Growing up, I watched LeVar Burton on Reading Rainbow, all the time. I loved him, and I loved books. Since then, none of that has really changed at all over the years, and, just to let you know, this self-promotion post is not about reading (although, if you ask me, it should be). No, this is about LeVar Burton’s catchphrase on Reading Rainbow—“You don’t have to take my word for it.”

Brands and companies have long known the power of “word-of-mouth marketing.” Next, in importance, is the value of the “testimonial,” which may be the longest running advertising idea since—basically—ever. In this day and age most people start and end with Amazon reviews to see if they are going to buy a product. Why? Because those reviews ensure that you are not going to get “ripped off.” They check that box, freeing you to buy.

It is why there is so much discussion about the best way to get customers to review your product on Amazon. Anything possible to get you to review afterwards. I am more likely to buy something with 4000 reviews and a four-star rating, versus a five-star rated product with less than 15 reviews. We outsource our trust to the online audience and user so we don’t only have the word of the producer. Also, marketers are savvy.

We here at modern8 have also jumped into the online review bonanza. There exists a site that collects reviews of marketing and advertising firms called Clutch. One thing that drew us to using Clutch, is their verification of all reviews. They even hold an interview with the reviewer to receive the best feedback possible. And, not to toot our own horn, but we are currently ranked within the top 12 firms(out of over 8000) nationwide for branding services ever since we started collecting reviews on Clutch a few months ago.

So, “you don’t have to take our word for it.”

A SaaS CMO, for whom we did a rebrand a few years ago, mentioned, “I can say for sure that we would not have had 10x growth if we hadn’t worked with modern8,” a local chocolatier stated, “our sales doubled within the first year of the redesign,” and so on, and so forth. You can read the numerous reviews—with more to come—on our Clutch page here, and don’t just take anybody’s word for it, because you and I both know that you listen to LeVar.