I review hundreds of print and Yellow Page ad designs per year in my advertising and marketing agency, and one of the most costly, common response killers I see in these ads is having no testimonials. Now if you are prohibited from using testimonials by an overseeing body, I do not recommend breaking their rules and regulations. In those situations, testimonials can be used in your front office in a notebook, or in frames on the walls.
But the reason why you want to use testimonials in your print and Yellow Page ad designs is to quote my mentor Dan Kennedy, “What your clients say about you is 1000% more believable than anything you can say about yourself.”
When you say you are, “trustworthy and honest” in your marketing and advertising, it is immediately discredited because you are evaluating yourself. But when your clients say that you are trustworthy and honest, prospects will believe this claim because it is an evaluation by someone else.
Prospects use testimonials in small business marketing as a decision making shortcut. Just like when you look at book reviews or product reviews on the internet to see what other buyers have experienced by buying the same product or service you are seeking. Prospects use other people’s buying decisions and experiences as a decision making shortcut for themselves. This is why having testimonials in your print and Yellow Page ad designs are so important.
If you can get testimonials from people that your prospects would recognize and respect, they will proceed confidently with their purchase. And if you have a system that gets clients and patients to obligate themselves to giving you a testimonial, you will not have to pressure anyone to get testimonials from all your clients and patients.
I developed a system that gets 100% of your clients and patients to obligate themselves to give you a testimonial. It is too valuable to divulge here, but you can get it in the Gold Mastery system available at http://www.instantyellowpageprofits.com/tools.htm
When you implement a testimonial system, your clients will say things about you that you would have never said about yourself. By getting testimonials from your clients you will uncover what they hold most valuable that you do, and what should be highlighted in your marketing and advertising. The words that get repeated in your testimonials are the exact words that will promote the highest ROI from your advertising and should be used in your headline.
Another testimonial marketing strategy is to get local TV and radio celebrities to give you a testimonial. This gives your prospects testimonials from respected sources that they already listen to for advice so these are very powerful in getting prospects to respond.
Gathering client testimonials will uncover problems with your product or service. You see, people will write down problems that they would not have complained about in person, but would have prevented them from doing business with you in the future. If you get 2-3 testimonials with the same complaint, you know you have a problem that should be addressed. So having a testimonial system will also help you improve your product or service and retain more of your clients and patients.
The bottom line is a print or Yellow Page ad design with testimonials will outperform your competitor’s ads without testimonials. So gather and use testimonials so that your marketing and advertising will be more convincing and believable than your competitors.
Tags: advertising, Dan Kennedy, marketing, marketing agency, marketing strategy, testimonials, Yellow Page ad design