The Best Marketing Tool There Is
Yesterday the Vice-President for the largest franchisee of Gold's Gyms in the world happened to stop in our Elizabethtown location. While he waited for a fitness consultant to give him a tour, he spent about 5 minutes investigating our "Wall of Fame" - which is a group of testimonials with before and after photos. The fitness consultant took him on a tour and he saw everything the club has to offer. As soon as they got back to the front of the club, he immediately went back to the "Wall of Fame." He told her that it was the best "in-club display" that he'd ever come across.
Now think about this...this man is in the almost 20 locations that they own and countless other facilities and he considered a simple group of pictures and testimonials the best display he'd seen. Don't get me wrong, Holly does a wonderful job with our retail and display area but these are nothing more than pictures and testimonials in inexpensive frames.
Not exactly revolutionary.
But on second thought, maybe it is. Testimonial proof is, without a doubt, the best marketing tool you can have in your bag of tricks. What's a referral? Simply a testimonial from one personal to another. What allowed Bill Phillips to sell millions of dollars worth of supplements? The testimonials from Body For Life (and some great copy written by Joe Polish.)
People love and respond to compelling testimonials. They are more powerful than anything else that you can do with your marketing. They pre-sell your prospect and also do a great job with facilitating the compliance of your existing clients.
I would go so far as to tell you that if your ad, sales letter, brochure, catalog, coupon, etc. That you're going to use to promote your business does not contain compelling testimonials that support and prove your promises, save yourself the money of creating them.
Here's a little trick you can use to maximize your testimonials' impact - add a small caption detailing the program and supplements (if you sell supplements) that the client was on. Prospects will often say: "I want to do what she did."
If you want to learn the flip side of the before and after pictures that you see tied to every supplement and diet program on the market, Craig Ballantyne made an excellent post on his blog about it. Check it out here:
http://turbulencetraining.blogspot.com/2006/08/transformation.html
Talk to you later.
Now think about this...this man is in the almost 20 locations that they own and countless other facilities and he considered a simple group of pictures and testimonials the best display he'd seen. Don't get me wrong, Holly does a wonderful job with our retail and display area but these are nothing more than pictures and testimonials in inexpensive frames.
Not exactly revolutionary.
But on second thought, maybe it is. Testimonial proof is, without a doubt, the best marketing tool you can have in your bag of tricks. What's a referral? Simply a testimonial from one personal to another. What allowed Bill Phillips to sell millions of dollars worth of supplements? The testimonials from Body For Life (and some great copy written by Joe Polish.)
People love and respond to compelling testimonials. They are more powerful than anything else that you can do with your marketing. They pre-sell your prospect and also do a great job with facilitating the compliance of your existing clients.
I would go so far as to tell you that if your ad, sales letter, brochure, catalog, coupon, etc. That you're going to use to promote your business does not contain compelling testimonials that support and prove your promises, save yourself the money of creating them.
Here's a little trick you can use to maximize your testimonials' impact - add a small caption detailing the program and supplements (if you sell supplements) that the client was on. Prospects will often say: "I want to do what she did."
If you want to learn the flip side of the before and after pictures that you see tied to every supplement and diet program on the market, Craig Ballantyne made an excellent post on his blog about it. Check it out here:
http://turbulencetraining.blogspot.com/2006/08/transformation.html
Talk to you later.
posted by Pat Rigsby at 5:48 AM
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