Press Release - Invouch launches a business social network testimonial marketing

Union City, CA: Invouch (www.invouch.com) based in the bay area has launched a new social network today exclusively for businesses for collection, storing, management and broadcasting of testimonials and referrals.

The need for an effective testimonial management system exclusively for businesses worldwide has been there for quite some time. However, the limitations of technology and awareness for online privacy have been limiting effective systems to be implemented for addressing the problem. Invouch is a fresh perspective of answering this need.

“Our goal”, said Jay Mohan, Founder of Invouch, “is to provide a secure yet effective platform for increasing credibility and connectivity for businesses worldwide. Our vision is to connect all the businesses around the globe.”

Invouch lets individuals and businesses create profiles that would enhance their reputation many fold. By incorporating functions like testimonial aggregation and display on public profile, star ratings based on feedback, lead collection system, referral management and broadcasting of testimonials invouch is ready to become the best social network for businesses.

“Signing-up is quick and easy” said Kani, the project manager of Invouch. “Users can invite their contacts for providing testimonials. When contact leaves a testimonial, he/she will be assigned an invouch profile and they become connected to you enabling the system to share each other’s activities and keeping both of you updated.”

To know more about invouch and about this press release, please contact:

The PR Department

29300 Kohoutek Way Suite 110

Union City CA 94587

info@invouch.com

1-855-53-VOUCH

Why should I use invouch?

We are living in a time where more and more people are depending on the Internet to make business and professional decisions. It doesn’t matter if you provide the best service in your industry, or you have the best quality product, or you are the best professional in your industry; people want to hear it from others. People are searching the Internet and trusting what other people are saying before they make decisions.

In this market it is a necessity to have a strong and positive online presence. The best approach to this problem is to have a living breathing web page, where you can collect and display testimonials from your contacts. Searching on the Internet will show your audience a very clear, loud message of your strengths and reputation.

Invouch helps you do that easily. It just takes few minutes to setup your account and configure it to be ready for use. You can configure your customized invitation message, your customized thank you message and even customized hint-texts.

Hint-texts are guides for the testimonial provider regarding some good points about you. The general problem when you ask for a testimonial is the mental block, the starting trouble, where people have the pre-conceived notion that it will take lot of time to think of something good about the person and write it. Creativity, after all, is a tough task for lot of people. Hint-texts give an easy solution, where in clicking on the hint text names fill the testimonial box with pre-filled pointers about you. It is always easy to edit something than write it from scratch. Read more about hint-text here.

Once an invouch account is setup properly, inviting your contacts for providing testimonials can happen with the click of a single button.

For your contacts, providing you a testimonial, it is a very straightforward process, mostly requiring 2-3 minutes on an average using invouch. Once a testimonial is provided, the provider is assigned an invouch account and that user is connected with your profile. All your key activities including the testimonials you receive from others are shared with your connected users. Your name stays in the mind of your contacts without any additional efforts from your end; a plain unobtrusive way of keeping in touch and follow-up.

Getting referred to others by some one whom you know is very easy now using invouch. It is so powerful when someone speaks great about you to others whom he/she knows. With invouch, this is just a couple of minutes task.

For a business, to have a single place where all the staffs of business can congregate together and work towards getting testimonials for themselves as well as their business is very powerful. All these staff testimonials are aggregated and shown as the collective testimonials for the business.

The invouch testimonial widget helps you to spread the word through your website as well as anywhere you can paste an HTML code.

Connecting your social network accounts like Facebook and Twitter helps you to broadcast the testimonials through other channels and all with the power of a single testimonial engine provided by invouch.

In short, you should use invouch for the following important reasons:
- Your invouch profile page is a search friendly page that appears in the search results of most of the search engines.
- Invouch is an easy testimonial collection, storage, management and broadcasting engine.
- Social Networking aspect of invouch helps you on follow-up marketing without additional efforts using the concept called “Connections”.
- Invouch makes it easy for you to be referred by others.
- Single place for all staffs of a business across branches to congregate online and build the reputation for the business.
- Invouch testimonial widget helps to spread the testimonials collected on invouch through other channels like your website or sites that support HTML posting.
- Connecting social networks like Facebook and Twitter helps you spread your reputation faster. 

