Online Marketing

If you’ve ever come across a sales copy before, testimonials are not alien to you. If you like watching home television shopping like my sister and I do, just for the sheer fun of it, you’ve heard a gamut of testimonials on a product before. Most of the time, my sister and I end up rolling on the floor laughing because everything sounds so scripted. If you scour writing job boards, you’ll always find someone asking for testimonials to be written one time or another. Just imagine how many more other similar ads there are which I haven’t seen? However, did you know that it’s not only unethical but also illegal to use fabricated testimonials for anything?

A law in the United States’ Federal Trade Commission states that product testimonials should always be truthfully given by real consumers and should not have been fabricated. Doing so otherwise would be against the law. It’s not hard to get authentic testimonials though. The first thing you need to do is find your target audience — it would be no use to try and promote in a niche totally unrelated to yours. When you’ve found your target audience, then you can start scouting for testimonials. How? One way is to give out free review copies to a set number people.

Always remember though, that when scouting for testimonials, not anyone would do. People tend to scoff and glaze over the testimonial section of the copy as I do. If you want to add verisimilitude and credibility to your sales copy, make sure to get reputable personages to endorse you. Seek well-known people in your niche and ask if they’re willing to try something for free in exchange for a testimonial if they like what you offer. Do this and people will end up reading your entire copy, even the testimonials which could result in a higher conversion rate.

Filed under: General online marketing