How To Use (And Improve) Your Customer Testimonials To Increase Your Sales

OK so you know the importance of using testimonials to increase the credibility of your sales message. And you’ve now collected a heap of customer testimonials. They’re there lying on your desk, staring at you.

So you’re wondering what’s the best way to use them in your sales materials.

In a way this could depend on the amount of space which is available to you. If you’re going to use them in a small newspaper ad then you’ve only got room for a line of two. So you need to cut out the excess verbiage. And your message across in as few a words as possible.

For example. Suppose you were selling a weight loss product. And you had a testimonial with a lady giving you her entire life story in it. Fine – if you’ve got more space to play with in, say a brochure or web page.

But an ad…Well you need to extract the important facts.

Such as.

“I lost 4.5 lbs in 3 weeks quickly and easily without feeling hungry.” Name, town

That gets your message across straight to the point. And notice the name and town. This is important. You must use these. They make your testimonials far more convincing.

Why? Because they become more specific. And importantly, more believable. And your sceptical prospect doesn’t think you’ve written them yourself.

But what if you’ve got more room. Well, then you can make your testimonials more of mini case studies. With a before…during…and…after. More of a story. Make it a story your reader can personally relate to.

Ensure you use a headline with these testimonials. Why? You need headlines to stop the type of reader who is a scanner. So taking the testimonial at the top again as our example. Take the benefit out of the testimonial. And make that the headline.

“…Lost 4.5lbs in 3 Weeks…”

“I lost 4.5 lbs in 3 weeks quickly and easily without feeling hungry.” Name, town

See how that now springs out at you and catches your eye. Your weight loss prospect is more likely to read the testimonial. You see no reader wants to wade through dozens, and dozens of testimonials. People are lazy. Yes. Even you and me.

And apart from doing this, you attract the person who is the ‘scanner’ type of reader. The reader who doesn’t really read your message – but scans it for the relevant bits of information. You capture their attention. And doing that today with so many messages bombarding us everyday is vital.

And here’s another thing…

You need to use different types of testimonials to support your sales argument.

What do I mean by that?

Well you’ll have testimonials saying how effective your product or service is. How great your after sales service is. How quick and easy your product is to use. How …well I’m sure you’re starting to get the message. You can use all these angles of attack to show your prospect how good you are…and…more importantly, provide proof.