Article by Invouch

Invouch is a business social network for collecting, storing, managing and broadcasting testimonials and referrals.

www.invouch.com

invouch.tumblr.com

invouch.blogspot.com

Testimonials and invouch will help you to get up whenever you fail

Failing is a possibility for any business. However, as Emerson said, getting up and treading on, trying to rebuild from the ashes back to the glory needs guts, will power and a good rebuilding process.

Using the good aspects from the past, molding it for the future – that should be the initial single focus for any rainmaker who is going to spearhead a rebuild effort for any kind of business. Client testimonials can be the best possible cosmetic that can provide the needed beautification of a business that is being rebuilt.

Client testimonials are essentially a review of a customer's past experience with your business. Client testimonials can make a future sale for your business and show potential customers what they are likely to receive from choosing to purchase from your business. In addition to this, client testimonials are proven to help clients feel more comfortable in knowing that others had success with your product or service; even text testimonials will help to assure potential clients that purchasing from you is the correct decision and will help them feel secure in the decision they make. 

Dwelling into the past, you would be able to chisel out few of those customers who were and still are satisfied with the service you provided. Tap into those old resources and finding few of those precious gems wouldn’t be a daunting task.

Build a classy public profile for your business on invouch, a very powerful business social network that will help businesses collect, store, manage and broadcast testimonials and referrals. Also the inbuilt social network within invouch lets users connect with clients, suppliers, associates, business contacts etc. The strong online presence provided by invouch and the internal lead gathering program would enable any business to gather more and more business.  

In today's economy, competition is usually very tough between businesses and client testimonials can help to increase business exposure and differentiate your business from others. Testimonials on invouch can help draw traffic to your website and boost demand, and not only this, but the more testimonials a business receives the more likely it is to boost search engine rankings!

For any business that is trying to recover from a failure testimonials help to comfort potential clients of your product or service and help boost credibility. Use invouch to fully utilize the power of business social networking to rebuild your business way over your past glory.

Article by Invouch

Invouch is a business social network for collecting, storing, managing and broadcasting testimonials and referrals.

www.invouch.com

invouch.tumblr.com

invouch.blogspot.com

6 Ways Invouch will increase your business

Invouch is a business social network focused on ensuring your prominence and reputation in the online world. By using the power of testimonials and referrals, invouch will make sure that you or business will have a strong public profile that is easily found on Internet search results.

Check some of the ways invouch will increase your business:

1.     A strong public profile:

Invouch let’s you build a strong public profile that can easily impress your prospects and increase your reputation on the online world. Invouch is a system for inviting, collecting, storing, managing and broadcasting system for testimonials. Good testimonials build a strong foundation for any business (what should be the contents of a good testimonial).

All the testimonials received are profiled on the public page and the testimonial contents posted on search engines.

When the profile page is displaying your public details and showcases testimonials from your genuine contacts with star rating, the value of the profile page increases many fold. 

2.     Collect testimonials easily:

Asking for testimonials was a hassle. But, now with Invouch, asking for a testimonial is as easy as clicking on a button. All you need to do is setup a strong, enticing testimonial invitation message once (how to write a good testimonial invitation message) and configure some hint-texts (hints on what you expect in the testimonial about you).

Once that is done, every time when you need to invite someone for leaving a testimonial, all you have to do is enter their name, email id and click on the invite button. An email with your pre-written invitation message, customized for your prospect, will be sent with the link to a dedicated page for providing the testimonial. The page for providing the testimonial will highlight the hint-texts for automatically filling the testimonial content with pre-written text that can be easily edited. Clicking on a button will send the testimonial to your profile. Testimonial collected. Task accomplished. Easy right?

3.     Get easily found on the Internet

Finding you or your business online is a big problem, especially on the search engines. When someone searches for you or for your specific business category online, they are bombarded with zillions of search results. Invouch will help you stand out in this myriad collection of results with an easily identifiable profile page link that shows the number of testimonials you have received.

Showing a search result with strong reviews and testimonials, with a strongly identifiable unique URL dedicated for you etc can make sure that your profile will be visible very easily on the search results making people click on it.

