Testimonials, A Great Tool to Add to Your Marketing and Speaking MaterialsCategory: Marketing & PR Strategies You Might Try Published: Saturday, April 25, 2009  by Robbie Motter Have you ever thought of using testimonials from satisfied customers, clients and organizations you volunteer your time with? You are probably thinking how do I get testimonials and how can I use them? Soliciting Testimonials:If your customers don't send you letters of praise then you need to ask them to give you a testimonial. How? Simply send a letter to clients, customers and even organizations you volunteer your time for, who are happy with your product or service and ask for their comments. If you are using the social networks there are plenty of places to ask for recommendations and testimonials so be sure and do that. Some of the questions you might ask in the letter is asking them to give you their ": opinion" of your services and or the products they purchased. Ask them also what they liked about your service and that you welcome any suggestions or criticisms, also. let your client know that this information will help you to be able to get some valuable information, which will help you serve your clients better in the future. If you worked as a volunteer ask them how your help assisted them with their mission. Tips you might consider for using testimonials:
Use full attribution:I am sure you have seen many times direct mail packages that contained testimonials from J.B. in California or Jim J. Inventor or etc. I know that I just laugh when I see those testimonials, as they do not seem real to me. To increase the believability for your testimonials, it is important to have the person's name, city and state, and if a business customer their job title and company. The readers are more likely to believe this sort of full disclosure testimony than those, which seem to conceal the identity of the speaker. Keep your testimonials together in your copy:There are many ways to present testimonials; you can group them together in one area or you can scatter them throughout the copy. Most marketing experts believe that it is better to group them all together, that way when a prospect reads all the testimonials in one place, one right after another, they have more impact and power than when the testimonials are separated and scattered all over your marketing piece. You can do this in a box, on a separate page, or on a separate sheet. I like the separate sheet idea, that way as new testimonials come in they can be changed without having to redo your marketing materials. It is important to get permissionMake sure you get permission from your customer to reprint what they have sent you before you include it in any copy that you are going to be sending out. One good way would be to send them a letter outlining the quote you want to reprint and ask permission to include them in ads, direct mail, brochures, and other materials used to promote your firm. What you are asking for is a general release that way you can use it over and over without having to ask permission every time you want to use the quote in any letters and/or marketing materials. So start today and look at the customers you have that love your product and/or service and contact them to send you their testimonial and that way you can add it to your marketing materials. Remember testimonials are one of the simplest and most effective way to add punch and power to your marketing materials. Robbie Motter is the Owner of Contacts Unlimited a Marketing and PR firm in CA.,life and business coach, National Speaker, author and a partner in the ASLS/Contacts Unlimited speakers bureau... Her email address is rmotter@aol.com, website is www.RMottter.com. She is also the Western * mid Atlantic Regional Coordinator for NAFE which is the largest global women's network with over 66,000 members. She is also the gold founding sponsor of the For You Networks a 501 C3 nonprofit Southern CA organization whose mission is to help women grow both personally and professionally.
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