The sure-fire way to boost your credibility

Testimonials are quick, easy and free. Need another reason?

Conventional marketing wisdom is that you don’t talk about yourself – at least not too much. Instead, you need to connect with your readers, and show them that you understand their world, their concerns and their dreams. Because as the saying goes, it’s not about you – it’s about them. So less of the ‘we, we, we’ and more of the ‘you, you, you’ and you’re on the path to marketing Nirvana. Except you can take a detour and talk a little bit about yourself. You can even blow your own trumpet – or rather, let somebody else blow your trumpet. The secret? It’s an open one. Testimonials. They’re a sure-fire way of establishing your reputation, buffing up your image and inspiring confidence in a floating prospect. Why?

They provide independent validation, and back up the claims you’ve made in your marketing materials. If you say nice things about yourself, you’re vain. If somebody else does, you’re nice. Spot the difference.
They create a link with prospects in a similar situation. When people can identify with your customers, they’re one step closer to becoming one.
They’re perceived as impartial, and carry more weight than anything you can say. Now prospects are not naive – they know that you’d never choose a negative comment, yet somehow they ignore this crucial piece of information. With their critical radar temporarily disabled, you can head straight for the target.
You can benefit from brand recognition if the quote comes from a company that’s a household name. On the downside, the bigger those companies are, there more complicated the approval process generally is. Big brands guard their good name jealously, and with good reason. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask.

Ask and you shall receive

OK, testimonials are a good idea. So how do you go about getting them?

Just do it. Send out an email or drop the request into a conversation. You may well be surprised at the reaction. It’s human nature to want to spread good news. How often have you told a friend about a new restaurant, a good book or a great holiday destination? People in companies are just the same – they want to share the secret. So let them.
Don’t stop there. There’s no reason why you can’t extend a simple quote to a case study. Again, the trick is just to ask. Time and again, my clients are surprised by the willingness of their clients to have a case study written about them. Of course it’s not a one-way street: their clients look good too, as case studies show them in a positive light, performing well and achieving results. A win-win situation.
Take the embarrassment out of it. Nobody likes to ask another person what they think of them. Well, almost nobody. A friend of a friend asks people, in all seriousness, ‘What’s your favourite thing about me?’ But most of us would rather die than ask a direct, potentially embarrassing question like that. The solution is simple: get somebody else to do it. Somebody like me. I’m always amazed at how open, direct and positive people are when they talk to me about the company I’m writing for. The quotes are usually glowing – the sort of thing nobody, but nobody, would say direct to somebody’s face. But they’ll say it to me.

Shooting stars

So there you have it. Success isn’t guaranteed, but the odds are definitely stacked in your favour. And the best thing is that it doesn’t have to cost the earth. In fact, last year a study showed that endorsements that do cost the earth often don’t deliver the goods. On the whole, it seems, people aren’t swayed by celebrity endorsements. From Angelina Jolie’s $10m contract with Louis Vuitton to Catherine Zeta-Jones’s $20m deal with T-Mobile, it appears that celebs simply don’t influence people’s buying decisions. And when they do, it’s sometimes in the wrong direction: 19% of respondents over 55 actually said they’d consider not buying a product because it was endorsed by a celeb. It’s not hard to see why. Just like real stars, these Tinseltown twinklers are remote and distant from the lives of everyday people. Which means it’s hard to connect with them. Everyday people connect with everyday people. People like your existing clients, for example. And here’s the good news: they’re just a phone call away. So get dialling. Find out more:

In the bag (not). Sorry, Angelina: Consumers Aren’t Swayed by Celebrity Endorsements at brandchannel.com.

Kevin Copywriting, Marketing.