Okay, so you’ve collected a whole sheaf of testimonials for your product, now you need to use them in the most effective way. But before you go plastering them ‘willy-nilly’ all over your sales letter let’s just recap why you need them.

They are a psychological trigger to your prospect that tell him your product is good, they remove the barrier of being a pioneer. They make him think “…if these people have bought this product then it must be good and can really help me with my problem”

Where to put them…

As a Lead in to your sales letter

If you have a ‘big name’ testimonial you can insert it just after your main headline – you state what your product can do and the big name immediately endorses it. In effect he is saying “…yes it’s true listen to what this guy is saying” – very, very powerful.

Woven into your sales letter

As you spin your story and feel you may be raising some questions or objections in your clients mind add a couple of testimonials and they will immediately quell those thoughts.

As a side bar

You could include a box of testimonials as a side bar to your main letter, that way they are always in your prospects mind as he reads your story. Any time he has a doubt he only has to glance at a testimonial to ease his mind.

As an enticement to buy

Just after you mention your price you can include a couple of testimonials before the order button. This immediately removes any doubt about the value of your product, “…after all, these people saw the price but still bought it so I’m making the correct decision” flashes through his mind.

Endorsements also reinforce your prospects decision to buy:

“…they’ve got it – I mustn’t be left out by not getting it!”

As a further enticement to buy

Include a whole string of testimonials at the end of your letter and then another buy button,

“ …why am I still worried? All these people have bought, it must be good – I’m gonna get one!”

An added benefit of using testimonials on your web site is that it can help with ‘link popularity’ in search engine results as well. If someone endorses your product there is a good chance he is going to mention your web site when he is talking or writing to others.

For this reason if you are ever asked to give a testimonial you should seriously consider it (but don’t put your name to a second rate service or shoddy product!) Every time your testimonial is shown your URL is also shown – some extra free advertising is never to be sniffed at!

Speak to you later,

Stuart