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In today’s Internet marketing world we are so used to seeing those long sales pages with a huge list of testimonials including plenty of smiling faces, sometimes audio and even video comments endorsing a product or service or person.

The last few days I’ve been preparing my first draft of the sales page for Blog Mastermind in preparation to hand it over to my friend Will Swayne for a review, who knows copywriting better than me, and then to a paid copywriter for a final review (apparently copy is important or something!).

In some ways I think having a long-form sales page is a necessary evil when it comes to selling online. I realize a lot of people will join Blog Mastermind just on the back of knowing me and sampling my work. They will probably scroll straight to the first “join” button and sign-up, ignoring all my carefully constructed copy. That’s great of course, yet I can’t simply launch a product with a page that says “join” on it because I’ll be loosing a lot of potential clients.

There will be those who come to Blog Mastermind with little prior relationship with me, or with certain sticking points they have to move-past before they will join. It might be looking for a money-back guarantee, or a demonstration of proof that I actually make money from blogging, or a further explanation of how blogs make money in the first place. All these issues need to be addressed in the sales page, along with all the other classic sales page triggers that copywriters know and utilize as staples of their craft.

Many people hate long sales letters, I’ve felt similar feelings at times myself, but the fact is, when you need to address all the possible concerns or questions a potential customer has, the long sales page is a stable performer. I could on about the long sales page, including some interesting evolutions I’ve seen coming from the Ari Galper/Perry Marshall clan, but I’ll save that for another article. Today I want to talk about testimonials.

Inserting Testimonials

Yesterday I spent a good chunk of time on an activity that was, well, a lot of fun. I was reviewing all the great things my readers had said about me and sent me as testimonials and then adding them to my sales page, along with all their smiling face photographs.

Here’s a snapshot of the people featured as testimonials for Blog Mastermind:

All these wonderful people provided comments for me to use as endorsements for my work and it’s a wonderful feeling to read them all and know they will help so much with the success of Blog Mastermind.

I have to admit I’ve been skeptical of testimonials before, but now that I’m actually adding genuine feedback from real people, which was provided just because I asked for feedback (no incentive), I can see how powerful they really are. My sales page would be empty without them and heck, even I’m interested in joining Blog Mastermind now - that Yaro guy seems to know what he’s talking about based on what all these other people have said ;).

How To Gather Your Own Testimonials

If you are considering releasing your own product or service online then you must understand the importance of having genuine testimonials. It’s vital to understand that testimonials are not just given because you ask for them, they come from months or even years of building a relationship and adding value to people’s lives.

My testimonials came from people who have read this blog for years and subscribed to my newsletter for just as long. They know my work well, have been influenced and benefited from what they learn from me and as a result are willing to “give something back” in the form of a testimonial when I ask. What’s great about this is that these people genuinely benefited from my work so the testimonials are that much better - you can feel the authenticity (or at least I can!).

Authenticity is very important for testimonials to be believable and it’s important that you start fostering relationships now because you never know when you might need to call on the support of your friends to help launch a product or endorse what you do.

In a lot of ways my sales page, including the testimonials, is the culmination of years of work. As a static point in time it may have looked easy from an outsider’s point of view for me to get feedback - I just emailed and wrote a blog post asking for testimonials - but it was only easy because of years of work.

You have to start planning for your future too, so start building relationships now.

Yaro Starak
Testimonial Giver

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