4.     Keep connected with clients, associates, prospects, suppliers etc

Wouldn’t it be great to have people associated with you professionally or through business to get connected with you maintaining the same professional atmosphere? Now that is possible with Invouch. Invouch lets you connect to your business contacts and professionals using a concept called, well, “Connection”. Getting connected to a person on invouch is possible in many ways:

·      When someone leaves a testimonial for you, they are automatically connected to your profile.

·      People can search for others on invouch and click on the “Connect” icon near their profile image and connection requests are sent for approval from the profile owner.

·      You can click on the Connect widget placed by users on third party sites like Blogs and a connection request will be send to their invouch profile

·      You can send connection request directly to the user if you have their email address.

Being connected to a person lets you see his/her activities on invouch. So when you receive a new testimonial, everyone else who is connected to you will see it and will be able to comment on it. This means that keeping touch with your existing clients doesn’t need any additional effort now. Invouch does that for you without any extra effort from your end.

5.     Collect leads

Your public profile is displayed prominently in search results once you have built some strong testimonial and rating content on it. When prospective clients or customers search for the service or product related to what you do, your profile would be prominently displayed on the results.

Prospects can contact you through your profile. These are called leads. Leads are directly delivered to your email address as well as you can find them on your invouch Lead delivery pages.

More leads mean, of course, more business!

6.     Get referred faster

Invouch lets you ask for referrals from people who has utilized your service or purchased products (if you have a premium profile). Referring is very easy. Your contact has to configure the referral message once and subsequently for all referral invitations clicking on a button, invouch system will send a customized referral email to all the connected users. When it is easy to refer, chances of getting referred are more. More referrals mean more business!

Using invouch certainly will improve your online visibility as well as increase your business by leveraging the power of testimonials to procure more clients and customers. Setting up an invouch account takes 2 minutes. Check out for yourself how fast invouch increases your business.

Article by Invouch

Invouch is a business social network for collecting, storing, managing and broadcasting testimonials and referrals.

www.invouch.com

invouch.tumblr.com

invouch.blogspot.com

How Invouch helped Roberto – A Story

Inside the urban jungle of Santiago surrounded by the snow capped Andes Mountains; there is a densely populated community, Nunoa, a place famous for its bohemian nightlife and the largest soccer stadium in the soccer-crazed nation of Chile.

On the corner of the road leading to Museo de La Memoria y Los Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memory and Human Rights), three blocks away from the intersection of Maipu and Portales, there stands a yellow colored worn down building with a dark brown door. Broken pieces of glass stares at your face asking you the question, “Did you loose your way?” A small white metal board clings on to a single nail on the wall, occasionally drumming with the wind as if to tell the world that it is there. Written on it, in red colored paint are the words, “Roberto Vargas Exportar”.

Run by an old man, with a wrinkle-covered face, Roberto Vargas, this small place is one of the last remaining exporting offices of the rare flower breed, Chilean Bellflower. Started by his father 45 years back and seeing great many rosy days, this venture, due to the downfall of economy, is on the verge of collapse.

Over the past 45 years, the Vargas’s has served a vast clientele that would make even Mrs. Vargas proud during the occasional family banter. Clients spread across cities, states and countries across South America; Roberto Vargas is a known name in the dwindling circle of people loving Chilean Bellflower.

5500 miles away, Los Angeles is buzzing with activity. Brian McDonald is searching for the keys of his silver colored brand new Porsche Cayenne. He is late for his meeting. His high profile clients would be waiting on the emperor suite of the Hyatt, Beverly Hills. Hollywood hot throbs with three back-to-back movie hits, their decision to marry after a secret affair of more than a year did not come as a surprise to Brian. However, wanting to have a big wedding ceremony inside the Kodak Theatre stunned him. In his 10 years of wedding planning and management, this is the first time someone has asked to be married in the Kodak Theatre. Wanting to get married where they give away the Academy Awards, what more a Hollywood star can ask for.   

