GETTING CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS

We live in the age of skepticism. If you CAN prove your case, do it.

One of the most powerful forms of proof is called “social proof.” That is, showing other people who got the results you promised. Testimonials with photos and even video and audio are extremely powerful.

Another great form of proof is to quote experts and authorities who back up your statements or claims.

They key to testimonials is specifics. “I did this and this specific thing happened” is much more compelling than just “I liked it.”

Testimonials are so crucial because it's far more compelling when a customer or user of your product gives it the A-OK than when the owner and creator of the product says it's great.

It just holds more clout when it comes from THEM or people LIKE them. Joe Schmoe having success with your product is what gives them comfort in their purchase. Not you saying "hey... my product's good!"

Audio and video testimonials are head and shoulders more effective than regular ol' text ones. Because there's always the little voice in the back of your customers' minds that says "well ya know, he/she could have just made these testimonials up!"

When they can HEAR the voices of your satisfied customers and SEE the expressions on their faces, it's so much more powerful.

Step One: Gather testimonials

You'll need to gather testimonials in 2 circumstances:

1) BEFORE your product is launched. This is where you'll proactively have to seek testimonials.

2) Throughout the entire life cycle of your product. This is ongoing.

If you're just about to launch a new product, you should try and get testimonials on your sales letter before the launch date. Again, this has to be proactive because obviously, since the product isn't out yet, no one has been able to voluntarily give you their testimonials.

What you can do is maybe post on a forum and give away a few copies of your product. But before you give it to the people that signed on, explain that all you need is for them to go through it and give you a testimonial. Then they can keep it.

You can also go to your existing customer list if you have one. This is a good way to reward good customers. Give them a copy of your new product in exchange for their testimonial.

Now, you're never done when it comes to gathering testimonials. But the thing is - once your product is out there and people are using it, many customers (assuming you've got a good, solid product) will voluntarily give you testimonials.

If you've ever been to my amazingformula.com sales letter, you'll see I posted 100 individual PAGES of testimonials. And they were all given to me voluntarily by customers who just loved the product.

I actually could probably scrounge up another hundred pages of all the testimonials I've received since I originally put that page up.

Step Two: Make it EASY to give you testimonials for your products

One technique you can employ is Audio testimonials. I found a free solution called Odeo.

What Odeo does is allow you to paste a snippet of HTML code that they provide onto your web site. It will create a link where your customers can click to leave an audio, even a video testimonial for you. All they need is a microphone (and a webcam if they want to leave a video testimonial).

You can sign up for a free account with them. It takes all of 20 seconds to do. You'll then be taken to the main account screen.

At the top, click "Profile".

Halfway down the page you'll see a link that says "Contact Me (Put this on your site)". Click "Put this on your site".

The next page has a bunch of images and HTML code next to them. Choose the image you want on your site. Remember - the image is actually a link where they can leave an audio or video testimonial for you. Make sure you specify what the link is to your customers.

Paste the HTML code on the right into your site and the image on the left will appear. This is a great way to snag audio/video testimonials from your customers with a mic and/or a camera hooked up to their computer. There's also a place for them to enter any text that they'd like.

Below is the image of what you see when someone leaves you an audio or video message. If it's a video, the Odeo logo will be replaced by the video of the customer. On the right side, circled in red, you can see that you can download a copy of the audio/video to your hard drive to use as you'd like.

When you download the MP3, you can then use a piece of software called Sonic Memo to create streaming audio buttons for use on your web site.

There are services out there that do the same thing, but cost between $20-$30 a month. Sonic Memo is just a one-time fee.

There is a cheaper alternative to Sonic Memo called Web Audio Plus. We use Sonic Memo exclusively though because it's so darn easy. It's a hundred bucks, but you gotta figure you're saving 20-30 bucks a month that you would be paying for a flash audio service. So it quickly pays for itself.

Here's a short tutorial on Sonic Memo that will allow you to take your testimonial MP3 files and turn them in to fast-streaming Flash audio buttons on your site.

STEP 1: Open Sonic Memo

Below is an image of Sonic Memo's start-up screen. The "Audio Control" tab is the one we'll be working with.

STEP 2: Click the "Audio Control" Tab

This is where you select the MP3 file of the testimonial you wish to convert into a Flash audio and play with a button on your site. All your button options are here as well.

STEP 3: Choose Your Settings

First you'll want to select your MP3 file. Click the "browse" button and find it. Then to change the sound player type, choose the "Control Type" dropdown box. As you scroll through the different controllers, you'll see a preview of each in the window at the bottom.

NOTE: On the right side of this window, there are a variety of checkboxes. Make sure all of them are unchecked.

Click "Generate Code" when you're satisfied with the settings.

STEP 4: Copy the required HTML to your site and upload the correct files

The "Generate Code" button will give you the HTML code you need to place on your site to make the audio button appear:

Click the "Copy To Clipboard" button and then open your HTML editor. Next you'll want to paste in the code at the precise location you want the button to appear.

Now there's just one more thing left to do: upload your MP3 audio file AND the file of the button/controller to your server.

Go to the directory of your web site and create 2 new folders. Call one "mp3files" and the other "smplayers". Upload your testimonial MP3 to the "mp3files" folder (see the FTP icon for an in-depth tutorial on how to do this).

Now you need to upload the button/controller file to the "smplayers" folder. The button file will be a ".SWF" file. When you're browsing for the file to upload, go to --

C:\Program Files\Sonic Memo Pro\smplayers\

-- and look for the button file with the same file name as the one mentioned in the Generate Code window.

In this case, you'd find the file called "b_smgel3.swf" and upload that to the /smplayers/ directory on your server.

Step Three: Testimonial tips and tricks

1) If you can get a testimonial from a renowned expert in your field or industry, that will multiply your credibility many times over.

2) If you are selling to a particular geographical region, get testimonials
from local people for your product and use those in your sales pieces.

3) Make your testimonials stand out. Put them in a table using a slightly different (although still readable) background color.

4) Italicize your testimonials or use some other way of differentiating.

5) Go over the various objections that your target audience is likely to have and use testimonials to debunk the argument. So rather than simply countering the objection yourself, use a testimonal from a real-life, happy customer that disproves it for you. That is MUCH more convincing.

6) Always put a name to each testimonial.

7) And it also helps to include a location for the person giving the testimonial.