For email #6 in your campaign, I recommend you share either another case study or a few testimonials.
We’ve previously talked about what makes a good case study. Testimonials serve a similar credibility-building purpose.
Ideally, you want testimonials from real customers that speak to their performance, results, ROI, and the fact that they either continue to work with you or would welcome the opportunity to do so again.
Testimonials are particularly powerful because they show that other people (not just you) are willing to sing your praises. Whenever a customer is happy with you, ask if you can get a testimonial. The best testimonials are:
• Honest and not overly edited
• Believable (if a customer is claiming a result that sounds almost too good to be true, you’ll want supplemental proof to back it up)
• Relevant to your prospect’s situation and desires
• Credited rather than anonymous
• Detailed rather than general
It may sound counterintuitive, but a small amount of negative information in a testimonial can make it more credible and effective, assuming the overall message is positive. For example:
I was initially skeptical about working with Jim, because…
I didn’t like when Joan told me that I’d have to overhaul my hiring process, and almost scrapped the whole thing right then and there, but…
Frankly, I was nervous about signing up because it was a big investment…
These objections are relatable and believable. They ring true. Because of this, they lend support to the fact that the testimonials are coming from real, satisfied customers. You don’t need to go out of your way to seek out negative feedback, but depending on what it is, you shouldn’t be too quick to edit it out.
Similarly, leave your customers’ testimonials in their own words. Don’t edit or polish them to the point that individual voices are unrecognizable. Effective testimonials are all about building trust, not winning writing awards.
Oftentimes you will have a very happy customer who is simply too busy or distracted to provide you with a testimonial, even if they truly want to help you out. In that case, it’s permissible to draft something up in their own words and send it over for their approval. This isn’t ideal, as you probably won’t be able to precisely capture their experience, but it’s better than losing that story completely.