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Saturday, February 11, 2006

IT Marketing: How to Incorporate Testimonials

Testimonials are one of the best IT marketing tools for your business and give you the foundation of credibility you need to gain a client base. If you want believable testimonials, they have to include at least the following information: first name; last name; job title; company name; city; and state. Having all this relevant information to pass onto prospective clients will help legitimize your business. Prospective clients will unfortunately be more apt to believe the testimonies of third parties without a direct interest in your company than they are your IT marketing sales copy.

WHAT SHOULD TESTIMONIALS INVOLVE?

When looking to get strong testimonials from clients, make sure they are benefits-focused, written on your customer’s letterhead and that they discuss how your company has helped them over a relatively long period of time. Clients should include specific information such as the return on their investment, how reliable you have been, what kind of response time you offered and your conduct and policies regarding emergencies.

HOW DO YOU GET TESTIMONIALS?

The most important thing you can do to ensure that customers will work with you to give high quality testimonials is to make the process simple for them:

n Interview them and guide them in the proper direction with specific questions.
n E-mail them testimonials in the suggested format to give them a clear example of what you want. They can even simply edit it or just sign off on it and print it on their own letterhead.
n Put together a survey-like list of five or six bullet-points for them to talk about in their testimonial.
n Take clients out for a meal and interview them directly about their experiences with your business. Jot down notes and afterwards type it up in the form of a sample testimonial. Send it to your clients and ask them if it accurately portrays their experiences with you. If it does, they can print it on their letterhead, sign it and send it back to you for your files.

Regardless of how you go about getting your testimonials, make it a simple process for your clients, and you will gain an excellent IT marketing tool.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit