Have you ever eaten at a restaurant based on someone else’s rave review? Did you ever watch a movie because your friends and family (or colleagues) said it was an absolute must see?

Or … have you ever used a product or service based on the recommendations or Testimonials of people you know or respect?

Testimonials are powerful … ask for them!

Oftentimes, people will scroll through the recommendations or testimonials on a sales page or the website of someone they are thinking about working with … and make their final decision to purchase a product or work with a service provide based on those testimonials. I’ve made final purchase decisions based on testimonials, and I’ve had prospective clients tell me they initially contacted me or made their decisions based on testimonials on my website.

You can tell people how wonderful your product or service is, and how you can solve their problems or provide the solutions they need, but it’s not the same as hearing (or seeing) someone else tell them how you can solve their problems or provide the solutions they need. There is a huge difference in the impact of YOU telling others about your products and services and someone else telling them the same thing.

Testimonials are powerful. Ask for them! And who better to ask than your past and current clients? Those people who already know what you do and how well you do it.

There are a couple of great ways to ask past or current clients for testimonials … the key is making it easy for them to do so. I always give the option of sending a written testimonial through email, or calling the testimonial line I have on Audio Acrobat. If they call the testimonial line, I transcribe it and add it to the website along with their photo and a link to their website. Having an audio recording on hand also makes it easy for you to add audio testimonials to your website if you’d like! The key, however, is to make it easy for the person providing the testimonial.

My challenge to you today is to ask one – just one – of your past or current clients for a testimonial and start enjoying the power of testimonials in your Marketing strategy!