Can I Bribe for Testimonials or is that Illegal?

[The Oilman]

Can I throw my customers a few bucks for an testimonial ... or is this illegal?

What about trading them a few bonus ebooks or something?

If no to the above questions, how do you motivate them to do it?


OHHH -- and if no to the above top questions -- can I offer to refund people's money on the product if they do a testimonial?

[Josh Anderson]

Originally Posted by The Oilman

If no to the above questions, how do you motivate them to do it?

Sell a really good product that they love.

Originally Posted by The Oilman

Can I throw my customers a few bucks for an testimonial ... or is this illegal?

Sure you can pay someone to give you a testimonial... you can also box up dog poop and tell someone its home made fudge.

Your clients are still going to know its dog poop.

Its definitely illegal to display dog poop and tell people its fudge.

You may want to read what the FTC guidelines are for endorsements and testimonials:

http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005...esfnnotice.pdf

[Allen Graves]

Just ask them, dude. They will give them to you for free if your product/service is exceptional.

Cheers,
Allen

[The Oilman]

Yikes Josh

I do sell a good product

But tons more people will TAKE ACTION if you offer SOME sort of incentive.

I could sell the best damn product in the world and yes, some would do testimonails, but MOST would not get off their butt, take a pic of themselves and then do an audio testimonial.

I am not trying to see dog poop. My products are wonderful.

And I am not going to do any hokey hyped up testimonials that the FTC would even look twice at.

[momo3]

who says the oilman is selling dog poop?

[mmurtha]

Originally Posted by The Oilman

Can I throw my customers a few bucks for an testimonial ... or is this illegal?

What about trading them a few bonus ebooks or something?

If no to the above questions, how do you motivate them to do it?


OHHH -- and if no to the above top questions -- can I offer to refund people's money on the product if they do a testimonial?

I wouldn't.

The best way to get a good review that will matter is by offering a great product. If you deliver what you say in the product, you shouldn't have to go to get testimonials. They will come automatically - or should.

[ishan]

I don't think it is illegal at all but it is unethical! Usually, people will themselves send testimonials if they like the product!

[dljmktg1]

You can probably do everything you are asking about...

as long as you clearly label them as paid endorsements.


Dan

[The Oilman]

Yikes people -- I am not saying I want to pay off some dude tons of to come up with some B.S. exaggerated testimonial about my product.

I simply wanted to help motivate people to give me some feedback. It takes work to record yourself and get your picture posted on a website. Not much, but many people are lazier than us.

Yes, its true, great products to generate their own testimonials, and I do get some naturally (not many, I do not sell a ton of the product), I just wanted to accelerate the process a bit here.

I don't see anything unethical about that.

I do not want some hyped up testimonial, just average ones from average people. Just public feedback.

[ishan]

Originally Posted by dljmktg1

You can probably do everything you are asking about...

as long as you clearly label them as paid endorsements.


Dan

But won't that be a waste of money!

[ishan]

Originally Posted by The Oilman

Yikes people -- I am not saying I want to pay off some dude tons of to come up with some B.S. exaggerated testimonial about my product.

I simply wanted to help motivate people to give me some feedback. It takes work to record yourself and get your picture posted on a website. Not much, but many people are lazier than us.

Yes, its true, great products to generate their own testimonials, and I do get some naturally (not many, I do not sell a ton of the product), I just wanted to accelerate the process a bit here.

I don't see anything unethical about that.

I do not want some hyped up testimonial, just average ones from average people. Just public feedback.

If that's your motive, I think it's fine!

[mmurtha]

Originally Posted by The Oilman

Yikes people -- I am not saying I want to pay off some dude tons of to come up with some B.S. exaggerated testimonial about my product.

I simply wanted to help motivate people to give me some feedback. It takes work to record yourself and get your picture posted on a website. Not much, but many people are lazier than us.

Yes, its true, great products to generate their own testimonials, and I do get some naturally (not many, I do not sell a ton of the product), I just wanted to accelerate the process a bit here.

I don't see anything unethical about that.

I do not want some hyped up testimonial, just average ones from average people. Just public feedback.

