Get Testimonials Easily
Don’t have testimonials? Here are a few techniques you can use to build up your testimonial collection fast:
• Customer comments – Allow “approved” comments to be posted to the bottom of your sales page (or special comment page) and then remind your clients they can post their comments on the page any time. The clients’ comments serve as testimonials and because they are informal, they are perceived as more genuine than their groomed and polished counterparts.
Note: It is important that you require that these comments be approved before they are posted or you will be subject to some serious spam problems, and the last thing you want is promotions for prescription drugs or porn on your Website.
• Make it easy for clients to send them in – Send your clients a letter asking for their feedback and include a self addressed stamped post card that they can write their thoughts on and conveniently drop in the mail for you.
• Simple e-mail request – As part of your follow up program with new clients, send an e-mail asking for feedback on the product they recently purchased. You will be surprised at the amount of feedback you will get and how grateful people are that you cared enough to ask.
• Contest – Offer a big prize and ask your clients (or prospects) to submit reasons why they should be chosen as the recipient. They will undoubtedly talk about why they want your product/service, essentially acting as salesmen for your services.
Use Client Testimonials in Advertising
Testimonials are great tools for building confidence in prospective clients, but you need to present them properly. Below are some tips to help you get the best results out of the testimonials you provide.
• Descriptive – The more specific your clients will make their testimonials the more beneficial they are. The best testimonials describe the specific product or service, the clients experience and the biggest benefit they received.
• Original – Fix any spelling errors, but don’t change the grammar or phrasing that your clients have used in their testimonial to make them look more polished. Their own words, even if they are not eloquent, make the testimonial more believable.
• Personal information – It’s not uncommon to see testimonials with only a first name and last initial or a first name and state and city, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. For the majority of businesses there’s no reason why your clients should mind including not only their full name but also their business name, city/state and Web address. This does a lot for increasing the credibility of your testimonial.
• Permission – Make sure to get written permission to quote the client for any promotional piece. A general release makes it easier to gather testimonials for multiple promotions instead of trying to get specific quotes to only be used on certain pieces.
Now that you have some ideas for collecting and using testimonials in advertising and marketing pieces get started right away. Gathering and posting quality testimonials is an ongoing process for any business, but as you share more “stories” from satisfied clients the social proof will stack up and you will find that your clients messages will do more and more of your selling for you.
Getting More Help
If you would like help getting your testimonials in front of more people searching the Internet for the products and services that you provide, click this link to learn more about the organic search engine optimization tools we can use to get your website on the first page of the search engine results for your market.
You can post a specific question or request that we take a look at your site and provide a free competitive market analysis to see where you stand and what it would take to get to the top.
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