#149 The Power of Testimonials

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2022/03/149-power-of-testimonials.html 

 #149 Blog Post – Wednesday, 16 March 2022

 

Posted by Denny Hatch

 

The Awesome Power of Testimonials—

Valuable Members of Your Sales Team.

 

                                                                 —Thesaurus.com

Many years ago, at a Direct Marketing Association convention I had drinks with a marketing VP of a niche manufacturer who was having a terrible time honing his sales message and differentiating his product from the competition.

 

I immediately asked if he had any testimonials from happy customers.

 

He reached into his briefcase and produced an extraordinary paean from a deliriously satisfied long-term user. It described in gritty detail how the product was being used, how it was saving his company six figures a year and why it was so much better than anything like it in the industry. As I recall, it even came up with a couple of gorgeous USPs (Unique Selling Propositions).

 

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” I said. “Use this in your advertising and your direct marketing. Use it everywhere! Hell, print it in huge type and put it on the back wall of your exhibit booth. You’ll have more customers than you can handle!”

 

“I can’t,” the guy said. “It was a personal letter from him to me and strictly confidential. My boss is paranoid and would never allow it to be made public.”

 

I winced and asked if he had other equally happy customers.  He said he did.

 

“Then for Pete's sake, ask them for testimonials.”

About Testimonials

If your in-house sales copy makes outrageous, self-serving claims about your own product or service, you can get into deep doo-doo with the regulators—not to mention creating a possible credibility gap with customers and prospects. On the other hand, if you can get a satisfied customer to make the same claims, you’re golden.

 

For example, If you promise obese people they can eat all they want of everything they love and lose 60 pounds in 30 days, you could get into trouble with the FTC. 

 

If you can get customer who used your diet system, pigged out on eating binges, drank like a fish and lost 60 pounds in 30 days, it’s okay. That’s because the First Amendment guarantees the right of free speech.

 

The Five Stages of Customer Acquisition

The generally recognized sequence of events in marketing is:

 

(1) Find a suspect. (Everybody in the world is a suspect).

 

(2) Do enough research on the suspects to qualify likely prospects.

 

(3) Turn that prospect into a customer (or donor).

 

(4) Convert that customer/donor into a multi-buyer (or regular donor). 

 

(5) Nirvana is when that person becomes an advocate—who loves you so much that you will get a testimonial and—best of all—referrals.

 

An Apoplectic Moment…

For many years I was a freelance copywriter, designer and consultant. Whenever I landed a new client, before anything could happen, I would schedule a meeting in-person (or, if necessary on the phone) to learn everything about the business, the product and/or service I would be working to help market. One of the questions on my new-client checklist was: “Do you have any testimonials from happy customers?”

 

I remember one new client wrinkled his brow and said, “Testimonials? . . . I think we got some. They’re maybe in a shoebox somewhere. I’ll have to look for them.”

 

Under my breath I said to myself, “holy shit.”

 

Testimonials are Marketing Gold

If you have satisfied and loyal customers, don’t be shy about asking them for a testimonial. Savvy customers should want to support their suppliers. For example, for the first time in a long time Americans are seeing what it’s like to have an interruption in the supply chain. The result: lost sales, idled production lines, layoffs of employees and a nightmarish scramble to somehow right the corporate ship.

 

If you can get a testimonial about the quality of your product and service, I suggest you drop everything and do your damnedest get it into your marketing mix.

 

1. Immediately write an effusive letter of sincere thanks and how you were delighted with those kind words and that you would like to use the words as a testimonial. 

2. Always be clear what you are going to use the testimonial for and get their permission and ask them not to date it; that way you can use it for quite a while without anyone asking what has he/she done lately.  —Donn Richardson  

3. “For testimonials, send the customer the text and have them type it onto their letterhead.”—Bob Wells

4. Ask how the permission should be signed. (e.g., John Smith or J.S.)

 

Takeaways to Consider:

• According to one study, the regular use of customer testimonials can help you generate roughly sixty-two percent more revenue not only from every customer but from every time they visit your brand. —Big Commerce

 

•  Ninety-two percent of people said that they read testimonials when considering a purchase. —Vendasta

 

•  A further eighty-eight percent of consumers said that they trusted these reviews just as much as personal recommendations, according to the same study. —Strategic Factory

 

•  To top it off, seventy-two percent of those who responded to the survey in question said that positive reviews and testimonials helped them trust a business significantly more.­—Strategic Factory

 

• "If one testimonial tests well, try two. But don’t use testimonials by celebrities unless they are recognized authorities, like Arnold Palmer on golf clubs." —David Ogilvy

 

• “Don’t just say it — prove it!  Use testimonials, case histories.” —Andrew J. Byrne

 

• A testimonial is another member of your sales team—an outsider, presumably with no skin in the game who adds credence to your message. This is a far sight more believable than if these were the words of your agency or in-house copywriter.

 

• Business people may not be born writers. Their testimonial may seem to require some editing and tinkering. However...

  

• “Real testimonials have a genuine sound to them that’s very hard to reproduce. Maybe the grammar is ever so slightly off, a peculiar choice of word usage, a point made that no professional copywriter ever would have considered. Try to use these real raindrops wherever possible before you start seeding the clouds. Back in the days when silver dollars were common currency, bartenders, store clerks, etc. used to drop the dollar on the counter and listen to the ring... because it was distinctly different from the dull sound made by lead counterfeits.  I’ve found the same to be true of testimonials.  People can spot the real ones from a made-up ones a mile away. So, while I don’t disagree with the rules above, I’d be very careful about doing too much rewriting, suggesting and editing.” —Richard Armstrong 

 

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