Hey Oilman,

There's one thing you can bank on when you ask a question in this forum. That is that you will get a truthful answer - at least 90% of the time with questions such as yours.

We didn't post our comments to give you a hard time about anything.

The truth is, most of us learnt from experience and can tell you straight up about testimonials. Yes, you can pretty much do as you please however you want to obtain them, but if found out, it will look bad on you and your business.

Plus, the FTC laws have changed too in the past year so now all testimonials have to be varified. Like someone else mentioned, you can pay people to get the testimonials, but then you have to state on your site that you paid people to get them.

[imintern]

You can always ask him for a testimonial and make it easy for him to give it to you by sending him a questionare. You can also ask for permission to write a testiminial from the feedback.

By the way, you can pay him for his time.

"I am a happy customer but if you want to write me a few good words about your product or even fill up a questionare you have to pay me a few bucks or may be a bonus product that interests me."

I think you get the idea.

[The Oilman]

Thanks for the feedback. I actually thought paying for them was illegal. But perhaps I will just consult with my attorney to verify that.

[CDarklock]

One of these days, I am going to make a crappy product, and offer to pay five people for testimonials.

Then I am going to post a thread asking for five reviewers who will get a free copy of the product.

Then I am going to post a WSO for some low price for the first five people and remind everyone who buys it to come write a testimonial.

And then I'm going to release my real product, and tell people "don't trust those damn testimonials," and print all those testimonials. "I gave Bob $10 and he said this. I gave Joe a free copy and he said this. I gave Alice a really low price and she said this. And here's the product they said this about. See what CRAP it is? Look at this garbage. They said all these wonderful things about this product, and it's complete and utter trash."

Now, granted, fifteen people will be a little annoyed at me for this... but I think they'll rather deserve it.

[mmurtha]

Originally Posted by The Oilman

Thanks for the feedback. I actually thought paying for them was illegal. But perhaps I will just consult with my attorney to verify that.

No, it isn't illegal, but some people may think it is unethical and give your business a black eye at some point.

Seeking a lawyer isn't a bad idea at all. If not for anything else but to varify some things for you regarding the new FTC laws.

[darrin_cooper]

You can pay people for the testimonial. However, in EACH testimonial, you MUST clearly state language that says the Endorsee was paid for their testimonial. It must be on the front of your product offering, or sales page. Additionally, you must clarify whether or not that endorsee actually received the product, used it & whether or not they personally benefited that product or service with a verification mechanism. Meaning they need to be able to prove it if a customer asks.

Trading bonus ebooks is fine. However you still need to state that the endorsee received "SOMETHING" so that your testimonial will be valid.

At the end of the day, everyone is still not getting it. If you don't have a clear, verifiable, auditable process for not only the claims you make, or the testimonials you have, you are subjecting yourself to fines from the FTC.

If you have confidence in EVERYTHING you state - (for example a reasonable person can clearly track the $100,000 you made from every transaction, or reasonable people can clearly generate the same thing you are claiming) then you should be okay.

Otherwise, you shouldn't be selling ICE to Eskimos.

[The Oilman]

Thanks Darrin.

It looks like we both like to drink milkshakes.

[DotComBum]

Oilman, offer to have their website's or blog's URL goes together with their testimonials, that will have enough motivation to get people to give you a testimonial. Also offer to post a picture of themselves with the testimonial.

[Josh Anderson]

Originally Posted by ishan

I don't think it is illegal at all but it is unethical!

Its illegal if you don't disclose it:

http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005...esfnnotice.pdf

[JeffH]

How many testimonials do you actually want/need?

Send out an email to everyone who has bought your product asking how they liked it, etc, and then ask for a testimonial.

See how many replies you get back - you may have enough.

Jeff

[ravijayagopal]

Paying money for a testimonial is a bad idea.

But offering an incentive is not as bad as it is being made out to be. Like you said, sometimes, people need some kind of an incentive to give you a testimonial.

Most of the times, offering to publish their "signature" along with their web site address, is good enough for most people. But what if you want someone to create a "video" testimonial for you? That would take more time than just writing you an email.

