Chris Cardell Blog

Testimonials are one of the most powerful marketing tools you’ll ever have at your disposal.

Why?

Because it’s easy to say great things about yourself. Anyone can do that. But with a testimonial, you’ve got someone else doing it. And bear in mind this is someone else the reader can identify with, simply because they are in the same position as the person giving the testimonial was before they bought your product or service.

And virtually everyone who’s studied even the most basic courses on marketing knows this, which is why they’re used so often (although not nearly so often as they ought to be).

Now, one big advantage of having a testimonial on your web-page as opposed to having it just in print is the choice of media you have.

There’s no doubt at all video sells better than anything. This is no big surprise because face-to-face human interaction is the key to persuasion, and video is the next best thing to actually being there – meaning a video testimonial is the next best thing to actually having your past clients and customers sit down with your prospects and tell them how great you are.

And it doesn’t have to be difficult intrusive or expensive: a simple hand-held video camera you can slip into your pocket and plug straight into your computer will cost you less than £100 if you shop around.

Even getting the testimonials doesn’t have to be hard: if you’re running a local business, you can drop in on your customers and clients (by appointment!) or even get them to do it while they’re in your premises or at the sales meeting – wherever you are, it doesn’t matter too much.

Moreover, don’t be afraid to ask… and ask before you’ve done the work or made the sale in the same way as I encourage you to “set the scene” by asking for referrals in advance of the sale, using a form of words like, “I grow my business with testimonials, and if I do a great job for you I hope and expect you’d be willing to say a few lines into the camera here, just so I can help other people just the same way I’ve helped you”. This is a very nonthreatening and low-key way to ask for a testimonial. And because you’ve asked for it upfront, if you do do a great job for them, then the Rule of Reciprocity, and the Rule of Consistency & Commitment mean they’ll almost always follow through with it.

You can do a similar thing if you’re a solely on-line trader: set up the expectation of a video testimonial in advance, both in your marketing emails or on the sales page or even on the confirmation page with a check-box already ticked. Don’t underestimate the power of Reciprocity and Commitment & Consistency.

Then it’s simply a matter of uploading them to your website and you’re done.

But it gets even better than this: a video testimonial is actually three testimonials in one: you can transcribe it for your static media (along with a still-photo from the video); you can extract the audio (again, with a still-photo); and you, of course, have the video itself.
Video is big… and growing bigger. Video testimonials have the potential to be absolutely huge but as yet, few people are using them.

I strongly encourage you to give it a go before your competitors do.

If you sit down and have a conversation with your average website-designer, you’ll hear phrases like “creative design”, “eye-catching” and “state of the art”.
They’ll tell you that the use of lots of whitespace, fancy graphics, and all the latest technology is going to turn your website into a money-making machine.
They’re probably well intentioned. They probably believe this themselves. But they’re wrong.
The truth is that most web-designers are really graphic designer, often with some software-programming thrown in. Don’t get me wrong: they do an important job and they do have a place in the business world.
However, that place is not as marketers, even if that’s how they position themselves.
And you can always tell when a web-page has been designed by a web-designer and not a marketer because it looks fabulous but does nothing to move the visitor into taking any action, whether it be buying something, submitting their email address, or some other response.
Every single page on your website must have a purpose and at the end of your message, you must have a call to action. You need to be saying to the visitor, in effect, “This is what you need to do to get the benefits I’ve showed you, and I want you to do it now”
For the call to action to work, for your visitor to want to take action and get their hands on whatever you’re offering them, you’ve got to sell them on the idea. You’ve got to get as close as you can to giving them a direct experience of what you’re offering. You have to tell them everything they need to know to make that decision. You’re not going to achieve that with a couple of lines of copy and some smart graphics.
On a web-page, whether you’re doing it in writing or with a video, you’ve got to tell the whole story because you can’t know in advance what each visitor is going to want to know.
And that takes time – and more content than your average website-designer is going to be happy with. They’ll be telling you to keep it brief, spaced out, and uncluttered.
But the truth is, the more you tell, the more you’ll sell. And the real truth, which will have your web designer reeling in horror (one of my favourite activities) is that ugly web pages normally work better than smart ones.
Remember: your marketing is too important to be left in the hands of people who don’t understand it. And (unless you’re one of the fortunate ones) that probably includes your web designer.