As he knocked on the ornate doors of the suite, the handsome tall man, whose face has been etched in the hearts of millions of young women across the globe, immediately opened it. A lovely lady in her late twenties came running. “Mr. McDonald, have you heard of Chilean Bellflowers?” Brian had no clue what the heck he just heard. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out. “Never mind”, she continued, “ I need the entire Kodak Theatre covered with Chilean Bellflower, the walkway, the ceiling, the stage, everywhere eyes could reach.” Brian mumbled “Okay. It can be done.” But in his mind he had no clue how. “Thank you Mr. McDonald. Thanks for coming. Let us know when this is arranged.” The meeting was over. He was literally pushed outside and the door banged shut.

Walk back to the car was a long one. His fingers were flying on his cell phone. “What the hell is a Chilean Bellflower?” Within few minutes he understood that it was one of the rare breed of flowers in the world, only found in Chile. Wow. “Who will give me at least few hundreds of thousands of them at such a short notice? Who would export it to USA?” Internet is powerful. He typed in “Chilean Bellflower Exporter” and clicked on the Search button.

4100 Results. On the first page itself, something struck his eyes; 84 Testimonials for “Roberto Vargas Exportar”. Brian couldn’t suppress his curiosity. He clicked on it. A nice profile for an exporting company in Nunoa, Chile with the pictures of beautiful Chilean Bellflowers and 84 Testimonials from companies that conduct business with them all across South America. Brian was impressed. He clicked on the little blue button “Send Email”, typed in a quick note putting his need.

In Nunoa, Roberto was sipping his evening coffee and looking at this computer screen. Memories of the past flashed through his mind and then contemplation of the future forced a sadness to creep on his old face; “Would it come to the dreaded thought that’s been creeping in my mind. Putting the lock on this door I have been opening and walking through every day for the last so many years, is that the only thing left now?”

The blinking note from his computer screen woke Roberto from his thoughts. A new email announcing that it was a lead from invouch. He opened it, with his shivering old hands and read the mail. Brian from Hollywood wants Chilean Bellflower and that too thousands of them. He couldn’t believe at first. He read it twice, thrice. “Is this some kind of a joke?” He found that Brian has put his phone number on his profile. “Why not? Let me call.”

He could hear the ring of a phone number. Three rings and someone answered it. “Brian” sounded a deep booming American. “Hola Brian, como estas. This is Roberto calling from Chile. Do you need Chilean Bellflower?” That was the first good thing Brian heard in the last 24 hours. He couldn’t stop his laugh. “Well of course Roberto. I need the Bellflowers. But I need lots and lots of them. Can you help?”

Roberto’s wrinkled face was beaming with a big smile. It’s been so many months since he has smiled like this, “Of course. When do you want them?”

And a new relationship blossomed with the same penchant of a Chilean Bellflower spreading smile across the faces of so many people.

However, let’s not forget the silent character in this whole story that made this all happen; invouch…

Article by Invouch

Invouch is a business social network for collecting, storing, managing and broadcasting testimonials and referrals.

www.invouch.com

invouch.tumblr.com

invouch.blogspot.com

Write a good Testimonial Invitation message

A good testimonial invitation message should not sound canned, cookie cutter version that is something you are providing to everyone; a generic invitation message that should be working for everyone.

However the generic one is not very effective. Think from the provider’s point of view. Surely the potential testimonial provider wants you help you out for the services you provided by giving a testimonial. But the general notion is that providing a testimonial is time consuming and will have to tap into the creative portion of the respondent’s brain. So the initial reaction; “I am busy right now. Let me do this little later when I am free and relaxed. However, that “later” period never comes and the invitation goes buried into the volume of incoming mails. Well, then you will have to resend the invitation and hope that this time is a good time for the respondent.

A good invitation message that inspires and connects with the respondent would give the motivation for overcoming the common mental blocks of “time consuming” and “creativity needs”. 

Some of the suggestions for a good testimonial invitation message are given below. However, please try different things and come up with something that works. Also let us know what works for you.

1. Invitation subject is not scary:

Having a subject line that connects the responder with you and makes him/her want to open the email, but staying within your limits of professionalism should be used.

For example, having a subject line, “Need a favor from you” would be much more effective than “Testimonial Invitation from you”. It’s an area where you can improvise and find the right subject without making the prospective testimonial provider cheated.

