The Power of Testimonials

Convincing people that your product or service is actually any good can be difficult, especially online where people may have been burned in the past. Most people won’t buy from you without some sort of pre-existing relationship, and anything that boosts your credibility can clearly only be a good thing. Before people invest in your product or opt-in to your list they want to be sure that they aren’t wasting their time or money.  This is why testimonials are so powerful - they have far more credibility than anything you write yourself simply because they are someone else’s opinion.

So how do you get testimonials? Start by getting into the habit of asking anyone who buys from you to give you their opinion. If your product or service is actually of good quality then the feedback you get should be overwhelmingly positive. Try producing a short questionnaire and send it to all your customers. Obviously not everyone will oblige, but  those who do may give you valuable quotes that you can use as testimonials in your business.

Another strategy is to give away copies of your product to other marketers on the basis that they will give you their honest opinion – and make sure it is honest as well! It is quite easy to get people to give you testimonials since it is free advertising for the other person and boosts their own credibility.

Where should you include testimonials? You should definitely put them onto your sales pages and squeeze pages, but there are other places too – in emails to your list or posts on your blog.

You can also go beyond the testimonial by producing case studies. Has one of your customers had a success story because of your product? If you can produce a good case study you’ll help people to understand more about your offering, whilst also re-assuring them that it is the right thing for them. Case studies can make excellent press releases too, giving your online PR a boost and getting you some valuable free advertising and coverage in the media if your press release gets picked up by publications.