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Achieving 37% Revenue Growth with Testimonials (Part 1)

I have been hearing about tight budgets and high expectations due to the economy...hogwash. Tight budgets and high expectations are just part of life! Regardless, marketers are pressured to look for ways to help sales in weak economic times more than during sunny days! There are answers. If asked to name the "secrets of success,"— after first insisting that there are none— I would start thelist with the use of testimonials. We have helped one client use testimonials to net business revenue growth of 37% over three years. Fabulous!

This issue of Affect has practical advice and usable ideas for you. It will be in two parts. Part 1: The What and How of Testimonials and Part 2: the When of Testimonials. Hope you find this helpful. As always, please share your thoughts with me!

Sean
sean@fitzmartin.com

Part 1: The What and How of Testimonials There are three types of testimonials you will see: Endorsement, Expert, and Customer. "Endorsement" is typically thought of as leveraging a big name to your benefit by association. Michael Jordan and Nike come to mind. B2B might be able to use this style with success, but please do not use the professional athlete. The cost of a "major league" pro is too high; and, I would not recommend using a local athlete or a minor league ball player. Not much is less impressive than a company pretending a minor league player has the appeal of the majors' star. I read it to say, we are not in the big leagues! A better fit for B2B would be to have the owner of a high profile company serve in this endorsement role. They need to have name recognition… it's rare to find and hard to pull off. There are better ways!

"Expert" is a category of testimonial that is typically underused. I would identify it as the greatest opportunity for many companies. The idea is to have a third-party testing firm, a scientist or a professor— even a retired professional serving as an expert is huge. Run a test, have them do a review, compare your product or service against a better-known competitor. Share numbers and opinions. Remember, experts are as much a product of positioning as you are. It's easy to dismiss this style of testimonial because of a "lack of experts and data." Create them. Do it with facts to back them up, but do it.

We have helped a client use its own operations staff as featured experts. The 30-year veteran employee offers wisdom. Many of us are in B2B fields that offer professional certification. These strings of letters after our names serve as expert credentials as well. Recently, a friend looked at my hair and said, "You have enough gray that people probably listen to you now." Well maybe, but the point is made; testimonials can come from showing your own expertise, experience, wrinkles and gray hair.

Finally, lets talk about the "Customer" testimonial. This is the classic. It offers third party credibility that your advertising cannot offer. While this is the most common form of testimonial, it also is most often done incorrectly. Obviously, an ad is pushing what YOU want me to believe! …and YOU have an agenda. You might find the secret to doing an effective customer testimonial interesting. If you want a testimonial to be read and trusted, do NOT have the person push your product or service. If you do, it becomes another pushy ad. I suppose your customers being pushy might be more palatable than your being pushy…but not much more. Use your customer to be interesting, to add value. Have them share what they think is interesting about business in your category. Have them share specific or unique things about the product and category's history or future. Then associate yourself with this person's success in a brief concluding statement such as: "Mrs. Customer has used FitzMartin's services for 15 years." Or better, the opposite, "FitzMartin has been proud to offer Mrs. Customer guidance for 15 years."

Testimonials work. You must use a full name and title of the person giving the testimonial and the full company name. Use that person's words. Their voice will not be in your brand, but that is OK. It is their words, not yours. You can use any of the three styles above…but make them authentic. I think the greatest opportunity for success is to explore the expert testimonial area…it is the least used. Above all, be interesting and do not make the testimonial into a puppet. Your voice coming from a customer's mouth, that's predictable and boring. The best campaign we have ever done never promotes the client…that is the big secret.