Don't Listen to John Reese

My guess is that he meant testimonials making ridiculous claims (I lost 945 pounds in 2 days!!!)

Reese is correct, overblown testimonials will have to be removed. There will always be risk of litigation if they are kept up. It will remove a lot of the competition that relies on hype, which will make it easier for those using a more more factual approach.

Hi Brian,

In part I have to say I agree with you.

Reese's advice is quite clearly to "remove all testimonials from your marketing" which in my opinion is complete balls.

What the FTC propose is that anyone who includes outrageous or inflated results within testimonials can be prosecuted for misleading advice. Ok, fair enough. What they now say you have to do is include some form of notice which states results that typical users will achieve. This is where the FTC become absolute assholes by making it hard for honest marketers! I mean dude, what the heck?

This is insane and quite frankly well over the top. They're asking people to literally guess what the average user will achieve which based upon the fact that everyone's circumstances differ, could end up even more misleading than the previous testimonial!

I understand they're trying to prevent fraud, but it seems to me like someone had a bad day at the office and decided to come up with a quick master-plan to counter fraud and p*ss off all marketers in the process "because they can".

Jackasses.

With my rant over, here's my simple plan for avoiding prosecution by the FTC. Remove ALL testimonials that incorporate figures our indefinite claims such as...

"I made $5783079 ZILLION DOLLARS in 7 days!"

Instead, ask your customers to submit a testimonial that talks about the benefits of your product, how it's features helped them and how your way of teaching is brilliant etc. These are people's opinions and the FTC can't argue!

The whole point of testimonials is to include a form of social proof. To me, this approach is just as good as claims of making X in X amount of time as not only do they come across as more honest and natural, but claims involving sums of money are often debatable anyway.

Either way, don't do NOTHING!

Connor :-)

John get a sudden attack of Chicken Little-itis? He better go smoke a few with Kern and get his mellow back. The only testimonials that should be removed are ones that make claims that cannot be substantiated, or are not average if you cannot give a disclaimer and show the true average results.

The climate has changed following the fiasco of "sub-prime" mortgages which almost crashed the world economy. Regulators are now going to be far tougher on overblown promises.

Remember in the sub-prime disaster everyone and his brother could get a mortgage at 50 times earnings and their property would be "guaranteed" to go up 20% a year?

Razer Rage, testimonials aren't a sole way of selling products. They should be used in relation to a quality sales letter, screenshots and other forms of proof and persuasion. I agree that if you purely use testimonials, you're not going to make much money.

But they ARE valuable in terms of adding a social proof element to your marketing. In the IM world, people are sceptical so all testimonials are going to be up for debate. But I have to agree with Kevin, removing ALL testimonials is CRAZAYYYY!!

I have a friend who used to sell cars. If someone came in wanting a white version of the Toyota Camry, he'd lie and tell them that they "don't stock white because no-one likes it" thus making them believe they should buy the red one for example.

Again, social proof. A big, big seller because people want popularity and status without being seen to be "different".

You don't need testimonial to sell. There's always something called social proof.

A few months back, I did a soft-launch for my dating product and we raked in 5-figure without even a single piece of testimonial on our sales letter.

I think what John meant is that if you used testimonial the wrong way (the against FTC way) -- you're gonna screwed up your entire marketing career -- which is WAY more riskier than anything.

There is the obvious solution on whether or not to use testimonials in YOUR copy -- test.

Talking from personal experience, there have been many times when buying IM products, it's been the testimonials that have often tipped the balance for me, I shall be keeping as many of mine as possible, as mentioned before, as long as they are genuine and don't claim specific results.

Phil

I agree that testimonials aren't necessary. But if you think that credible testimonials (i.e. ones that sing your praises as opposed to making income promises) don't increase conversions, then I urge you to do a split-test!

One with testimonials, one with none. I can absolutely guarantee you that from personal experience the one with testimonials will convert better! Ask any copywriter that knows what he's talking about...

Oh and Steven, it was in his free report about IM in 2010 - get a copy here:

Income.com Blog

There is a simpler wqay of finding out whether or not testimonials work on your site - test.

