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Testimonials for a free product-effective or unnecessary?

by Dev Maritz
6 replies
Hi all,

I hope you all doing well today...


Question...If you are offering a free ebook for list building purposes, would you add testimonials for that ebook to make it more convincing to sign up?

So it is almost like turning a landing page with a free offer into a sales page, sort of...

Thanks
#effective #free #product #producteffective #testimonials #unnecessary
  • Profile picture of the author Steven Fullman
    Hi Dev,

    It's *not* free if it costs an email address...

    ...so testimonials will help, almost certainly...(depends on your squeeze page)

    Test it

    Cheers,
    Steve
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    Not promoting right now

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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      While I don't completely agree with Steve's assessment that asking for an
      email address makes the offer not free, I will say this.

      If somebody doesn't want to give you their email for a free download, the
      last thing you want is them on your list anyway.

      Personally, I don't feel you need testimonials for a free report.

      Will they help? Of course they will. Any kind of social proof helps.

      Necessary?

      IMO...no.

      But heck, give it a try. Split test it against a page without the testimonials
      and see which one does better.

      That way you take out all the guesswork and know for sure.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Fullman
    Good points, as always, Steve.

    "Free" depends on the niche, I guess.

    Some are more sensitive than others to a so-called free offer. Because it's usually not free, and they know it.

    But you're right, a little *honest* social-proof always helps.
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    Not promoting right now

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  • Profile picture of the author Dev Maritz
    Hi Steven,

    Thanks for that. I was thinking about doing split tests

    Talk soon.


    Dev
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    I'm with first comments on this.

    I think asking for anything (even an email address) means you need to sell the value just as you do when you charge for something.

    I won't give my email address to get something I don't value.

    Testimonials are part of some peoples buying strategy and therefore useful to use in a sales process.

    If you want something - don't think of it as free and sell it just like you would if you were charging.

    Andy
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    nothing to see here.

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  • Profile picture of the author Underground SEO
    I think testimonials would be a great addition, without them the product could be viewed as being absolute rubbish = people will not give their email away for the risk of the product turning out to be worth nothing. With testimonials you will probably find many more people take advantage.
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