What if you could be (almost) famous on the Internet with the people that know you in real life? Setting up your shingle online would be so much easier if you knew that you already have an audience that will buy from you.
What’s missing is the connection between the people who know you already offline and the people who are just meeting you online. If you could bridge that connection between the offline and the online, you know you could be just as successful online as you are offline. For that, you’ll need to have content that shows how awesome you are!
It might seem counterintuitive to tell your current people about what you’re doing online in order to get testimonials. You might be afraid that they’ll think that you’re jumping ship or something worse when in fact, you want to reach more people with your message to change more lives. You probably already have testimonials and in that case you’ll need to make sure you have permission to post their testimonial on your website and social media (if you haven’t already done so). You’ll also need to make sure that the testimonials talk about what you’ve done instead of being the typical, “She’s great!” testimonial you see so often. The testimonial needs to be detailed about how specifically you’ve changed their life. In order to do that, you need to send the right email to your current people. I have an asking for a quality testimonial template that you can download here to help you get more than “She’s wonderful!”.
Since you have a successful offline business, you may have articles that you’ve written or talks that you’ve given. Those articles and talks need to be posted on your website and social media so that more people can see what you’ve accomplished already offline! Now I can hear you saying that they might not be relevant to what you’re doing right now and that can be OK. It all depends on how you frame it to your current audience. Your audience will understand that you have experience in different fields. It’s like ice cream. It’s still ice cream but there are a myriad of flavors. This also goes for places that you’ve been featured and local or national news coverage. The purpose of this is to prove that you are a real, live person that people see as an expert. All of the logos of where you’ve been featured should be in that box of logos with the As Seen In on top.
The great news is that starting an online business is completely different for you than for everyone else. You already have an offline business with customers or clients. You have a leg up on everyone else who is starting out online without anything. By using testimonials, content you’ve created and content about you, you are showing that you ARE an expert and someone to trust.