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How do I know if testimonials on a Web site are legit?I'm in a pretty competitive business and I am noticing that many of my competitors have tons of great testimonials to build up their credibility. But I'm skeptical. How can they launch a site with 20 perfect testimonials and no sales? Right now I display a few authentic testimonials from satisfied customers. However, since I didn't write them myself, they aren't as punchy. Do you suggest I follow suit and make some up myself? Well, you certainly can make up a testimonial or two, but since you brought up credibility, you have to wonder about what your customers would say if they were impressed by your testimonials, just to find out that they were bogus. Certainly isn't going to be good for your business. I'd say "just be honest" but you also raised an interesting issue about how you can ascertain if someone else's testimonials are legit or not. It turns out that a new company, Trusted Testimonials, is focused on just this space, and is trying to solve this problem for consumers in a rather interesting way. To learn more about it, I asked Warren Houston, one of their executives, how they'd address your question. Here's what he shared:
If you haven't already done so, you can increase your testimonials' effectiveness by including the full name, city, state and country of the customers providing testimonials (with their permission of course). Photos of your satisfied customers and testimonials from experts in your industry are also great site conversion boosters. Once collected, in addition to your testimonials page, you should sprinkle testimonials throughout your site to maximize impulse purchasing. For maximum effectiveness, when soliciting testimonials, you should request that in addition to reinforcing key benefits of your product or service, they should also quantify those benefits. For example, "Product X is less expensive and more effective than other similar products on the market. It cost 20 percent less and has helped my company save 30 percent in labor costs." I am a big advocate of testimonials as they do add credibility to your site which in turn results in better sales conversion and enhanced returns on your current advertising budget. However, with the number of sites online, it is getting harder for visitors to tell sites like yours apart from unscrupulous competitors. While web seals such as Verisign and GeoTrust let visitors know that your site is secure, they do little to assure visitors that your testimonials have not been fabricated. Trusted Testimonials independently verifies website testimonials and provides a web seal which can be used to prove to your visitors that your business, customers and testimonials are real. Once you sign up, they also provide a link that you can add to your email signature that prospects can click for a list of the verified testimonials. This should help close more sales on your website while setting you apart from the competitors you referred to. Check it out and see what you think: Trusted Testimonials
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Categorized:
Business and Management
(Article 6598,
Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: marketing ethics, online marketing, testimonials Previous: How do I plan a holiday in Africa? Next: Can I download the Holy Bible for free? Reader Comments To Date: 3Sharon said, on December 16, 2008 2:39 PM:
Dave! However, I do have a question. I've emailed them, and called them, I've subscribed to their news letter and haven't recieved anything yet (thinking they would have sent me an autoresponder for their first ezine of info). Everyone seems to be away from their desks. I'm calling during the time they are in office, but it's making it very fustrated on wanting to purchase, but woun't until I get these questions answered, that they have not answered on their web site. So here are my questions. (wondering if you could answer :)) How does trusted testimonials contact the customers to recieve a testimonial? Do they simply write an emial or letter to ask the customer? Can you write your own request for trusted testimonials to send to your customers, and have them certify it? I know if you have an existing testimonal, they can certify it too. But, how do they do that? Do they simply call or write the customer: "is this what you said?" How do they comunicate with the customer to be willing to give a testimonial, or that what they had said, in the past, is true? in other words, if someone I did business with (baught a product or service), and they wanted a testimonial from me, and they went through trusted testimonials to get my respons, how would I be contacted? What would I be asked? How would they make me feel comfortable to give a testimonial wheather it's a good or bad testimonial? Thanks a lot!!! :) Steve said, on December 22, 2010 6:01 PM:
I'm not sure trustedtestimonials.com is still in business but I did use a company called testimonial shield (http://www.testimonialshield.com) to authenticate my testimonials and put their widget on my site and my sales increased about 18%! Totally worth it, and in my opinion a long overdue service.
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!Check This Out Too... |
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This service could be a good addition to an online marketers selling strategy.
Because testimonials are so crucial to selling success and work well, getting a 3rd party 'seal of approval' will give marketers one more differentiation between them and their competitors.