The question here isn’t whether or not testimonials work. Almost nothing else can improve any form of commercial printing as much as the testimonial. ...
The question here isn’t whether or not testimonials work. Almost nothing else can improve any form of commercial printing as much as the testimonial. Here is someone’s word explaining to people how satisfied they were by your company,
and hearing a compliment from a neutral party is always going to look better than listening to a company compliment themselves.
However, all testimonials are not created equal, and if you don’t know how to properly handle yours you won’t be able to get the most out of this powerful marketing tool.
There are many companies more than willing to put down fake testimonials to sell a product, and these are the people that make things harder for you. People might be a little skeptical when they just see some random, smiling person plastered over a brochure with the tagline Satisfied Customer beneath their name.
How do you overcome this scrutiny?
Get as many details as you can about the people you’re going to use for your testimonials. Ask them if they’re ok with you putting down the city they live in and what job they work. That way when you show their picture you can tell people who the person is, where they come from, and what they do for a living.
Immediately it makes your testimonials more real to people. This isn’t a random, nameless person, but someone they can identify with. They know about the person’s background, and if you have testimonials from people in your target audience, it’ll improve your chances of gaining more interest from other people in that same audience, because they can relate to the person on your brochures or posters.
When it comes to the testimonial itself, ask the people exactly what it is that they liked about your store or doing business with you. How good does it sound if a person simply says, “I really enjoyed shopping at this store.”
Why did they enjoy shopping there? Was the service good, were the prices good, did they find exactly what they were looking for? Give people details.
The best thing you can do is link the testimonial to the overall theme of your commercial printing, no matter what kind it is. If you plan on emphasizing low prices, get a testimonial mentioning how great the prices are, just as if you make a big deal out of your service, find a satisfied customer willing to let others know what a good time they had with your company.
Not only does this boost your message, but adds yet another layer of realty to the testimonials. Of course, don’t get too carried away with the length of the testimonials. Ask people to list briefly the things they enjoyed most, and try to keep what you print down to a few sentences.
There’s no reason not to use testimonials to improve your advertising and your company image. Every company is going to have their happy customers. Find yours and let them spread the word.
