Do you know what an ego booster testimonial is?
It goes something like this: “Joe Smith is the greatest, nicest, smartest, sweetest, sexiest, gutsiest, tallest, handsomest guy I know – buy his stuff!”
It sounds good to Joe Smith. Heck, it sounds AMAZING to Joe Smith.
But does it sell his stuff?
Generally, no. Prospects read testimonials like that either think they’re written by a friend, or they simply have nothing to do with the product at hand.
So how do you write a great testimonial?
Here are 10 tips:
Use ego booster testimonials sparingly.
If they’re the only ones you have right now, then they’ll have to do for now. But work on getting better testimonials that actually convert.
Focus on results-based testimonials, like this one:
“After using the xyz product, my conversions increased by 4% and my overall sales increased by $32,958 in three months.”
Your audience is going to be putting themselves in the shoes of this person, and thinking they can get results like that, too. Which is exactly what you want, by the way.
Got plain text testimonials? Add photos.
A photo of a face – regardless of how pretty or not pretty it might be, can increase the likelihood of your testimonial being read by as much as 80%.
Plus, it adds credibility that your testimonial is real.
Use big numbers.
If you’ve got a testimonial that uses numbers, then feature those numbers as a big, bold headline. For example:
32,955
Additional Visitors
3X
Conversions
26,598
More Income
“After implementing just one traffic technique that Josh taught me, I got 32,955 more visitors in one month, three times as many conversions, and made an extra $26,598 for the month.”
Add headers and footers to your video testimonials.
Video testimonials are great, but… not everyone watches them. And of those who do watch, not everyone watches the whole thing.
So here’s what you can do to make sure people get the most important point out of the video… place that point above the video itself. For example, “I didn’t have a clue how to get started, but thanks to XYZ program I can now get almost any page to rank in Google.”
Then at the bottom of the video, you might give more information, such as, “George was struggling to rank his pages, but then he took the XYZ course and followed the simple steps. See how he did it here ->”
That last bit can be a link to a sales page or blog post, unless of course this testimonial is already on a sales page.
Place links in any testimonial not on the sales page.
If your testimonials aren’t on a sales page, then link at the bottom of the testimonial to a page that gives samples, and write something like this: “Click to see a sample of what Joe is talking about ->”
Use your Amazon 5 star ratings.
If your book – or any of your products – are on Amazon, then use your 5 star ratings and reviews on your sales pages as well.
For example, you might have a Kindle book on how to get traffic, and you sell an entire course on traffic, too. Don’t be afraid to use your 5 star reviews for your book on your course sales page.
Be sure to emphasize that while the book has great info and awesome reviews, your course has ten times as much info as the book.
Use product pictures from your customers.
If your customers have sent you pictures of them using your product, then by all means place these photos on your sales page.
Prospects love to see customers using and loving your product because it makes them feel better about buying it themselves.
Compare your product to others.
Comparison reviews can work great if you’re in a competitive market, especially if you create a chart comparing the features and ratings of your product versus others.
Then again, if you’re in a market where buyers are unlikely to know about the other product unless you tell them, you might want to forgo this one.
Don’t forget screenshot testimonials.
Your customers might have great things to say about you on social media or through text messages. Simply take screenshots of these compliments and post them as testimonials.
Every time you see something positive about you and your products, take a screenshot and save it to a folder just for that purpose.
To take a screenshot on Windows, press the PrtScn button. Or to capture just the active or foremost window, press Alt+PrtScn.
On a Mac, press Shift-Command-4.
But how do you get all these testimonials?
Ask.
Send out a survey to each of your product buyers to see what they thought. When you get back positive responses, ask if you can use them as testimonials.
You might need to condense what they say – simply rewrite it without changing the meaning and get their okay on it.
For the really enthusiastic customers, ask if they will do a recording for you.
Testimonials aren’t hard but there is an art to them.
And you have to continually be seeking out new testimonials to add to your site, to keep things fresh and current.
It’s worth the effort – testimonials almost invariably boost sales, so that testimonial you’re adding today could result in an extra sale a month, or even per week!