Just keep it real.

Funny he says that, because I just found a bunch of testimonials on his Internet Auction Secrets product -

Internet Auction Secrets

He wants to keep all the testimonials to himself :-P

I respect Reese, but if he said EXACTLY that -- to remove ALL testimonials from your marketing -- then he's giving very, very bad advice that is based on a broad knee-jerk reaction.

Examine the FTC guides yourself and you will quickly see that testimonials are perfectly acceptable and there are even examples of how to properly use them.

No, I'm sorry, but if the statement is worded exactly as quoted, then this advice is really off the mark.

Legitimate, honest marketers should embrace the new guides, not be put off by them. They should, if they work as intended, weed out a bunch of fraudsters who are competing for the same dollars we are.

Scott:

Thanks for digging that up. And Reese is wrong on multiple counts, including the statement "Marketers must now state the results of what the average buyer will achieve!".

A guess from me is that he really just had a knee-jerk reaction without fully analyzing what the guides say.

I think its nuts how the FTC wants to require showing what "typical results" might be from your product. Let's take IM, just for kicks. 100 people buy, 70% don't even read the material, thus achieve nothing, 25% read it and use it half-heartedly, thus earning $250 dollars. 5% (I'm being generous here) read it, run with it, and make $1000.

So we've generated $11,250 across 100 customers - does that mean the "typical" result is earnings of $112.50 per person? But not one single person made that amount! Plus, that was far above the median earnings of the group ($0) and far less than the average earnings of anyone who took action.

By its very nature, any product that has a learning component (ie, as long as you're selling information, and not toasters or baseballs, you're in this boat) will produce atypical results.

So in my opinion, having a good range of testimonials on a sales page, all showing positive but varying results helps the purchaser make a more informed decision.

No sales page should ever have falsified testimonials - ever - but I don't think that's really what's at stake here either.

While we're on the disclosure topic though - what about applying similar standards to big corporations? Ever seen a "doctor" on TV promoting the latest drug? Ever see a disclaimer at the bottom saying "this person is not a doctor, they are a paid actor, and they have never used the product being promoted or received any sort of results from it, in fact they are merely reading a script that the marketing department created for them." Now THAT is a disclaimer I'd be tickled to see the FTC enforcing.

How about finding a way to track if the materials have been read and understood? say you add a test at the end for people to fill in in exchange for something (you do this all the time, don't make me go into specifics here). That way you could market under XXX% of customers who successfully read and put the materials to use made on average $$$. Needless to say, the test would proaly need to be practical as well as just the theory of what's written.

Just dropping it as an idea...

Next week he will be here to discuss his tests on controversial marketing and how his readers reacted to his statements made inside of the report.

"It's a new way of taking the social pulse". "Secret testing techniques create viral results that are much better than asking questions in traditional polls".

Matt

I think Reese's advice about removing all testimonials was aimed more at those who make claims of 40,000 dollars in 30 days. If you're being sensible and using HONEST and REAL testimonials - as I do, then that can only be a good thing.
John Burton

In the past week both Kern and Reese have both said to remove all testimonials from your marketing. Frank said that he made that decision after speaking to a lawyer who specialises in this stuff.

There's a good chance John is following suit because he's so close to Frank.

Are any other big name marketers saying this? A quick look around and I'm seeing plenty of testimonials on some high profile sites...No one seems to be taking theirs down!

Oh, and for what it's worth, testimonials have convinced me to buy products in the past. I had no intention of getting PLF 2.0 when it launched, but the dozen or so video testimonials on the sales page pushed me over the edge.

And I'm glad they did. The best marketing product I ever bought.

I'd like to see what the FTC does with all those full page ads in mags such as Small Business Opportunities...

Those are clearly a reflection of HYPE marketing and NOT average results... This is such a witch hunt it's not even funny...

Mike Hill

I agree... the people on forums and facebook are where your testimonials really have impact.

You will be able to use testimonials still, but only trouble is...this time they fo REAL!

so why is testimonials on a sales letter not good?

