The Power Of Testimonials
It’s An Undeniable Fact ... Your website visitors believe that you will say anything about your products to get them to buy from you. Everybody is skeptical when it comes to products and the benefits they claim to offer and who can blame them? You’d be hard pressed to find one sales letter without just a little hype in it.
People believe that you will say anything about your product to make the sale. But, you can actually afford to use a little hype in your sales letters if you have plenty of testimonials to boost your credibility high enough.
Think about it. How often do you believe things because a lot of other people say you should? More often than you’d like to think.
Having dozens of people (who are not you) saying that your product is worth having makes it easier for people to believe any perceived hype or unbelievable claims in your sales letters.
People think... “His headline and sales letter sound too good to be true, but with all the glowing testimonials this product has... What could it hurt to check it out?” Then of course you just make sure that there is a quality product behind the scenes to keep your once skeptical customers happy with their purchase.
The Right Type of TestimonialYou don’t really want testimonials. You want product specific, detailed testimonials that look like someone actually sat down and took the time to write about their experiences with your product. Testimonials like “Great Product” and “I really loved your report” can actually do more harm than good.
Now, before you start thinking that you can’t get as many detailed testimonials to reinforce the value of your products as you want you may be surprised by what you’re about to read.
How To Get Your First Few TestimonialsLet’s say that you have a special report that has a great sales letter and graphics, but lacks the testimonials that would make it extremely attractive to your web site visitors.
All you have to do is send a few copies of your report to a few select people in exchange for their comments (you want to specifically ask for feedback) on your work.
A Sample Email:Hi (NAME),
My name is (YOUR NAME) and I’m contacting you because I’m just now finishing up a new product you might be interested in and I would like your feedback on it.
You can see the sales letter here:
http://www.yourdomain.com
I subscribe to your newsletter and noticed that much of the information you write about fits in with the theme of my new product and that’s why you instantly came to mind when I decided to seek the opinion of a few of my peers.
Feel free to give me your honest opinion. I would like your honest opinion about my work so I welcome any constructive criticism you might have.
If you would be interested in reviewing (“Product Name”) let me know and I’ll send you a username and password to download everything from the site.
Please note that if you send a testimonial for my product after you’ve had a chance to review it and like what you see that I would like your permission to use your feedback on my sales letter for everyone who visits the page to see.
Thank you for your time (NAME).
(YOUR NAME)
(YOUR WEBSITE)Of course that’s just an example to show you what needs to be said. All you’re doing is asking for honest feedback and a possible testimonial if the person thinks you should have it.
Always ask for feedback. Never blatantly ask for testimonials. The letter above implies that you would like a testimonial but it’s mainly asking for feedback.
You want people to tell you if your product is less than it should be. That way you can fix what’s wrong with your product and make it ten times better than before. If warranted, correcting problems that others point out in your product is a great way to get glowing testimonials from them.
Just fix whatever is wrong with your product then have the same person review your changes. So if someone writes you back with less than glowing feedback initially don’t get discouraged. Take an honest look at your work, fix what needs fixing then go back to the same person to see if your product is better.
If it is, you’ll get the testimonial you were after. Finding out if your product needs to be improved is a good thing. You want to provide the best possible product you can and the only way to do that is to get different perspectives on your work.
It’s really hard to judge your own stuff for quality. Take a deep breath and ask for feedback. Many times, other people can see things about your work that you would miss or not pay attention to. You’re too close to anything you create to be objective about how good or how bad your product is.
Usually you would want to approach people who you know cater to the same market you want your product to reach. Couple of reasons for that...
1) These people will usually know what your specific market is looking for which makes them excellent candidates to give you feedback. Now I know you might think that your “competitors” won’t want to help you improve your product, but that really isn’t an issue. Your “competitors” are people and in general, people want to help other people.
2) Your web site visitors may recognize the names of the people who end up giving you testimonials, which can further increases your credibility if the person whose testimonial you use already has credibility with your site visitors.
What I’ve found is that when you ask someone to review one of your products, they actually take the time to do more than skim it. And if they end up sending you a testimonial (since they know that’s what you’re after) they’ll usually make it a good one since often they would like to be prominently displayed on your sales page.
The Real Key To Getting A Constant Flow Of Quality Testimonials Is AutomationOnce you have your first few testimonials (by giving access to certain people and asking for feedback), what you want to do is set up a simple autoresponder message for the new customers you generate that asks them for their feedback about 3-5 days after they have ordered while your product is still fresh on their mind.
Some might say that’s too soon but people have short attention spans so if you wait too long, much of the excitement people had over your product when they bought will have disappeared. You want to catch people while they’re still close to the mindset they were in when your sales letter got them to buy.
I got my first few testimonials by asking for feedback from a few select people (using an email similar to the example I gave) and I got the rest automatically from customers through the use of a simple autoresponder message asking for feedback about 10 days or so after people order from me.
Your autoresponder message should offer some sort of incentive for sending you feedback. Most people won’t take the time to send you feedback or they’ll give you a generic testimonial if you don’t. Your free offer isn’t a bribe but a good faith gesture that will be reciprocated in the form of a detailed testimonial.
Most people will try to find positive things to say about your product if in exchange for their feedback you are giving them something for free. I’m not telling you this to show you how to trick people into giving you good feedback when you don’t deserve it.
If your product isn’t as great as you think it is then no sort of enticement will get you favorable feedback. People will either not respond to your request at all or they will respond with hopefully constructive criticism.
The free gift in exchange for feedback usually has the effect of making people give a little more thought and put a little more effort into the quality of the testimonial they send and that’s only if they were going to say something good about your product in the first place.
People feel obligated to return one good gesture with another. This is called “The Law Of Reciprocation” and it works. Anyone who doesn’t like your product usually won’t take the time to respond to your request for feedback regardless of what incentives you offer.
