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by Gauher Chaudhry

Let's pretend that you decide to become a nun one day. This major change in your life has required you to buy some new nun clothes. You surf the net and come across two sites that sell nun outfits. They are both priced the same, but on the second site there is a testimonial by Mother Theresa:

"I always buy my nun outfits from Nun Corp. because the material is great and they last me years. Thank you Nun Corp. for the great suits." - Mother Theresa

Who would you buy your nun suit from? The first site that did not have a testimonial or the second site that did? The second site of course!

Testimonials can have a tremendous impact on deciding whether you can close the sale or not. People feel more confident in buying your products or services if they know that there are other satisfied customers.

Testimonials help persuade the potential customer to purchase the product. If you look at most commercials or infomercials on television, you will see that majority of the time is spent on testimonials by past customers.

Testimonials are even more valuable if you are trying to sell your product or service on the Internet. This is because the Internet can be a very unemotional and impersonal marketing platform. Using testimonials help ease concerns by a potential customer whether they should purchase your product or service.

Whenever a past customer sends you a letter or email with positive comments about your products or services, you should contact them and ask their permission to use their comments as a testimonial. Since they are satisfied customers, they will usually be more than willing to give you permission.

If you do not receive any feedback, you can indirectly solicit testimonials by sending a customer feedback form (see my article about customer feedback). At the bottom of the form, you can leave some space for comments about your products or services. When you receive any positive comments, you can contact those customers asking to use their comments as testimonials.

You should always get your customer permission before you use their testimonial. Long testimonials are more desirable than short testimonials because they convey more customer satisfaction. People will think, "Boy, that customer really liked the product to be writing 10 lines of praise!"

If you are constantly bombarded with negative feedback, then

... we have a problem Houston.

If you are not getting favourable comments about your product or service, this may be an indication that you need to make improvements or switch to a new product or service.

Feedback whether it is positive or negative will always help you improve your business. In fact, I find that negative feedback is more valuable because they tell you what you are doing wrong!

Never, Never, Never.

Did I say never? Never make-up your own testimonials. This will only hurt you in the long run. It is unethical and dishonest. Would your mother approve? People also can usually see through a phony testimonial.

You should also give more information about the person giving the testimonial. Most people will laugh if they see the initials "J.K." at the end of a testimonial because they may not be real. They will be thinking that the copywriter may have pulled those letters out of a hat. Adding a full name, city, country and even a title if they have one such as, "Jennifer Smith, Vice-President, Direct Energy." You can see how much more of an impact this has rather than "J.K."

Some customers that give you a testimonial will be hesitant to give you permission to print their email address below their name. I would hesitate too! I would probably be added to 100 junk mail lists.

But, if your customer has a web site, they will be more than happy to give you permission to link to their web site below their testimonial. A little free exposure for them too! Adding their web site link below their name also makes the testimonial more credible.

I just recently started using testimonials for my book "EZ Money With Ezines" in my web sales letter located at http://www.ezmoneywithezines.com/ to help make my sales copy more powerful. It has helped increase my conversion ratio and that means more sales!

Try using testimonials in your ad copy and I guarantee that you will increase your sales!