How to use Testimonials as an additional Marketing Tool

It's been said before that one unsatisfied customer will  go out and tell 10-20 of their friends and family about  their unsatisfactory experience, but the opposite doesn't  seem to occur. Your customers, vendors, suppliers and  associates might think you walk on water, but they won't  seem to tell everyone else how great you are unless you  show them how and give them an actual reason to do it. There are many ways to get testimonials from your  customers. You can actually hold contests for best  testimonials. Request letters of endorsements from your  customers, vendors, suppliers, and any associates you  have. Use those to promote your products and services.  When you use testimonials to add credibility to what you  do, you're letting your customers do the marketing for  your business. Testimonials from your customers are one of the strongest marketing tools available. What is a testimonial? It's a statement, usually written  by your customer, saying nice things about some aspect  of your business, you, your employees or your products  and services. If you want to use the testimonials in  marketing efforts, you need to get a written release  from your customers who wrote the testimonials giving  your business the right to use the testimonial in  marketing.

The best time to obtain the release is at the time the  customer delivers the testimonial to you.. You might  tell them you want to share their insights with your  other customers or some other complimentary statement. When you use these testimonials, you want to weave  them into your marketing story. Use them to embellish  and support your claims and promises. For every benefit  or objective you need to overcome in your products  or services, it is the best scenario to have testimonials  establishing or referencing each of those benefits or objections. You can take the next logical step and establish that  your business delivers what it promises. This becomes  a very powerful statement. You don't need to use all of what it says in each  testimonial letter. Here are some choices or ways  you can use testimonials.

You can print the entire letter.

• You can print one sentence.
• You can print one word.
• Print with a picture of the person whose testimonial it is.
• Print the person's initials only.
• Print the entire name of the person providing the testimonial.
• You can actually do video or audio recordings of a person's testimonial.

Ideally, you want to use all of these techniques. The benefit of using testimonials on your web site can help link popularity in search engine results as well. Whether you use this marketing tool for both inbound or outbound reasons, you will have an advantage over your competition. Check them out next time you visit their office or web site and see for what people are saying about their business practices. You'll be amazed!