Using Testimonials To Promote Your Affiliate Site
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Why it works and how to use it.
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Nowadays, testimonials are a widely employed strategy for building credibility and generating buzz about a product or a website. The world’s largest corporations spend millions of dollars in harnessing the power of a positive word alone. In affiliate marketing, testimonials are usually utilized to promote an affiliate’s site, attract new customers and recruits and compete directly with another known product.
Why do affiliate marketers use testimonials
The role of testimonials when promoting an affiliate marketing site is to try to influence consumers’ buying decisions and behavior. Carefully chosen testimonials can be very effective in convincing prospects to try the affiliate product, service or membership. It has such power that many affiliate marketing sites regularly publish testimonials from satisfied customers on their home pages for all visitors to view.
Many of the affiliate marketing programs in the affiliate industry today are fairly new while others have been operating silently under the radar. Their relative anonymity can work against them, particularly since the affiliate marketing field tends to be very competitive.
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To stand out from the rest, affiliate marketing programs try to increase their credibility factor by inviting famous personalities to speak for them through testimonials. While this can be very effective particularly if the celebrity has a large fan base, it can also be very expensive. Not every affiliate marketer can afford to pay a celebrity just to put their name on his affiliate site.
To compete, affiliate marketers turn to their own customers and members, specifically people who have had enough experience in the program and those who have experienced some form of success. A fully satisfied customer’s testimonial, if it’s well-written and based on a true experience and events, can be as convincing and effective as that of any celebrity.
Building your credibility can be a challenge, especially since the affiliate marketing industry continues to evolve. However, if careful strategies are employed, there is a high likelihood that you can succeed as an affiliate.
Consider the following factors:
Specifics
Testimonials will have much more power in promoting your affiliate’s site if they are expressed in more detail. If a testimonial from a current customer or another affiliate states that the program is ‘excellent’, it should be followed by a specific description of the program’s most useful features – what makes it excellent, how it has helped the customer or affiliate, and why it’s reliable, etc.
Skepticism
Believe it or not, skepticism is very healthy when it is used with testimonials for promoting your affiliate’s site. Words such as, ‘I wasn’t convinced at first, BUT…’ or ‘I have always used ABC product and didn’t think of switching to another brand. However, your product has ____ and ____ features that have convinced me that it is so much better.’
Even with the stated obvious objection, a testimonial can be incredibly powerful if it is followed by a positive statement of some kind.
Keep it real
Do not use fake testimonials. ‘Designer’ testimonials are easy to write according to the specifics you require but someone will get wind of the fact and expose you. Once you’re found out to be a fake, you lose your credibility. That simple act could haunt you for the rest of your life as a discredited affiliate marketer.
Some good counsel
Try to be very selective with your testimonials. They can be quite powerful when used for promoting your affiliate’s site but over-use can work against you. Find the best ones, especially the well-written and detailed testimonials and use these instead. Or, you could take the best sentences and phrases and post those in place of a whole paragraph this works quite well and looks nice.
