3 Simple Tips for Creating Eye-Catching Testimonials

We've all seen them. An excellent testimonial grabs attention, solidifies your brand, and convinces customers of the value of your service or product. But sometimes getting those quality testimonials can be like pulling teeth. Short of hiring a copywriter to write them for you, how are you supposed to get your clients and customers to write these perfect testimonials? Here are 3 simple tips for creating those eye-catching, business-winning testimonials we all want:

1. Pick the right people. Choose clients or customers who've told you how much they love and appreciate your service. Keep your eyes open. Enthusiastic customers or clients write enthusiastic testimonials. Make sure these people represent your target customer, too. If you're targeting small business owners, a testimony from a Fortune 500 executive won't have the same impact.

2. Ask the right questions. Don't simply ask for a testimonial! Ask a series of leading, specific questions which will guide your clients or customers in writing a winning testimonial. Here are some good questions you can tweak to your specific product or service:

- Did you have any doubts about this product or service? If so, what were they? Were they overcome?

- How did this product or service benefit you or your business?

- Do you think it will benefit others? If so, how?

- What tangible, measurable results did you experience from using this product or service?

- Was this product or service worth it? Is the cost justified?

3. Shape the testimonial into a convincing form. Take the answers provided and arrange the sentences in a logical order that progress from initial hesitation and doubt to unhesitating endorsement.

Following these simple steps, you'll notice a marked improvement in the quality, power, and impact of your testimonials.

How To Double Your Qualified Leads Without Taxing Your Budget

It's standard practice to generate leads by requiring web site visitors to exchange personal information for quality content and/or collateral. Walking the fine line between asking for too much information (and scaring prospects off) and asking for too little takes finesse. Here's a simple way to glean more information from prospects, qualify leads, and keep those visitors returning to your site.

1. Identify themes based on why visitors come to your site. This will usually be broken down by the kinds of information and/or product you sell or the services you provide. For example, a Network Services company might identify these themes: Disaster Recovery, IP Address Management, Network Access Control, DNS/DHCP Infrastructure, and Voice Over IP.

2. For each theme, develop five pieces of collateral or content you want site visitors to acquire. This can be whitepapers, data sheets, a webinar, you name it. Your goal is to walk each user through acquiring all five of these pieces.

3. Develop unique registration forms for each interaction. The trick is to keep the forms short with no more than five or six questions each so that users don't stop mid-form. And, instead of asking the same questions over and over, ask a different set of questions with each form. Use cookies to identify the unique visitor, and if the visitor doesn't have cookies enabled, you can also track identical users by asking them to register with their email address. The goal is to get more qualifying information with each round of registration.

4. Score the leads and give them to your sales people. Score the leads based on both the kind and quality of information provided. For example, even if you got quality information from the prospect, they wouldn't score well if they answered that they have no current projects and no budget. A typical scoring system might be:

A - high quality, inside sales follow up
B - good quality, inside sales follow up
C - moderate quality, inside sales follow up as time allows
D - marketable opt-in lead, no follow up required
E - purchased/acquired list, non-opted in
F - junk lead

Believe it or not, implementing this system will allow you to not only generate higher quality leads, but also double the number of leads you receive because you're using shorter, more user-friendly forms.

How To Stand Out From Your Competition -- Say Thank You

Hectic schedules and busy workdays eat away at our time. They eat away at your prospect's time, too. When you land a meeting or a phone call, the most important thing you can do is say “thank you for your time.” Here are a few tried and true methods for saying “thank you” that will keep you fresh in your prospect's mind:

1. Send a quick “thank you” email. The secret is in the system. Save the text of your “thank you” email as a draft so you can quickly copy and paste it into a new email composition. This way, you can quickly send out emails to prospects after phone calls or face to face meetings. You want to sound polite and grateful, and you also want to remind your client about why you're qualified to do the job. Here's the email I send out after phone meetings:

Hi {{NAME}},

Pleasure talking with you today; thanks for your time. Keep me in mind if you need informative copy written in an engaging, accessible style. Experience working in the marketing and creative departments of a software promotions firm, as well as my years of experience as a copywriter means I understand audience and have a strong command of language. Please view some samples of my work at: www.wonderworkingwords.com.

I look forward to working with you down the line. Best of continued success.

2. Follow your email with a “thank you” card. Pick a card that's eye-catching and artistic. A lovely card is more likely to hang around your prospect's desk space or be displayed on a tack board; learn to think of a card that's not immediately thrown away as free advertising. Handwritten cards are best, as are hand addressed and stamped envelopes. Details like this tell your prospect you care.

3. Follow your “thank you” card with a phone call. Remember, anytime you send your prospects something in the mail, you have a ready made excuse to make yet one more touch and keep you and your product or services fresh in their minds. Did they receive what you sent them? Do they have any questions you can answer? You communicate your availability while creating a positive experience for them to associate with you.

Employing these few tips, you'll be leaps ahead of your competition...and that much closer to making the sale.