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Customer Testimonials Build Trust

November 3, 2009 by Kathryn Hendershot 3 Comments

small business marketing strategiesCustomer testimonials have always been a long time go to in the advertising copywriter’s arsenal for generating response. It’s a well known fact that winning a customer’s business the FIRST time is always the hardest.  That’s why customer testimonials are a powerful advertising tool for any business.

Allowing your customers to share their positive experience with your product or business has MANY benefits.  Of course, the obvious benefits is to help build trust with people you haven’t done business with yet – however, there’s another benefit to collecting customer testimonials.  Studies have shown that when an actual customer provides a testimonial for your product or service, they end up not only “selling” prospective customers on your product or service – they sell themselves as well.

Customer testimonials are a literal powerhouse marketing tool – what’s not to love?

Well, what’s not to love about customer testimonials is how they have been used and abused over the past few years.

Unscrupulous marketers have known that testimonials build trust – and as a result have gone to great lengths to create “fake” testimonials.   In one case, an unscrupulous marketer actually created a “faux” blog – complete with fake testimonials in the comments section of the web site created to look like a blog.  Read more about this in “Blogs and the art of deception.”

Real blogs along with other social media applications are making it easy for average people to share their experiences.    However, if you’re a business owner – don’t wait for your customers to begin raving about your products and services – ask them to do so.  Remember – when your customers create testimonials – they not only sell others on your products and services – they also end up selling themselves.

The FTC has published the final guides governing endorsements and testimonials.  In general – the guidelines have been updated from the last revision in 1980 and now, advertisers are not allowed to feature “exceptional” results and get by with a bit of fine print or a quick scroll telling consumers that they shouldn’t expect similar results.  There’s also new guidelines governing celebrity endorsements.  Happily – Ed MacMahon has passed – otherwise he might be held liable for the claims he made on behalf of advertisers.

The FTC rewrite is to address the misuse of testimonials because testimonials are a powerful tool.  Do you have customers?  Are they happy with your products or services?  Then recruit them to tell their story.   Feature those stories in your advertising and on your web site.  It’s one of the most frequently overlooked marketing tools by small business owners.

Filed Under: Beyond Marketing Tagged With: Advertising, Advertising 2.0, advertising and marketing for small business owners, customer's reasons for buying

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Internet Business Coaching says

    November 5, 2009 at 5:36 am

    I think that’s why forum marketing works well, if you’re product is great then people will leave great comments. However, you do have to think about the flip side of things and make sure your product is tops or those people will rip you apart!

    I am glad the FTC introduced those new rules, it’s only fair to all those people out there who have lost thousands of dollars online or offline.
    .-= Internet Business Coaching´s last blog ..Ignition Eben Pagan Bonus And Review =-.

    Reply
  2. Website Marketing Design says

    November 21, 2009 at 12:07 pm

    Fake testimonials can kill your site and your product.
    Produce a genuine testimonials complete with the commenter’s photo ,name and web address , this will build confident to your potential customer/

    Reply
  3. Ozie Baranovic says

    April 30, 2010 at 11:40 am

    Internet Business will grow in the years to come as more and more people get online. I also invested in an online store.””

    Reply

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