The ones who do respond are people who like your product and want to make sure they give you a usable testimonial because after all, you are giving them a valuable freebie for their time.
Here’s an example testimonial request letter…
Hi (CUSTOMER NAME),
I want to thank you for purchasing (PRODUCT NAME) a few days ago from (http://www.yourwebsite.com).
It’s always my pleasure to email customers and thank them for their purchase because I do realize that you could have chosen to do business with someone else so again, Thank You for giving me the opportunity to serve you.
The other reason I’m writing you today is to ask if you had any feedback about your experience with (PRODUCT NAME). I generally use this feedback as a testimonial in my marketing material.
With that in mind (CUSTOMER NAME), could I ask you to send me your feedback about (PRODUCT NAME) so that I could use it on my website for others to see and in other marketing material?
If you’d be willing to do that please make sure you include a link to your site I can display along with your feedback.
Keep in mind that I’m also open to constructive criticism so if there’s something you feel is missing from my product please let me know and I’ll do my best to correct the issue.
I realize that you’re busy so just for taking the time to send me your feedback I’d like to give you a copy of (THE FREE BONUS OFFER) as soon as I hear back from you.
Just to give you a little information about the report I’m sending you in exchange for your feedback.
(Describe The Bonus Offer In Enough Detail To Make Sure People Understand The Value Of Your Feedback Incentive)
This is one of my personal resources and I generally don’t share it with any other than people like you who have shown a willingness to take action towards their goals.
You can either reply directly to this email or use this form:
http://www.yourwebsite.com/feedback.html
Thank you for your time (NAME) and if you have any questions at all please feel free to let me know.
(YOUR NAME)
(YOUR WEBSITE)A little long perhaps but I’ve found that the more detailed the letter the better. Effort is a two way street. You have to put some effort into the testimonial request letter you send in exchange for someone else putting in the effort to send you a quality testimonial.
An Important FactorThe incentive you use to generate feedback should be directly related to the product you want feedback on. You already know people are interested in the subject they just bought information on... So more information on the same topic should also get their attention.
You shouldn’t use the same ebooks or reports other people are giving away all over the Internet. Either find valuable information that’s isn’t freely found elsewhere or create your own. A short report or a simple article will do.
The main thing to remember is that you have to tell people why the incentive you’re offering in exchange for their feedback is worth having. You can’t expect people to automatically see the value in it. Tell them what you think its worth.
I for example sometimes offer a report written by another marketer but I tell people why it’s worth having. A lot of times, the more detail you can go into about the bonus you’re sending people for giving you feedback the better.
How To Create A Feedback Incentive So Good People Will Want To Send You A Testimonial For The Incentive ItselfYou know, when I’ve told people about this method in the past, many misunderstood and thought that you could offer people just about anything for free and they’ll want to send you their glowing feedback.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. You have to look at the feedback incentive as a product. A product people would actually pay for if it were for sale.
That’s why I recommend you create something of your own instead of just giving people something they can find for free somewhere on the net. And keep in mind that I’m not talking about anything major. Just a simple 5-10 page report.
That’s it. The best incentive you can offer is a small report people can’t get anywhere else, especially since you aren’t charging them for it. All you’re asking for in exchange is a simple email with their feedback.
The Forgotten ElementI’ve seen other marketers use letters like the one I just described and 99% of them forgot to do one thing you absolutely must do. Thank the person for their feedback good or bad after you get it.
Don’t just send them the bonus you promised them. Take the time to thank them for the time they took out of their day to do something that will help you generate more business.
Send them more than just a simple “Thank you and here’s your bonus”. Your real goal is to cultivate a relationship with the people who are willing to spend their time to help you out. Never forget that.
How To Set Everything UpYou may be wondering how you’re going to get people on your autoresponder to ask them for their feedback in the first place. Well, you have a few options...
1) You’re offering a bonus with your product like free updates. If so, you can have people hit your autoresponder to get notification of the new updates when they’re ready. When people sign up to be notified of updates your autoresponder would be set up to ask for feedback on your product a few days up to a week.
One thing I did with this method was to have people sign up through my autoresponder inside the members area before they could even access the updates. That way I was assured that everyone who ordered the main product would be on my mailing list.
2) When people get to your download page, have a form there that asks for their email address. Some people will be angry if you don’t forward them to the actual product they paid to download immediately after they order so you may want to have your sign up form be an option only.
In other words the first thing on your download page would be a sign up form. Offer something extra for signing up. The real purpose though is to get the testimonial down the line automatically.
3) You can also do something I do with one of my products. I offer bonuses with one of my products that come 15 days apart. Bonus one can be downloaded immediately but I tell people on the download page that bonuses two and three are delivered by autoresponder so they have to sign up to get them.
That gets them on my list so that I can follow up with them and ask for their feedback later. I set it up this way…
In plain view I ask people to join the list to get their first bonus. The rest of the bonuses will be delivered at set intervals. I can ask for feedback on the main product at any point in time once people are on the bonus list and they won’t unsubscribe from it until they get all of the bonuses.
The point is that you can always find an automated way to get people to hit your autoresponder. There’s no need to add people manually. This puts your testimonial collection on autopilot.
Once It’s Set Up, It Runs AutomaticallyYou don’t have to just sit back and wait for people to say something nice about your products. Even the biggest names in marketing do just what I’ve outlined for you. They take a proactive role in getting those flashy testimonials you see on their sites.
They ask for their first few testimonials and then solicit others through the use of autoresponders from hopefully satisfied customers who have actually paid for their product.
Resell Rights Weekly Forum > RRW Members Forum > In Depth Marketing Reports > Website Creation (Moderator: Mark Austin)
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April 04, 2010, 12:14:11 PM