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Testimonials are an important part of any sales letter. Testimonials are types of social proof, which may help buyers trust a product more. Although some people have become suspicious of testimonials, they can still be extremely important in convincing other people to buy.
But getting testimonials can be difficult. In general, people are lazy. They don't usually provide feedback unless it's negative, or unless you ask for it.
You shouldn't offer money as an incentive for people to offer testimonials, because then they become "paid testimonials." People tend to distrust testimonials that people are paid for, because some people are perfectly willing to lie about a product if they're paid to do it.
Instead, you should offer some small token of your appreciation, just as a "thank you" to those who take the time to write a testimonial for you. It might be a free report, a link from your site to theirs within the testimonial box, or a coupon for 10% off their next order with you.
As long as you're not offering cash, most people won't feel you're being dishonest to get your testimonials. It's not that they don't really want to offer one if they like the product, it's just that they don't think about it. Those that do think about it will often put it off "until later" and then forget about it.
So make sure you ask your customers for their testimonials. You could ask them on your "thank you" page. You could ask them again on the last page of your product, or at the end of each audio or video file.
You could ask them in a follow-up email. "Hi, I just wanted to find out how you're enjoying XYZ Product. Is it working out for you? If you haven't done so already, I'd really appreciate it if you could send me your thoughts on the product – I may even use it as a testimonial with a link back to your website! It'll only take five minutes of your time, and I'll send you a free bonus report as my thanks for taking the time to do this for me."
Be sure to ask people if you can include their real name in the testimonial, or if you should use their initials. Some people don't want to have their real name anywhere on the Internet, and try to be very secretive about using it.
For some types of products, they may not even want their name associated with it. For example, many men might not want their name used on the sales letter for a "male enhancement" product!
Also, ask for a picture, if appropriate.
Some people have a tendency to trust testimonials more if they include a picture, because it seems more like a real person wrote the testimonial. Although some dishonest marketers might just steal photos to use for testimonials, the average person probably wouldn't think about that.
And the people who would are probably natural skeptics and are less likely to buy your product anyway. Audio and video testimonials are a great enhancement to your sales copy if you can convince your customers to call in an audio testimonial or email you the video file, but this is harder to obtain since many won't be versed in more advanced technology.
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In the world of Internet marketing, there are a lot of unethical money-hungry scam artists preying on those who are ignorant about the industry. They know you're new, and they know you won't realize you've been suckered until it's too late.
So how does a newcomer to Internet marketing safeguard his or her pockets from the greedy, self-indulgent scams of an unscrupulous marketer? First, you want to do a bit of background research.
If you land on a page where someone has recommended a course or tool that you feel will help accelerate your Internet marketing earnings, don't buy on impulse. You might regret it later and have to ask for a refund, or suck up the cost if no guarantee is offered.
Google can be your friend here. Type that marketer's name into the search engines and see if there are any scam details. But beware! One of the most common affiliate pre-pitches is to promote a product by using the scam approach initially and then building the product up with the detailed review.
You may see about 5 page's worth of links if you type in [marketer's name] and scam, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're real scam accounts. Always read the pages with care.
You also need to know that practically every marketer has a disgruntled customer. Some people get angry if their download link doesn't work and they don't get a response within 30 minutes. Others intentionally try to sabotage the competition by posting poor reviews online.
You should be able to find as much positive information (in the form of praise) as you do bad reviews. If not, it might be best to steer clear of that marketer since no one credible can endorse him (or her).
Never rely on their own claims (even screenshots of earnings can be manipulated). And if you find them in a forum, don't think that just because they have the highest post count, it means they're the best marketer.
Get personal recommendations from other marketers. If you want to find out who has the best affiliate marketing guide, ask in a forum and find out. Or, take the recommendation of a marketer you already trust, because if they provide you with a poor product recommendation, it tarnishes their own reputation, too.
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If you haven't yet heard this phrase, information overload, you will soon – because it happens to the majority of new Internet marketers at some time or another. Information overload is when you simply have too much to learn – so much that you feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and more confused than before you had help.
It happens easily with this industry because there are so many options you have – an endless array of opportunity. You can be a product owner and an affiliate at the same time.
You can use article marketing, social marketing, or pay per click campaigns. You're new, you may not know much about any of the above, and suddenly you're thrust into an environment where everyone's opinions differ and you don't know where to start!
The first thing to do is calm down and take some of the pressure off of yourself. All of this information you need to digest isn't going anywhere. It's going to be here tonight, next week, and a year from now.
Don't invest in a guide about Google AdWords, another about Squidoo, and one about Private Label Rights all at the same time. There's an old saying, "How do you eat an elephant?" Answer: One bite at a time.
Internet marketing is your elephant and you have to choose whether you want to eat the ear, the foot, or the tail section first. It doesn't matter if you start out learning about social marketing before you know the ropes of article marketing.
The point is that you're educating yourself and putting that knowledge to work for you. As long as you read the social marketing guide and apply that insight to a method of making money, you're on the road to success!
Some things won't make sense to learn before others. If you know you have no money to start with, then don't buy (or even download for free) a guide about pay per click marketing. Start with something you can do.
You don't want a guide to everything all at once. You want to invest in small, bite-sized chunks of information that you can digest and utilize before moving on. Want to start with a free blog? Get a blog guide. Launch a blog.
Then move on to whatever interests you next, such as product creation or selling on eBay – whatever floats your boat. The key is to not get stymied by having too much information and too many choices at once.
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