Instead of blatantly offering them money, you could make it a fun contest, saying the best video testimonial will get something for free (a free signed copy of your book or report, etc). I don't know if something like that would need to be disclosed as a "paid" endorsement.

- Ravi Jayagopal

[Ashley Gable]

So let me get this straight ... If I have given my product away in exchange for optional feedback, then I have to state that along with the testimonial??

I thought putting "Comments I have Received" was enough.

I gave away about 10 copies of one of my eguides in exchange for optional feedback, 2 wrote back.

I can see why you would need to state it if money was exchanged, but just a review copy??


By the way, offering a free copy in exchange for optional feedback, to me, is not unethical in anyway. Paying someone, well that is a whole 'nother thing!

[ravijayagopal]

Originally Posted by AshleyAA

So let me get this straight ... If I have given my product away in exchange for optional feedback, then I have to state that along with the testimonial??....

Ashley,

With the new FTC rules, I think that if your reviewers who got a free copy of your product, are promoting your product, then they *have* to state that they were comped in some way (money, free product, free whatever).

Not sure though about what kind of disclaimers you should be adding to those "reviewers-testimonials".

I too gave away many, many review copies of my wordpress membership script when I launched the beta version more than a year ago.

It's another story that "free" stuff doesn't carry much value, and you may not get a great response from someone who got your product for free.

I have found actual paying customers to be more responsive in providing feedback and testimonials than the "reviewers" :-).

But that's a whole different story altogether, I guess :-)

- Ravi Jayagopal
Disclaimer: This ain't legal advice, nor am I a lawyer. So do your due diligence and hire professional help.

[Shoaib]

Though I can't remember any names off the top of my head, I have actually seen some big names in IM offering bonus e-books and such in exchange for their subscribers/customers taking the time to send them an honest review about their product or service - they didn't ask you to say positive things or anything of that sort.

Just a "send me an honest review of this product and you can download _______ for free".

You can probably get people to do audio/video testimonials if you're offering something good for free.

I don't think it's illegal, it's just marketing.

EDIT: ofcourse you would need to notify them that their review may be posted on your website or other marketing materials.

[Floyd Fisher]

I'm not a lawyer, and you should talk to one, but as long as you indicate it's a paid testimonial, it shouldn't be a problem.

Heck if it were, there wouldn't be enough room in the jail for all those celebrities endorsing stuff (and the biggest criminals would be Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan lol).

Josh laid out the downside to it pretty well, so I reiterate that here, but you should think about what he said real closely before doing this. While there is nothing wrong with it, it can leave a bad stink on your product if you're not careful.

[DPSikes]

No, I wouldn't pay for testimonials. Just provide good info and you'll get them. You said most people are too lazy to record an audio testimonial - and you're right, they are. So don't require audio. Just use whatever format they send it to you in, which will usually be email.

[JohnMcCabe]

Oilman, I think part of the problem is in the terminology. As I read it, positive comments freely given are a testimonial. Positive comments as a result of a payment are an endorsement. The new guidelines spell out that the nature of your relationship with the endorser must be disclosed.

There are a couple of ways I've noticed big companies approach it...

Some companies will run a contest asking people to create videos and post them to video sites. After the contest period, the company holds a drawing and one or more submitters get a prize.

As far as review copies, just being open about it is often enough. How often do you see movies/books/products plugged on talk shows where the host says something to the effect of, "your people sent me a copy of the movie so I could watch it before this interview..." and it's no big deal.

In your case, I'd think of trying this:

Provide a feedback form that simply transmits the comments to you. Let people know you may publish their comments.

Then add your offer to give them a bonus/discount/rebate if they'll take the step of recording their comments and uploading a picture. That way, you reward the extra effort, not the comments.

Originally Posted by The Oilman

Yikes people -- I am not saying I want to pay off some dude tons of to come up with some B.S. exaggerated testimonial about my product.

I simply wanted to help motivate people to give me some feedback. It takes work to record yourself and get your picture posted on a website. Not much, but many people are lazier than us.

Yes, its true, great products to generate their own testimonials, and I do get some naturally (not many, I do not sell a ton of the product), I just wanted to accelerate the process a bit here.

I don't see anything unethical about that.

I do not want some hyped up testimonial, just average ones from average people. Just public feedback.

