How to Get Great Testimonials 9

Want some great testimonials?

Testimonials are a great way to give your potential customers the confidence to know that they are working with someone who they can trust.

If you haven’t put some great testimonials on your site, you need to do it now.

Unless you are a Fortune 5,000 company, chances are that first time visitors to your site have no way of knowing how well you will respond to their needs.

I can tell you my service is great, that my customers love my products and services, that people will be talking about my products and services for years to come. But coming from me, most anything that I say will sound like arrogance.

In order to be effective, testimonials need to be good.

Here’s an example of a poor testimonial:

“I love your product!” – Anonymous

What’s wrong with loving my product?

Nothing! But, notice that it doesn’t really tell you why my product is so great and it doesn’t tell you who thinks it’s great either!

In order to be effective testimonials need to be specific and we need to have the confidence that a real person made those comments.

How about this example?

“I am an amateur artist who recently ordered your Artist’s
Best easel. I just had to write and let you know how satisfied
I am with your product! The wood, finish and craftsmanship
on my easel was superb. It was shipped sooner than I
expected and putting it together was not really difficult.
I honestly thought that I would never be able to afford my
own easel. It is always a little scary ordering over the
Internet from companies that are not known to you, but I
am so glad that I took a chance on you!”

Jackie Conte Vero Beach, FL

This person is only “satisfied” but, notice how much more personal this testimonial is. The customer talks about the fears that we all have and the way that it worked out for her.

The good news is, that if you know how to do it, getting quality testimonials isn’t anywhere near as hard as most would think.

The hidden secret that somehow seems to allude most business owners when getting testimonials is really very simple …

Just ask.

Send your existing customers an email and let them know that their opinions are important to you. Ask them to give specific examples of ways that your company has helped them in their business.

Here’s a sample email for generating some testimonials:

“Just a quick note to ask your help. We are currently looking for some great “specific” testimonials to put on our various web sites from customers like yourself.

It would be great if you could take just a second to hit the reply button and type in a few lines to tell us about something that we did for you as a customer that was helpful or something that you like about our products and services that we could share with the visitors to our web sites.

If you are willing to share your experience with us, we will post the best ones to our web sites along with a link to your web site. Hopefully, that will generate extra traffic to your site and help us give our potential customers the confidence that they need to become part of the Impact and jvAlert  family of customers.”

You might even want to send them a link to this article as an example of how to write a good testimonial.

To top it all off, you will get a lot of very nice comments about you that just may make your day!

Video Testimonials

Mike Koenigs of Traffic Geyser fame, has developed a great system for creating effective video testimonials and he breaks each testimonial down into three important parts:

Segment One

Humanizing (10 seconds)

The purpose of this section is to make you a real person who people can identify and relate to.  It includes things like your name, where you live, your professional background and it should expose a personal weakness or loss.  For instance, “I don’t know anything about computers” or “I’ve wasted over $10,000 on systems that don’t work.”

Segment Two

Product Testimonial (10 seconds)

This is really the setup for your income/benefit testimonial, which is the last segment. You have to assume your target audience knows nothing about your opportunity and you want to talk about how long you’ve been using the product and SPECIFICS about how much more money you earned, hours you saved, more leads, etc.  Visual proof in this section is great, including screen shots and charts can be very effective.  The more specific numbers are, the more believable they are to your target audience.

Segment Three

Income or Benefit Testimonial (10-20 seconds)

Now you need to get your customer or client to use a transitional statement that connects your product or service with their ultimate benefit.

Here’s an example:

“Because of my great results with the Impact Partnering Program, I’m not only making more money and generating more leads, but I’m saving 3 hours a week that I used to spend marketing and able  to pick up my kids from school every day… I even joined a gym and lost 10 pounds!”

Mike advises that you make sure your testimonial givers, “steer clear of how they did it, as well as jargon and technical mumbo-jumbo. Your target audience will only remember major benefits like the size of their check, their massive cost savings, the growth of their organization, etc.”

Then have your client close with a message that directs back to your product or service.  For example:

“Thanks, Ken. Attending jvAlert Live changed my life!”

The FTC has issued new rules regarding the use of testimonials.

I’m not a lawyer and I’m not giving you legal advice, but if you are a marketer you need to know this …

If you use testimonials or you are an affiliate for any products you better read this:

http://ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers.

Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect.

That means that just saying that results are not typical is no longer enough to satisfy the FTC.

Now you have to say what IS typical specifically.

Unless you want to put up a disclaimer that reads something like “Most people never get off their lazy behinds and actually use this product at all” you may want to consider removing all testimonials from your sales pages.

Even more important …

I you are a blogger or affiliate marketer you need to CLEARLY state that you are making money if someone clicks on a link and buys a product that you are are talking about.

Personally, I think I’m adding something like “Any link on this site may be an affiliate link that earns me money if you take an action or purchase a product — THIS IS A GOOD THING!”

Put What You’ve Just Learned Into Action Right Now!

If you’ve had success with jvAlert Live or the Impact Partnering Program  I’d love to have you put together a testimonial based on the above principles and in return, I’d be happy to give you some feedback on how it comes out.

Who knows, you may be the star of my next promotion!

All the best,

Ken McArthur
KenMcArthur.com
jvAlertLive.com
TheImpactFactor.com
And many more …

P.S.  Here’s the addresses to find me on Twitter and Facebook …

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/KenMcArthur

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ken-McArthur/20103565427

P.P.S. Hint, hint …

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