Boost Response Rates with Testimonials

Response rates increase by as much as 30% when a call-to-action email includes a testimonial. Testimonials should be short and conversational, such as: "Four days after I became a vegetarian, I got my last pimple. I haven't had a single breakout since." Testimonials should be accompanied by photos of fairly attractive people, but not models.

Testimonials improve response rates because they offer reassurance, and if used effectively, allow you to imply better results than you can legally guarantee. For instance, suppose that your audience of high school students would be motivated to become vegetarians if they believed that a vegetarian diet would eliminate their acne. If you don't have a scientific study to prove a link between vegetarian diets and acne reduction, you can still imply that link by offering an anecdotal testimonial from a high school student who describes his personal experience of getting clear skin after switching to a vegetarian diet. Voila: Your testimonial is implying the claim for you.

Even if you're lucky enough to have a relevant testimonial letter on file, the letter is probably too wordy to be quoted verbatim. Instead, you'll need to edit the testimonial and get permission to use the edited version.

Having said that, here's a "dirty little secret" of direct-marketing: It's much easier to write the "perfect" testimonial yourself, and then find a good-looking person who is willing to have the comment attributed to him. (P.S. While I'm disabusing your illusions, I also regret to inform you that Santa Claus is not real, and the character of "Lassie" was played by more than one dog.)

My personal practice is to ask a representative user to perform the call-to-action, and then get his permission to use the testimonial I've written for him if it truthfully reflects his experience and opinion.