[NY1]

If you ask your list (as long as they are on one) you should get more than enough.

I sent out an e-mail asking a question like.. Did you (solve your problem)? and out of a very small list, I got 10 or 12 positive responses that they had because of my information.

The funny thing was, I wasn't looking for testimonials. I was just curious.

Just ask your buyers list and you should get more than enough of a response.

Plus it helps your relationship as very few people follow up with their buyers with wanting to know if the product really helped. Mostly people follow up their buyers with more product offers from their funnel.

[Michael Oksa]

Oilman, I'm sure you offering a quality product.

I'm also sure that you would like to get testimonials.

There is nothing wrong with either of those things.

However, by reading between the lines, I get the sense that what you are really looking for is a shortcut. On the surface, bribing people for testimonials may seem like a shortcut, but in the end it will be counterproductive.

You WILL have to disclose that they are paid endorsements.

Now, that alone may not be a big problem if you word it legally and in such a way that doesn't turn people off.

BUT...here's where I see it being the biggest problem. A paid testimonial will sound like a paid testimonial. Customers will pick up on it, consciously or subconsciously, and not feel good about sending you their money.

Instead, wait for authentic testimonials that are not colored by the reviewers' profit motives.

In short:

Bribing for testimonials is time spent.

Getting authentic reviews is time invested.

All the best,
Michael

[Sparhawke]

Without even reading any other responses I believe it is certainly immoral if not illegal, if you need to lower yourself to these kinds of tactics maybe you need another product.

Asking people to write reviews is one thing, paying them to write favourable is another.

Base not your popularity on how many people review a product but by how many people come and send their friends to acquire.

^ Perhaps less than 1:10,000 may write a review on their own initiative, but if you put in a counter for 1-10 stars they will be much more likely to click it and a downloads counter will also show how many times it has been downloaded, or bought.

[seobro]

I give people free review copies of my software computer games. Of course, many consider that to be bribery. The police state wants to make everything illegal.

[Sparhawke]

Yes, you are giving people review copies, but are you actually paying them to give potentially false reviews?

[rgenterprise]

Is it illegal? No Unethical? Yes. If you're product is solid then the testimonials will come.

[jannatus]

Oilman,

If u are PAYING someone for a testimonial (either by way of money, product, discount etc), then NO, that would be unethical and wrong, without a fraction of a doubt, because in essence, these testimonials are not real, and is really a form of deception.

BUT, if u ask people to REVIEW your product, and offer them compensation for their TIME/EFFORT, through a free product, extended warranty etc, then Yes, that is absolutely fine.

Reason being, and on the proviso that you are asking them for an honest review ONLY, making it clear that it be an honest review, whether it be good OR bad. Simultaneously you'd ask them if it waz permissible to make their review/testimonial "public" - should it end up being a positive one.

Remember; a testimonial is simply someone's statement or declaration about the product or service they used. And that is what makes it social proof. On the contrary, paid testimonials is not social proof, but paid 'false words of favour'.

Not that i'm implying otherwize here:

Always always always be REAL in everything u do, and true north will have no other option but to submit to you - entirely!

[princecapri]

Its unethical.

I know one product owner asked its customers to participate in a 'contest', whereby they would give video testimonials, and the best one will win $1000. Pretty unethical I think. Oh, they were also giving $100 to whoever gave testimonials.

[williamstraus]

Hmm...a good friend I know released a WSO here. With no solicitation at all people just wrote reviews in that section.

He started it as a dimesale and the price kept going up.

I'm sure 1/2 the people in this thread have released a WSO - did you have a similiar experience?

Or did you need to give them an incentive?

[Young And Opulent]

Nearly all testimonials are fake anyways, so would you even go through the trouble of worrying about something such as this? Heck, people can go on Fiverr and get a testimonial video done. Not to mention other sources.

[gravity technologies]

a good product or service always paid.yet if you have any confusion abt the product you have you can do the plan what u illustrated

[rosetrees]

I presume this thread was resurrected by a spammer.

It's TWO years old guys!!

[TheSpokesman]

Create a good product that gets unsolicited testimonials. Just my two cents.