Some of the most powerful marketing tools you have at your disposal are testimonials from your own satisfied customers. Think about it for a second. Don’t you prefer to know what others think about something before you buy it?
We read movie reviews in the newspaper. We glance at the quotes on the inside of book covers. Most of the huge online retailers let customers post reviews of the products they sell.
And why do they do this? Because testimonials establish instant credibility with your prospects and endorse you in a way you simply cannot do yourself.
It’s one thing to toot your own horn in your marketing collateral. But it’s another thing altogether to have someone else toot it for you. And that’s just what powerful testimonials can do for you.
Prospects will put their guard down a little easier if they are hearing great things about your product from an outside, unbiased source. They feel more secure about their buying decisions if they know someone else has experienced positive results from the same product.
And the best thing about testimonials? They don’t cost you a thing. If you have satisfied customers or clients, you should be able to get testimonials from them quite easily.
A Necessary Ingredient
The most powerful testimonials all share a common ingredient: specificity. They show specific results -- often the result of a before-and-after scenario -- and they use the full name, title, and location of the source.
Why is this so?
Well, let’s say you’re a small-business owner and your current accounting software is confusing, eating up far too much of your time, and costing you business. In your search for an alternative, you come across two interesting titles.
One has a page of testimonials that read something like this:
“Accounting 3.0 is powerful and reliable. It has saved me countless hours of number crunching.” – J.P, California
The other one is loaded with testimonials like this one:
“My only regret is that I didn’t find Number Cruncher Pro 4.0 when I started my business ten years ago! I’ve used it every day for three months and it has yet to fail me. And best of all, I can directly attribute the 8.5 hours it saves me every week to a 42.3% boost in my sales volume and a 36.7% increase in my bottom line. I’m never looking back!” – James Peterson, President and CEO, Peterson Solutions, Palo Alto, CA.
All other things being equal, the second one will likely get the sale every time. In fact, a strong testimonial can be so powerful that all other things don’t even need to be equal. Accounting 3.0 might actually be the better solution, but Cruncher Pro has done a better job at selling itself.
Getting Them to Sing Your Praises
So how do you go about getting strong testimonials? Let’s take a look at five easy ways right now.
1. Ask for them.
It seems so simple, but most of us have a hard time asking our customers and clients for glowing testimonials. We don’t want to burden them. We don’t want to seem assuming. We don’t want to deal with possible rejection.
How silly! The truth is that most people would be delighted to rave about you and your product. If you’ve helped them succeed, they’ll be more than happy to return the favor.
To make the process easier on their busy schedules, give them a brief outline of what you’d like to have covered. Just don’t write the entire testimonial for them. People can usually see through that.
2. Review previous emails and letters from clients.
Often times, there will be compliments in there you hadn’t noticed the first time around. When this is the case, go back and ask your clients if you can use what they wrote as a testimonial. Most of them will say yes. And if they want to spruce it up a little, by all means let them!
3. Talk to your customers.
Ask them how their experience is going and if they have any suggestions to improve your product or service. If you hear a compliment, ask if you can write it down and use it in your marketing materials. This is also an excellent way to involve your customers and create more loyalty.
4. Conduct a survey or product evaluation.
If you have your own mailing list, email and online surveys are a very effective way to get testimonials. They let you reach a large audience all at once and see the results right away. Be sure to have a place where people can write comments and then use the strongest ones as testimonials -- with permission, of course. (By the way, a great online survey resource can be found at www.surveymonkey.com)
5. Hire someone to conduct interviews.
Your clients are more likely to be honest and rave about you to a stranger than they are to you directly. So hire an outside source to interview them about everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask. The results might surprise you. In a good way.
Location, location, location
Once you have a series of testimonials in place, apply them liberally in all of your marketing materials. While a full page devoted to testimonials is great on your web site or in a direct marketing package, don’t stop there.
Sprinkle them strategically throughout your copy, and on as many pages as possible. Place them in sidebars, call-out boxes, or weave them directly into your sales copy.
However you do it, make sure they stand out so that readers don’t miss them. Because in many cases, powerful testimonials are exactly what they need to read before they’ll accept your offer.
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