Did you know: 55% of your customers will not TRUST your business if you do not have recommendations/reviews or awards you have won on your website.
I have only just read the above statistic and thought it was important to share in this piece of content. I always make sure to have reviews and recommendations on my website, across my social media and a part of my email marketing campaigns where relevant.
It is also important for you, as a business, to share your achievements online; just like I am doing today.
If you have read a lot of my content, you will know I always talk about achievements. I have shared my success around being a top digital influencer, having my blog highly commended at The UK Blog Awards, being a finalist with my book Think #Digital First for the Marketing Book of the Year Awards as well as being a top 20 marketing and advertising influencer, a top business advisor and UK SME “hero” in the small business sector.
I always try to enter as many awards as I can because this is one of the best ways to build trust as an online influencer in the digital marketing and business growth sector and sometimes you get organisations doing it on your behalf, just like Market Inspector did for me.
Today is another award-winning day for me and the content I have spent the last 8 years perfecting. I was contacted a few months ago by the team behind the UK’s Best Business Blog 2016 to enter my content in the sales and marketing category. Earlier this week I received the email congratulating me on being selected as one of the winners in the Sales & Marketing Blog of the Year category.
I would like to say a huge thank you to Market Inspector, and EPOS System Guide for including me in their winners list, and I would also like to say a huge congratulations to all of the other winners, including StartupDonut, Incisive Edge and the Female Entrepreneur Association.
If you want to enter awards, create a plan, know which awards you are going to enter before they accept entrants and be prepared for the difficult questions. Here are some things to ask yourself before entering:
- How much of your marketing budget have you allocated to entering awards?
- What do you want the award to say about your business?
- Are you focusing on local (regional), national or international awards?
- When are you going to be ready to tell your story?
- Be ready to PR and Market once you have won.
If you would like to see the full list of winners for the Best Business Blogs of 2016, you can do so here.