2. Initial Content should be personal

It is very important that the provider should feel the invitation mail as a personal mail and not a canned cookie cutter mail. This can happen only when you invest few seconds in writing the introduction part of the email.

The first few lines of the testimonial invitation email should be the introduction part and it should be something very personal in the relationship and activities between you and the provider. Checking the status of the provider or the quality of the service or product provided would be a nice way to accomplish the personal touch needed for the testimonial invitation.

For example, the following introduction part highlights some of the key aspects of the specific relationship shared between the provider and the requester, which gives the personal touch that is needed.

“Hi John

How are you? It’s been almost 2 months since we have delivered the solution to you. Hopefully everything is working the way it should. As you know, we have put so much effort in making sure that everything works, as you had wanted. Always keep in mind that we are there to help if there is any issue or modification needed.

Also, I need a favor to ask. We are trying to enhance our marketing and sales effort to gather more business and provide the same good service as we have provided you. We have decided to use a business tool called invouch to gather testimonials from our happy customers and profile them on the web. Can you please provide us with a testimonial about our services on invouch.”

Simple and short generally works.

3. Assurance to avoid the time and creativity blocks

You have got the attention of the prospective provider. You have made him want to leave a testimonial. However you will have to overcome the provider’s mental apprehension towards the time and effort required for putting a testimonial. This is where you will have to tell him about the hint-text.

As mentioned before, hint-texts are guides as to what you are expecting from them regarding the testimonial. The hard work of creative thought and time consuming effort of putting those into words are already done by you. All they need to do is edit and tweak the content. Informing this in detail to them would motivate them to write the testimonial then and there itself.

Adding this pointer on to your invitation will help you in getting the testimonial faster. For your reference a sample snippet of this request is added below:

“I know, it will take time to write a testimonial; need to think and write. However, to make it easier for you I have provided some hints about me in the providing page itself. Click on the hints and the testimonial box will be filled with the testimonial content I have written to help you. Please edit and tweak it the way you want it. I am sure it won’t take much time.”

4. Benefits for the responder

As an add-on to the request, it would be good to give some information about the added exposure for the provider on Internet by giving testimonials. When they submit the testimonial through a system like invouch.com, the system will automatically reserve a user profile for the responder. When the provider finishes a quick activation, their profiles would be automatically profiled on search engines and would be coming on search results for the key words provided. This means much more exposure for them.

5. Token of appreciation

Finally, ensure that you thank the prospective provider in advance for taking the time to post the testimonial. A thanks note for a future action works most of the time.

Always remember, a good testimonial invitation message the starting point of getting a good testimonial. It would help a lot if you pick up that phone and call your prospect after sending the invitation message. Let us build a great reputation for yourself in the online world by collecting as many testimonials as possible.

Article by Invouch

Invouch is a business social network for collecting, storing, managing and broadcasting testimonials and referrals.

www.invouch.com

Qualities of a Good Testimonial

Good testimonials give details and help answer prospects’ objections.

Testimonials work best when they are in “real” language written by a normal person. Feel free to write your mind not thinking about the nitty-gritty of professional language and grammar. Do not worry about those small grammar and language errors. This helps your readers connect with you.

Start the testimonial by saying about yourself and why you hired the Requester or purchased from them. For example, “I’ve been in the lawn mowing business for over 5 years and desperately needed a phone service. I hired another company for my first phone service. They ripped me off. Then I came across….”

Focus on real-life success stories. For all experiences, there is a story behind. Write that.

Keep it brief. Do not write a long testimonial. People tend to read if they see that it is  short. People don't have much time.

Be Specific about what you are writing. Avoid generic statements. A small explanation of why you think the service did a good job or how the product is awesome will enable the readers to connect with you.

Help overcome other's criticism. If you think that requester has been criticized wrongly by others, make sure that those worries have proved groundless by your experience, stating that fact in your testimonial.

Fake-sounding testimonials tend to lead to mistrust. Make sure to have as much details of the testimonial provider displayed prominently.

