Media Mentions- How 3 Words Close More Sales

The power in your media mentions is that they can help drive sales. Even today, they create impact and influence, despite the media and their credibility being questioned during this past year.

When was the last time you bought a new computer, stereo or other electronics without asking for recommendations from friends and family or checking online reviews? Will you book a restaurant without checking what other diners had to say? Most likely not.

It’s no different for your business. We’re in what has been called the Reputation Economy and the Trust Economy; it could be called the Review Economy. The bottom line is that what the customer cares about is not what you say about you, it’s what ‘they’ say about you.

Leverage Your Media Mentions

As consumers’ trust in advertising has declined, trust in recommendations from friends and family, online sites, and the media, have increasing value, in that order of importance according to a Neilsen study.

People like to do business with those that they Know, Like and Trust. Recommendations can help form the basis of that trust. It’s one of the reasons Linkedin offers recommendations and endorsements on your profile – to add a trust factor – the kind of credibility that only an independent third party can bestow. These recommendations can also inspire sufficient trust between strangers that makes them comfortable handing money over to other strangers across the internet; it’s the driving force and what has been responsible for the success of sites like eBay and more recently Airbnb.

Seth Godin recently wrote about this on his blog:

“The digital asset that matters is trust. Awareness first, then interaction, and maybe a habit, but all three mean nothing if they don’t lead to permission and trust. The privilege of connection. Everything else is slippery.”

For most businesses, trust can take time to build and maintain. It is often multiple touch points over time that increase know, like and trust until a prospect feels comfortable enough that they are ready to do business with you.

The process can be shortened when two factors are in place simultaneously: trust and authority.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Authority is the power to influence others, especially because of one’s commanding manner or one’s recognized knowledge about something – lexico @janetabachnick” quote=”Authority is the power to influence others, especially because of one’s commanding manner or one’s recognized knowledge about something “]

The Impact of Being in the Media

The best way to accomplish this accelerated process is by leveraging the media. Done right, you can have instant trust and authority, which can immediately transform cold prospects into warm, pre-sold ones; this in turn closes sales more quickly. Here’s why:

Trust

Coming in a third on the Neilsen study on consumer trust, behind recommendations from friends and family, and online reviews, is the media. Being mentioned or featured in the media is perceived like an endorsement from them, the equivalent of a 5 star review, even though it technically isn’t. People trust the media and that trust is transferred to you and your business.

Instant Credibility

The media are trusted in part because they research and vet their sources. Once you’ve been mentioned in the media, you are instantly credible.

Third Party Credibility

The media mentioning you or singing your praises bestows third party credibility. Remember, consumers care more about ‘what they say about you’ than what you say about you.

Authority Status

Now that you have been featured in the media, you are seen as an authority in your field or niche. Given that they chose you, and they didn’t feature your competitor, you are seen as a top expert.

Celebrity Status

Being in the media immediately elevates your status to that of an instant expert and celebrity. Our culture is obsessed with celebrity and fame; people want to be associated with celebrities. This bodes well for businesses because when you are featured in the media you attain a form of celebrity status. This will cause people to seek you out and want to work with you.

The Three Words That Close More Sales

As Seen In are the three words that close more sales. By showcasing your media mentions, you are able to harness all the points outlined above: trust, authority status, celebrity status, instant credibility and third party credibility at once, invoked simply by using those 3 words.

Ok, it’s not just those three words. They need to be accompanied by the names or logos of the media outlets where you have gotten press or been cited.

For our purposes, the media can be defined as any newspaper or magazine, radio and TV, as well as high profile portals, blogs and social media, online or tablet magazines, podcasts or online influencers.

To get the biggest impact and instant trust, you need to use the graphic media logos, not just the names of their outlets.

Using instantly recognizable media logos on your webpage, in social profiles and in your marketing capitalizes on our current visual marketing preference and sends important information to your prospect or site visitor, rapidly and on multiple levels.

“When it comes to marketing your business, pictures speak volumes. Not only do they make a bigger impact, but also they do it in a shorter amount of time. The brain processes visual content 60,000 times faster than text. Add that to the fact that 93% of all human communication is nonverbal and it becomes clear that a visual online presence is critical.” Source: Rebekah Radice Social Media Examiner

In fact, according to Neoman – “It only takes us 150 milliseconds for a symbol to be processed, and 100 milliseconds to attach a meaning to it.”

With a 2-7 second window of opportunity to grab someone’s attention when they land on your site or online profile, one of the best ways to garner their interest is with visual content. Use visual content that has a built-in trust factor and you have presold your visitor on working with you. That is why, As Seen in, accompanied by media logos, are the three words that close more sales, more quickly.

Think of it like creating a Trust Trigger- inspiring trust, elevating you to expert status and offering the equivalent of a 5-star review simultaneously. It’s the reason these media mentions, when showcased with the three words ‘as seen on’, are able to quickly or instantly turn cold prospects into warm ones. They may even close the sale for you.

A version of this article was first published on Linkedin