We’ve covered so much ground in less than two months that I feel I should remind you of a couple of important things that may have slipped your mind unless you did what I suggested and created a Testimonials file and displayed it prominently to remind yourself to add to it every chance you get.
Whenever a customer or client compliments you, ask his or her permission to include the comment in future marketing materials.
Testimonials carry greater weight than any other kind of copy because savvy shoppers know that you can hire copywriters (or write the copy yourself) and there’s always a vested interest in making you look stellar. What you say about yourself and what your copywriter says about you will always be taken with at least a moderate degree of suspicion.
Not so with testimonials, referrals, and kudos. These are golden nuggets–compliments with no strings attached. No one has to lift a finger, a pen, or a tongue to extol your virtues, so when they do, it’s time to celebrate and ask for permission to broadcast what they said.
How many of you are following this blog because of the testimonials you find here with regard to my skills as a copywriter? I suspect quite a few of you, unless you’re already a friend, business associate, client, or power partner. Testimonials “attest” to my value and wisdom as a writing professional. That’s what testimonials will do for you, too.
And know that it’s perfectly legal and legitimate to edit the testimonials you receive as long as you don’t alter their original meaning. Taking out extra words to make a rambling sentence into a concise sound bite that drives home the essence of the sentence is okay. If you’re not sure how to do that, I can help.
Personally, I’m of two minds about correcting a testimonial for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I tend to leave them alone unless I think the error is so atrocious that it will reflect poorly on the person who gave it. I do this because the people who read it will know (or they should, I pray!) that I didn’t write it myself because, if I had, there would be no hitches or hiccups in the copy. By leaving the testimonial in its original, unimproved form, it’s obvious that the client needed my services and benefited from having me on their team to write their copy.
One client I had, who was delightful, gave me permission to correct his English, but I didn’t. You can read his testimonial in its entirety on the Testimonials page. I didn’t change a word because, in this instance, his personality and delight in finding me came through, even in broken, unimproved English. I didn’t want to mess with that!
It’s your call as to how you want to handle your testimonials. Just be sure that every testimonial you publish is legitimate (that you didn’t write it yourself or have your copywriter create it for you from scratch) and that you keep the testimonial writer’s contact information in case the FTC ever comes calling to verify it with its originator.