Following are the key pointers in a good testimonial. You don't have to cover everything, however few from this list can ensure a very good testimonial that works.

1. Did the service help in significant increase in income?

2. Did the service help in attract more clients?

3. Do tell about the quality of work

4. How much did you enjoy working with them?

5. State what you like best about their product/service

6. Describe why you do business with them instead of their competitors

7. State how long you have known or worked with the company

A great closing for the testimonial is to say that you would recommend them to and if possible, why.

The more testimonials you give the more you’ll receive in return, because people enjoy reciprocity. Support others and they will support you. Be a role model. Use the strategies discussed to support others and by doing so demonstrate how others can provide the same for support for you.

Article by Invouch

Invouch is a business social network for collecting, storing, managing and broadcasting testimonials and referrals.

www.invouch.com

Testimonial – Most under-utilized business tool

Reputation matters when it comes to selling, whether it is a product or service. Credibility stands as a strong yardstick for customers to easily formulate the decision of moving their hands to reach for their wallet from the deep pockets with multilevel of security.

Testimonials, believe it or not, are the most ignored and unused business tool that can change the face of your business within a short span of time.

Have you heard of a double-edged sword? Testimonials are like that. They create the credibility for both the person who is being endorsed as well as the person who is endorsing – a fact generally everyone forgets.

Asking for testimonial is a nightmare for majority of people. Why?

1. Fear of Rejection
What if my client says “No”? What if he says, “Look Joe, I like you and all. But giving testimonial is not my cup of tea.”

2. Criticism
A common thought process before asking for a testimonial from a client. “I think I have not given this guy my 100%. My gut feeling is that this guy is not totally satisfied. He is going to give me a twisted remark for my customer support. Let me not invite trouble.”

3. What will the client think?
I am sure, my client will be thinking, “I paid this guy for the service. I worked with you for getting this done. Now you want me to put my effort to help you in your marketing by writing a testimonial about the whole thing? Take a walk, big guy.”

4. My client has no time 
I know my client. He is the busiest person I have ever known, writing me emails at the weirdest possible time from the weirdest possible locations. He doesn’t even have time for himself, how can he possibly spend time writing a testimonial for me. Forget it.

5. Does anybody even look at this?
You know what, testimonials are a fad – a nicely concocted term by some business scholar after he had consumed a truckload of Scotch whisky. The testimonial page on my website is still covered with dust and cobwebs and not even a single soul who stumbled in there ever asked me clean it once in a while. So why bother?


If asking was tough, giving a testimonial is tougher. You don’t believe me. Be sincere and tell me, when was the last time you felt so excited that you were worried you were having a heart attack before giving a testimonial. Why people think it is hard?

1. Needs creativity
I hated writing while I was in school. It makes me think. I will have to tap on to that slow working, creative side of my brain to write this testimonial. When I write something here, it should be brilliant. It should sound professional with the collection of business jargon that should make a Harvard professor blush with envy.

2. What others will think
Others are going to read this. Possibly my clients, competitors and even that 10-year-old schoolgirl who is researching her school project about testimonials. I don’t want to make that grammatical mistake and enjoy the time-out like long back.

3. This is going to take time
I don’t have time. It’s been three months since I had time to brush my teeth properly. My hair has grown so thick that birds are now trying to build their nests there. Come on, in the middle of this, you want me to write a testimonial for you!

4. Will I make this guy feel bad
I like this guy. He always reminds me of that brother I wish I had, the one who would give one of his kidneys if mine stops working. I don’t want to hurt him by saying something he did not expect, on the testimonial.

5. Others will know about me
You don’t know me. I live in the shadows of the online world. I hide myself behind the obscurity walls of online privacy. I am the lone ranger. Giving a testimonial would expose me from where I have been hiding all these years.

ALL THE REASONS ABOVE ARE TOTALLY, COMPLETELY, UNEQUIVOCALLY FALSE.

All are excuses that hide the power of such a simple, straightforward business tool that people fail to use properly. Start using testimonials today to see how fast this wonderful tool can propel you and your business towards your business goals.


Article by Invouch
Invouch is a business social network for collecting, storing, managing and broadcasting testimonials and referrals.

www.invouch.com