How Talking Testimonials Will Increase Your Sales - Part 1

By Jay Jennings

When you're in the internet marketing biz, the name of the game is making sales. Okay, if you're in *any* biz that's the name of the game. But it's a different game than selling

an item from a retail location, or even door-to-door.

On the internet, anyone can put up a site. You don't know whether the guy behind "Make Money In Your Socks!" is legit or whether it's a 14-year old with too little parental supervision. Folks have to trust you before they'll type their credit card numbers into the little boxes.

And that's where testimonials come in. As a way to build trust they're invaluable. You as the salesperson aren't the only one touting the advantages of your product or service -- with a testimonial you have a 3rd-party also joining in -- you have "social proof."

There are a couple kinds of testimonials -- those from known gurus or people "in the biz" and those from the "man/woman on the street." With the first kind you get a "riding on his coattails" kind of effect. After all, Guru Greg has a reputation to hang on to and so isn't going

to endorse a bad product (or, hopefully not).

But with the "just a regular Joe" testimonial you have the credibility from someone who's probably a lot like your prospect. They can see someone in their shoes (not in the rarified air of Guruville) with success from your product and so it's easier for them to imagine that they will also have that success.

Including both types of testimonials on your site is best.

Now, by adding a picture of the person to the testimonial you'll increase the credibility of the testimonial because the prospect can now see the *real* person behind the words. If at all possible get a picture of the person.

And to really make the testimonial work as hard as it can, add an audio clip of the person giving a verbal endorsement of the product. Folks might think a text testimonial could be faked. If you add a picture it automatically increases the amount of trust they have toward that testimonial. And when you add audio, it bosts it up another big notch.

Not only can the prospect read what someone is saying about your product, but they can see what that person looks like and even hear them at the same time.

Yowza! Talk about a trust-builder -- that's a big one right there. And with increased trust will come an increased willingness to spend their hard-earned money on the product or service you offer.

So you're convinced that adding audio testimonials to your site will help increase your sales. But how do you get the talking testimonials on the site?

There are a couple services that allow you to record your audio via a telephone call so you can ask your people who are providing the testimonial to call the number and create their message. Those services usually charge a monthly fee but they're very easy to use.

There are also audio packages available that are more of a "self service" model -- there's no monthly fee, but you also have to do a bit more work up front. As you'll soon see, if you decide to go that route getting an audio testimonial really isn't all that hard.

And I'll explain more than one way to do that in the next article -- Talking Testimonials Part 2.

Jay Jennings has been working full-time in online marketing since May, 2004. He's known for creating software tools that help people save time and make more money with online marketing. Find out more about an audio tool that can help your business at his website: http://sonicmemo.com