Testimonials: An Important Part of Growing Your Business

If you've ever watched an infomercial, you've probably noticed how they use testimonials to support their claims.

There's a reason for this: testimonials make an offer much more believable.

You've probably also noticed that the most believable testimonials seem to come from ordinary-looking and real-sounding people.

Perhaps you've seen those business opportunity commercials where they use people who appear to be actors. Do those testimonials seem staged to you? They probably seem staged to other people, too.

Staged or contrived testimonials can do more harm than good because today's consumers are more observant than ever. They can smell a phony a mile away.

You've probably noticed how the most convincing infomercial testimonials state specific benefits derived and results achieved from using the product. There's a reason for this, too. The more specific a testimonial is, the more believable it will be.

Most good testimonials describe the problems the person was having and go on to state how the product solved those problems. This is done for a reason: credibility.

The infomercial producers want viewers to relate easily to the plight of the people giving the testimonials. They want us to feel their pain and agony. Then they want us to understand how quickly and easily their solution solved the problems. They want us to share in the feeling of relief the product brought to the people giving the testimonials.

Another aspect of most good infomercials is showing real people - perhaps from a studio audience or right off the street - using the product and getting results on the spot. This can be very powerful when skeptical consumers are won over right in front of us. And when they confirm the positive results, we are ready to get out our credit cards and order.

How you can apply these methods to your business

First, use real people in your testimonials, never actors. Get them to give you permission to use their full names, city and state. NEVER use just initials - unless the nature of your product or service requires confidentiality.

Note: You CAN use an actor for an endorsement, which is different from a testimonial.

Second, try your best to get people to state the specific results they got from using what you offer. This is more than just saying how great your product or service is. Get them to say exactly how it helped them.

Third, whenever possible, use photos or video that captures people in the act of using your product; or before and after shots; or sound bites that describe specific results.

And finally, NEVER make up testimonials - EVER. This can be fatal to your business if the media ever finds out.

Three Ways to Make Your Company Brochure More Effective

Happy New Year to my friends and clients in Greater Boston and beyond! If you plan to produce a company brochure in 2006, this blog post is sure to help you.

First, let me pose a simple question:

When you get a typical brochure, what do you usually do with it? If you’re like many people, you tuck it away someplace where you’ll never see it again or you throw it away immediately. Rarely do you keep it front and center. Why? It’s because most brochures are boring, self-serving to the company they try to promote and contain useless information that doesn’t support a buying decision.

Most brochures are ineffective because the people that create them don’t understand the true purpose of a brochure, which is to support a sales presentation rather than to make a sale directly. A good brochure serves as an adjunct to your other sales materials and bolsters your credibility and your brand.

Front panel

The biggest mistake people make when designing a brochure is not having a compelling front panel. The front panel is like a headline in other marketing materials. It’s the ad for your brochure. It’s what makes a reader open the brochure.

Most brochures I’ve seen use the company name and logo on the front panel, perhaps with the company’s tagline. Please understand that your company name is NOT a headline! If you want people to open your brochure and read it you MUST give them a good reason. Many company taglines try to be cute or humorous, or are so vague you don’t really know what the benefits of working with the company are. Relying strictly on your company name, logo and tagline to get people to read further is the brochure kiss of death.

What works much better is to use a compelling headline in much the same way you would in any other ad. For example, “Inside… 7 Reasons Why You Should Call the XYZ Company Before Your Competitors Do.” Or you could ask a question: “Which of these 7 costly mistakes do you make when selecting an X company? Find out inside!” The main purpose of the front panel is to get people to open the brochure and read it. A good headline will do that.

Initial Inside View

Depending on how your brochure is laid out, people may see two inside panels or the back panel and one inside panel when they open your brochure. It’s absolutely critical that you address the issues you talked about on the front panel in the initial inside view. In other words, if you promised “7 Reasons Why…” you MUST have a panel header that says, “7 Reasons Why…”

You should avoid using long paragraphs. Instead, use short paragraphs with sub-headlines and bullets whenever possible. This is because people usually skim sales copy first and then focus on items that get their attention. If your benefits are buried in a long paragraph, they will likely be missed.

Whatever you do, avoid stating biographical details about your company and its personnel unless you can tie those details to specific benefits that are important to your target market. For example, the fact that you have a PhD in sociology is meaningless unless it relates to what you’re doing now. If you belong to an industry association, make sure you state why that’s relevant to your audience.

Back Panel

The third component of your brochure is the back panel. This is what people see when your brochure is placed face down. Your back panel should contain some kind of call to action, meaning a valid reason why people should contact you immediately. This could be an offer of a free report, consultation or trial of your product or service. Your phone number, address and a map to your location if appropriate should be easy to see and read.

Remember, a brochure is like a silent sales assistant. It should reinforce your more personalized sales messages and provide useful, relevant information that gives more reasons to buy from you.

If you want a constructive review of your current brochure or would would like assistance developing a new one, call Ben Edwards today at (617) 670-1888, ext. 1 to arrange for a complimentary 30-minute phone consultation.