Carol Bentley

I constantly advise that when writing a sales letter one of the most effective ingredients is a good testimonial. Not just one that says “Great job, would recommend”, but one that is more specific about what was happening before, what solution you provided and the result your customer enjoyed.

An even better structure for your testimonial is what Alex Mandossian refers to as a heart-centred testimonial using the Before/After/After template. This is particularly powerful when coming from your long term customers. Check Alex’s post here and go down to the visitor’s comments because the one from Gail Doby is rather useful.

And when you’ve done that consider your existing customers.

• Which of these gained a great result from you?
• Which of these make you feel proud of what you’ve done for them?
• Have you asked for their testimonial?  If not, perhaps now is a good time to ask.

Use this question structure, not only does it produce a good testimonial for you, it also makes it easier for your customer to think of what to write or say.And one final point, the testimonial is no good if you can’t share it with your prospects.  So make sure you get permission to use it - along with your contact’s name, company name (if appropriate) and location - in your marketing material.

~ Carol Bentley

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Date: Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 10:45 am | Category: Marketing, Copywriting | RSS Feed: RSS 2.0 feed.
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