February 12, 2006
Now a while ago I experimented and found out that probably the best way to get people to give you a testimonial was to have them pay for it. That’s right, not only pay for it but give you a great testimonial with it. Along with that there is a much higher rate of response than the other ways of doing it.
Let’s say that you’ve got your product ready to roll out and have a sales page made that’s only lacks one thing: testimonials.
The only thing that you need here is either your own list of customers that you have built or simply rent a small list from someone else and take the following steps.
Write to the list and offer them your product at a nice discount in return for their responding with sincere feedback, with their consent to distribute their feedback if you choose to. Again, anyone that has their own website can be reminded that this will also provide links back to their site also; one of the most desired results that online marketers search for. As a further enticement offer them the bonuses that you offer in addition to the regular product when you receive their response.
When you start receiving orders, then you send the product and about a week later follow up by asking for their testimonials. Give them a friendly reminder about your agreement (some people really do forget) and the promise to get the bonuses upon receipt of their response.
This is slick, works great and works better than any other method I’ve tried.
One other fringe benefit of all of this is that some may give you some constructive criticism about the product or service you offer, and as a result give you a fantastic opportunity to fine tune it before offering it to the general public.