Because they can. And because the government needs the money. And because, contrary to popular belief, immoral, unethical, and downright criminal behavior isn't limited to the private sector. There are plenty of scammers working in the government too.

Be careful the FTC don't grab you by the testimonials.

Apparently the FTC are going to ban ALL unapproved testimonials from April 2011.

What you may not realise is that a subsidiary company of the FTC, called FTC Marketing Secrets have some software in beta, which is due to be launched in April 2011.

The beta testers consist of a couple of women's institues and knitting clubs up in Wyoming and a few old geezers down in Georgia.

It is called "Instant Testimonials". All you do is fill in a few missing blanks and it churns out a perfectly formed testimonial as approved by the FTC.

The software costs $1,997 and there is a forced continuity of just $97 a month and each new testimonial it produces costs $497.

They have realised that this will generate more income than just imposing some fines.

Apparently some guy called Reese got them on to the idea.

I've seen some interesting points made on this thread but I
still feel it is to premature to assume what will happen.

Anyone giving advice (like John Reese did) should bite their
tongue for a little while until things start to reveal themselves.

There's no reason to start a panic. As long as you have a
legit product or service and any testimonials are from real
people that can be tracked, you have nothing to worry about.

Look at how many TV commercials have these testimonials
on them like Nutri-system and Proactive to name a few.

Again, I think we should all sit back and wait to see the whole
picture, not just the trailer, before we move in haste and do
some things that we could regret later.

I notice that John has written a clarification of his message.

Apparently when he said, remove ALL testimonials he didn't mean ALL testimonials, just "results-based testimonials".

Income.com Blog

Yep, that was my point and I raised this on his blog too. I hope this detraction (or clarification) goes some way to addressing this problem.

honestly I think he created this report to scare people out of the business, it's nothing but negative stories.

I already talked to my lawer and I know exactly how to stay in compliance with the ftc, I dont plan on looking for a loophole, I am gonna stay in compliance.

So many people are gonna run and hide, which makes it easier for the honest ans trati forward marketers to make more money

I was already letting people know I was an affiliate marketer way before this ftc thing and it actually works to my advantage

It'll be interesting to see how this new FTC ruling will effect advertisers across the board and how they integrate and implement the necessary changes, especially in terms of the infomercial companies with their latest gadgets and how they plan to incorporate their testimonials.

I mean it just wouldn't be the same trying to sell a weight loss product without any proof or by mentioning the typical results one might expect to get. Be very interesting to see how it's pulled off. Watch and learn.

There is a valid point in this true enough as most testimonials on the internet have no backup because they tend to be false so unless their 100 percent solid I would follow the advice and remove them

If I was Reese ie big name in the industry, obviously had the funds to pay any fines the FTC imposed so would be more likely to come after me, had recently done videos with a someone the FTC had targated before (Kern) and also with an internationally known speaker (Tony Robbins), thought the FTC might be looking to target the industry I was in and thought that they'd brought in new guidelines about testimonials that was purposly vauge enough to trap people...

and on top of that could still make a ton of money without testimonials (which I'm sure Reese is more than capable of)...

yeah, I'd dump testominonals for a while until it blew over too!

The FTC is just against being deceptive. They always have been, it's just now it's officially being written down. It's not gonna change a whole lot, despite what people say. Besides, there's no way they could regulate every affiliate marketer on the internet.

Frank Kern doesn't use testimonials much either. He says if your sales copy is good then there is no need.

I have no problem with the statement even more so now that it has been clarified. People need to understand who is being targeted here. I guarantee you this will fall more on IM gurus (and therefore the reactions).

I don't think for a moment that Pepsi will show a guy with a bunch of girls hanging on to him and have to show proof of reasonable expected results. Making money ads are the focus. Reese and Kern have ever right to feel some paranoia. They ARE in the center of the bullseye.

Hmm.... im up in the air about this

The title was a pretty bold statement

thanks for clearing it up, JR. I was about to opt out of all your sites.......Just kidding.