Selling With Testimonials....
By: John Skorczewski
Hello,
Good morning! I've got a quick and to the point tip for you today that can increase s'ales response
on your web site by as much as 20% or more. It's old school and boring, but it works.
In Last Week's Issue I gave you
a little tip on how to increase your internet s'ales by tweaking the copy of your web site. This week I want to talk to you about
something that can directly increase your s'ales....testimonials.
So you're selling stuff on the Internet. That means you have to convince someone who's never seen you (and never will)
to give you money to buy something they haven't seen or touched or held in their hands.
That's asking a whole lot. People like to see what they're buying before they hand over their hard earned cashola.
That may just be the single largest hurdle you face selling online.
How do you overcome this hurdle? Well, there's a few ways, such as creating a very professional looking web site,
prominently displaying your company contact information (including toll free number), listing pictures of yourself
and your staff...etc etc.
But one of the single best ways to overcome this obstacle, is to display customer testimonials throughout your web site.
It's psychological...if other people have bought and are happy...chances are I'm going to buy and be happy. It's a sort
of herd mentality I guess....err...or something.
I've seen web sites that couldn't sell a single item, JUMP into profit by simply adding a half dozen customer testimonials
to the site.
Some rules to go by:
1. Never never never NEVER make up the testimonials yourself. You'll be tempted...after all...who will know the difference?
The customers will know. You aren't that good of a writer...it WILL sound phony if you try to make them up. Don't do it.
2. List as much info about the person giving the testimonial as possible (it lends credibility). I try to list their first
and last name, and their web site address (not email address..or else they'll get spammed a lot). Don't do what
some people do and list their first name and their town...like "Tammy - Chicago" that sounds phony.
3. Make sure you have the person's permission to list their testimonial.
4. The more specific the testimonial, the better. A testimonial that says "your product is great" is not a great testimonial
(though it's certainly better than nothing). A much better testimonial would be something like this "Hi John, I got your widget
in the mail yesterday (wow that was fast shipping!) and it's great! I love how it looks on my shelf...thanks again".
...you get the idea.
You should start an active regime of testimonial solicitation immediately. What the heck do I mean by that? I mean
create systems to ask for testimonials.
For example, I sell my award winning Search Engine Submission Software.
To download my software you have to enter your email address in a web form. A simple autoresponder automatically
emails everyone who downloads my software a week or two later and asks them what they think of the software.
I get a ton of responses....which makes a lot of testimonials.
Whenever someone buys from you, you should always follow up either by email or through a card in the mail asking them
for feedback...don't do it blatantly like "Hey, please give me a testimonial"....instead do it like: "Hey, how is the product
working out for you...are there any questions I can answer, or any help I can give you? I'd love to hear how it's working out
for you so far and any comments you might have to help me make it better for you".....
See the difference?
So to sum up, adding testimonials both helps you to gain new customers, and it also helps you to stay in contact with old customers
and make their buying experience better...which should always be a goal.
That's all for this week. See you next Monday!
John Skorczewski
(pronounced Score-Chess-Key)
Editor, WebPromotion-Weekly
http://www.WebPromotion-Weekly.com
Want to use this article in your own ezine or web site? You can...as long as you add this signature line
(including the links):
John Skorczewski is the publisher of WebPromotion-Weekly, a free ezine about Internet Marketing,
Promotion, Advertising, And Search Engine Submission as well as the creator of the popular Web Site Promotion software,
the Submission-Spider
