust traditional media ads.

Wow, have advertisers really messed up, 13% is sadly almost non-existent. How is it that companies have allowed their advertising to show not support but distain? Are advertisers now untrustworthy? Something that the new economy requires from everyone, even advertisers is trust. Trust is number one, trust is the change factor.

What else influences your next sale online?

Let’s remember we have online reviews, blogs, Twitter posts, Facebook likes (soon to be dislikes). What are some of the major influencers?

• Brand experience, nothing better
• Word of mouth, 83% trust a referral from a friend
• Social media outlets, lots of trust and friends here
• Brand reputation, as with everything
• Search, being discoverable
• Online experience, is it easy to buy
• Traditional media, TV, magazine and radio

It’s easy to point this out; going forward in your marketing plan it’s mandatory for you to build your brand experience. Your product must do what you say it’s going to do and you must develop that reputation. Failure to do so will result in the demolition of your brand, because 83% of your next sale is based on the referral of a friend. The number one question for advertisers, “are we worthy of a referral”?

Michael Bickerton, Raven5 Ltd, July 2010

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