Hey Folks,

Could you share some of your ideas/secrets on getting powerful testimonials for one's product? I was going over Brian Keith Voiles formula which is to provide a survey with the benefits that your product or service offers breaking it down by asking specific questions and giving the prospect additional room to comment about the product. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions and or comments you may have.


Cheers,
Rza

You say "product" instead of service. So if it's something like an ebook or software or something tangible like that, you can give "review" copies to a number of people and ask them to give you their honest opinions. Explain to them you'll use most of them as testimonials in your marketing and make sure to get their permission. Give them a deadline to get the information to you. You might even offer a small incentive to get it back to you. But make sure they understand that you want their "honest" opinion, even if it's negative.

If you want some really targeted testimonials, here's what I'd do:

1. Start sending a survey to your new customers right after they've bought. Start off with open field text boxes and ask them what made them buy your product, and, what concerns they had before buying. This will identify your strong points and your weak points.

2. Once you've got a good amount of answers, go through them and arrange them into catagories. Now replace the original survey with a new one using tick boxes for each catagory, instead of open text fields (this will make it easier to view the results).

3. Now you've identified what are your strongest and weakest points, you want testimonials that renforce the strong points and counter the weak points. Put together a testimonial template for your customers to follow that makes sure they address these.

4. Now replace your survey with a request to fill out your testimonial template. Say you'll give X back to the first X amount of people who reply to create some urgency. eg. First 10 people to reply get their money back.

5. Now go back through your sales copy and make sure it addresses the strong and the weak points you've identified, with a targeted testimonial to back up each point.

I realise it's a bit longer winded, but the extra time to research, as well as giving you great testimonials, should give you far more value feedback about your product and sales funnel as a whole.

The trouble with using a technique like this is that the Federal Trade Commission says that if you offer to pay people (and offering a refund would count as offering to pay people, if I understand them correctly) for testimonials, then you must disclose that fact in your marketing.

See this at the FTC web site:

FTC GUIDES CONCERNING USE OF ENDORSEMENTS AND TESTIMONIALS IN ADVERTISING

Go to section §255.5 Disclosure of material connections.

Cheers,
Marcia Yudkin

And that's something to disclose in a "Disclosures & Disclaimers" page...fits nicely with the disclaimers on biz opp and health-related issues. In fact, you might want to make the COMPENSATED ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE INSIDE THE DISCLAIMERS IN NICE PROMINENT ALL CAPS TYPE BECAUSE WE KNOW HOW MUCH EVERYONE JUST LOVES TO READ CAPS. SOMETIMES PROMINENT DISCLOSURES 'HIDE' THE MOST INTERESTING THINGS.

-Mike

Incidentally -- while it may not fit within the format suggested here (although I suspect it might be able to)
Y'all should check out incansoft.com's EZ Testimonial Manager.

Last I checked he was only selling the lite version; not sure why the pro version is not for sale.

But it makes it so easy, when people give you a compliment about work you've done or service you've provided to
a/ thank them for their compliments
b/ ask them if they'd be willing to give you a testimonial, and then just give them a link to the page.

I think the EZ Testimonial Manager is pure genius and a very handy piece of software.

Live JoyFully!

Judy

Bribe people (ethically) as soon as possible after they buy, while their excitement is still high.

Oh, and don't call it a testimonial. Call it a success story or something similar.

You can also give them a few examples to follow. So that way it helps get you what you want.

If you really want to make it big, turn it into a contest.

Think of Bill Phillips EAS body for life contest. All of these are really just testimonials. Can't argue with the results he's gotten.

Thanks folks, you have given me some really good ideas.


Cheers,
Rza

If someone says either voluntarily or with a question from you that your product rocks, ask them for a video testimonial. if they don't have a clue, get the best you can.

asking live works best but I get some via email too. see a few examples.

hth
big jason
P.S. obviously going to live seminars where you know your customers will be is a huge advantage

There's a fantastic thread on the board from Ricky Breslin from about 3 months ago that outlines a great strategy he uses to get testimonials in written word, audio and the person's pic -- all filling in one form and calling a toll free number. Their reward is a product, but only for fully completing all steps. Brilliant strategy!

I'll see if I can find it in search...

Here's the thread ... Do you need more success stories for your site? Stop getting ripped off...