On Monday I wrote about our Rated Program logo being updated and encouraging you to grab it for your website and blog, but I came across this article on copyblogger about making the most of your testimonials that I thought provided great tips to using them effectively in your marketing efforts.  We all know customer testimonials are vital our marketing, but how many of you have thought about how best to use them?

The 10 ways consist of:

1. Select testimonials from customers similar to your prospects.
2. Select testimonials that give specifics.
3. Edit carefully and lightly.
4. Group testimonials for greater impact.
5. Use many short quotes instead of a few long ones.
6. Don’t be afraid of long testimonials.
7. Include full names, titles, and locations when possible.
8. Feature photographs (maybe).
9. Enclose each testimonial in quotation marks.
10. Use a powerful headline to introduce testimonials.

The article contains more detailed information on each bullet point.  So if you’ve got testimonials, or reviews on WeddingWire, be sure to make them work for you.  You’ve done great work in the past, now show prospective clients how you make their dream wedding happen.

Have you done something unique or different with your testimonials?  Leave a comment to share the community.

For those that haven’t noticed yet, our 2008 WeddingWire Rated badges are available to place on your website.  These badges are meant for your websites and blogs so potential clients easily click through to your reviews (our system generates the code that will link it to your reviews automatically)

You can find this badge in your account by logging in > click on Marketing > click on WeddingWire Rated.  Just paste the code onto your website.  It’s that easy!

Do you have the Rated badge on your website or blog? Leave a comment with the link!

Yesterday Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced their second quarter financial results that included positive revenue news amid a weak economic environment.  They highlighted several items within their departments, but the one take away that applies to you as wedding vendors are the two highlights listed under their Internet section:

• Second quarter traffic showed solid gains, with page views increasing 23% over the prior year’s quarter. These strong traffic and engagement trends continue into the third quarter of 2008, with July page views trending up 50% year-over-year.
• The marthastewart.com website unveiled a suite of wedding planning tools, powered by WeddingWire, enabling couples to plan and manage their entire wedding experience on marthastewart.com.

The second bullet is more to show our mention in their press release, but the first bullet should resonate with you.  Why?  It means people are increasingly visiting their site, which includes their wedding section.  More and more brides start their vendor searches online and now that MarthaStewart.com is offering brides a vendor search component, as a WeddingWire vendor you need to be sure that your storefront is up to date.  Additionally, get those newlyweds reviews! After all, we give them a gift just for 5 reviews.