Customer reviews and testimonials matter… a lot.

In today’s world of social media influencers, Yelp, TripAdvisor and Amazon, we look for and act on the recommendations of others when it comes to all areas of our life, but specifically when it comes to making a purchasing decision.

In fact, according to Nielsen research, 92 percent of people will “trust a recommendation from a peer” and 70 percent will trust a recommendation from “someone they don’t even know.”

And while these recommendations can come in many forms, testimonials are a great way to establish your brand’s credibility and to sell your product to consumers. The one key difference between testimonials and other word-of-mouth and third-party reviews is that they are sought and selected by you, the marketer. This gives you greater control over what is said and how it is displayed.

But how can you get a great testimonial?

The short answer to this question is that you must ask. Approach your best customers individually and personalize the request with the person’s name, the product he or she purchased as well as any other information that might be relevant. It’s also smart to approach recent customers – maybe some you’re just beginning to form relationships with – as a way to both follow up on the work you did or the project you sold and to get their honest opinion while the purchase is still fresh in their minds.

Next, you must ask the right questions. Don’t just ask for a “testimonial”. Be specific in your request. Ideally, your objective is to extract examples of how your product or service has benefited them. You can do this by asking questions like:

• How much money did our product save you?
• What’s the biggest benefit you’ve seen as a result of using our product?
• What made you choose us/ our product?
• Do you have any ROI feedback as to how successful the piece was at reaching your target market?

Make sure to provide a guideline for the customer or client. Not only does this help you control the response, but it also increases the probability that he or she will respond to you since you’ve made the process more manageable by outlining it with questions.
Once you have a nice pool of responses, make sure to edit them properly – this is a testimonial, not an essay. Edit out any irrelevant chatter (if it’s a video) or unnecessary sentences (if it’s a written response) to keep the focus on information that’s going to help potential customers overcome objections and decide to purchase.

When you have a few strong testimonials you’re pleased with, the next and possibly most important part is that you use it strategically. After all, a testimonial is no help if your customers don’t see it. Consider adding them to your website, email blasts or case studies. Furthermore, experimenting with paid ads or using shorter testimonials on social media can also drive traffic to your website and, eventually, convert followers into customers.

Augmented reality is quickly blossoming into a marketing trend that not only allows users to access information virtually, but without taking their attention off of the real world. Pokemon Go, Snapchat’s lenses, even Google Glass, have shifted the attention toward this new technology and the power behind it. Now, with Apple’s release of three new phones – the iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X, plus the launch of ARKit for iOS and Google’s ARCore for Android, AR is poised to move into the hands of the public.

“As traditional revenues from television advertising are beginning to erode, a new trillion-dollar industry is emerging that mandates brands be omnipresent. Within this decade, augmented reality is going to change the way the always-connected consumer works, shops and plays. Once contextual marketing seamlessly transitions to commerce, it will be trusted brands—and the savvy marketers who manage them—that help consumers augment their world with tailored experiences to enhance their daily lives.” – AdAge

As the conversation turns toward the benefits of AR, how can we, as marketers, adopt and harness the power of this emerging technology?

Feature Interactive Ads.

Stryker Diagnostics, the makers of hip and knee medical devices, chose this V-Pop design as a tradeshow invitation. When you open the invitation, a postcard pops up in the center. The call to action on the postcard was to bring the postcard to the Stryker booth to experience a 3D demonstration of the hip and knee devices. When users held the postcard marker in front of the web cams set up at the Stryker kiosks they were able to view a live 360 degree 3D demonstration of these devices. Take a look at the movie to see it in action!

Make Your Products Scannable.

Open up our shadow box and meet our robot technology mascot, Joey. Joey has all of your SG technology capabilities questions answered with a simple scan of his mid-section.

Simply download Taggar for Augmented Reality or activate your QR code reader, scan his mid-section, and be launched into a technology experience!

For more ideas on how to use AR in your business’ marketing efforts, read this blog post by Incisive Edge.

Click here to learn more about our technology capabilities at Structural Graphics.

In a highly digital world, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get your company’s message heard above the noise. But direct mail can make this seemingly impossible task possible.

Direct mail marketing hinges on the idea of connecting brands with customers in a real and tangible way. To accomplish this effectively, we recommend getting their attention through clever ideas, interactivity and unique attention to detail. In fact, our direct mail designs deliver an average response rate of 8.5 percent.

The next time you’re ideating about your next direct mail marketing campaign, use these examples below to wow the group (and increase your response rates)!

Atlanta Falcons Mercedes-Benz Stadium Mailer

We produced this piece for The Atlanta Falcons to give fans a sneak peek of the new Mercedes-Benz multi-purpose retractable roof stadium under construction in Atlanta, Georgia. This piece was also used to encourage fans to purchase their season tickets and to sign up for a tour of the new stadium. The cover of this piece featured an image of the stadium roof. When pulled down on the side-tab, the roof petals immediately opened up to give recipients a demonstration and preview of the new roof opening. The inside of the mailer featured a web key that drove recipients to a unique URL where they could learn more and experience a virtual tour of the new stadium. The web key also allowed our customer to keep track of who visited the site and market to those who did not accordingly.

Fort Worth Zoo Ball Custom Invitation

In conjunction with Schaefer Advertising, we designed this custom event invitation with our client for the Fort Worth Zoo Ball, an annual fundraising event to support the privately owned, non-profit zoo. Some of the highlights of this high-profile event included an appearance by Reba McEntire, a silent auction and a raffle.

Mettler Toledo Flapper

Mettler Toledo is a multinational manufacturer of scales and analytical instruments. They used the Flapper direct mail solution as part of a national lead generation campaign. The Flapper featured imagery of a man with glasses. As you opened up each of the multiple panels, the expression on his face changed slightly which helped build momentum with each panel flip.

NutriSolutions Folder with Cylinder

RR Donnelley partnered with us on this high-impact direct mail solution for agricultural brand WinField. WinField was looking for an impactful way to market NutriSolutions, their complete plant nutrition management program. What they chose was this direct mail folder which included a pop-up cylinder on the inside. The cylinder included comprehensive information on the NutriSolutions program.

Carestream Shadowbox Mailer

Carestream is no stranger to the power of high-impact print! They came to us to develop a visually creative mailer to highlight their DRX-Revoluion Mobile X-Ray system. They chose our Shadowbox Mailer design. It shipped flat but when you pull on the side panels, the inside transformed into a shadowbox display with the X-Ray machine featured front and center.

Food Lion Renovation Pop Up

Grocery store chain, Food Lion, mailed this fun pop-up to customers to make them aware of renovations being made to the store and to get them excited about some upcoming changes to the store and product line. The piece is effective to mail because it starts out flat and memorable because of the dimensional component that pops up as soon as you open the piece.