Benefits of Testimonials

Testimonials are a wonderful way to market yourself. They give you credibility—a third-party endorsement. It is no longer you alone saying that you and your company and products or services are phenomenal—it is someone else saying that they are phenomenal!

When you place an ad, everyone knows that you have paid for it. It is you “tooting your own horn.” Much more believable and credible is someone else “tooting your horn!”.

So, how do you get all of those glowing testimonials from satisfied customers? Ask. Get in the habit of asking every single satisfied customer for a testimonial. There are many ways to do this.

One of the simplest yet most powerful ways to strengthen your sales is to include testimonials. The purpose of having testimonials is to add "objective" credibility to your promises. And when used correctly, testimonials can do just that.

People want to know who they can trust. Testimonials will do that for you.

Buying from an unfamiliar seller on the web can be a scary thing. But once you've delivered on your promises to a satisfied customer the trust factor goes up for them exponentially. Your next sale is much easier to make.

The Most Effective Testimonials Are:

1) Believable. Good testimonials talk about real benefits experienced by real people.

2) To the point. Each one should highlight one main benefit. If your customer has mentioned 3 really good benefits in their testimonial try to break up their 1 testimony into 3 testimonies. Use an ellipsis in the copy .. like this . to start and close the testimony where appropriate.

3) Natural. Keep the testimonials as unedited as possible. Clean up the spelling, of course, but for the most part keep things just as your customer has written (or spoken) them.

4) Detailed. The best testimonials aren't vague. they include details. specifics. processed data. juicy numbers. facts. etc.

5) Include the customer's name and where they live. The more information the better. "K. Smith, Wembley, London" is better than "K.S. from UK." But "Karen Smith (Owner, Styles Dress Shop), Wembley, London" is best of all.