My final thoughts (at least for now!) on testimonials - particularly product testimonials. We’ve all seen them: some salesletters seem to have reams and reams of testimonials for the product being promoted. But who do you approach for them, especially when you are starting out?
I think the key here, as in everything else to do with testimonials, is credibility in the eyes of the reader. The way seems to be that established marketers approach other marketers for testimonials for their new product. The one approached for the testimonial is usually seen as an “authority figure” - the bigger the name of the internet marketing “guru” the better.
Now, I don’t know whether it’s just me, but I think this approach is beginning to wear a bit thin in terms of credibility. It’s starting to get predictable: marketer A gets a product testimonial from marketer B who then promotes the product to their own list. Sure enough, before you know it: marketer B gets a product testimonial from marketer A who promptly tells his own list about it. And once you bring in the marketers from the rest of the alphabet… The term “feathering each other’s nest” springs to mind and this, of course, detracts from the impartiality of the one giving the testimonial.
Now for those of us, who aren’t acknowledged as gurus, this is good news. It means that we can promote our products with legitimate testimonials. But who should we approach for them? And how do we ensure that the resulting testimonial exudes credibilty.
Well, we’ve already covered the second part in a previous post: by asking for specifics. Specifics quoted in a testimonial show that the “giver” is a genuine user/reader of the product.
As for the “who”, I tend to aim for someone coming from the same “background” as my target market. You need someone that the reader can identify with, someone who used to have the same problem (before buying the product).
An alternative is to approach people from the same group, for example, other subscribers to your blog. Just ensure that you append the words “subscriber to (your blog name)” to the description of the person giving the testimonial.
Something I’m very fond of is to reward people for their effort, whether it be for being regular buyers, providing regular blog comments or whatever other yardstick you wish to apply. This idea is borrowed from sport (at least, here in the UK - I’m not sure whether this concept is known elsewhere). A testimonial game for a player is where the named player receives the proceeds from the game.
I think there’s something poetic about giving away your new product as a reward (testimonial) in return for the recipient giving you a testimonial for the product.
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