Where is the BEST place to put TESTIMONIALS in a sales page?

A combination:

# 1: Put the testimonials that directly relate to bullets and benefits in your copy right next to those bullets and benefits (all through your copy).

# 2: All the extra testimonials at the end of the copy in a second or third P.S.

That allows you to add in any new testimonials you get and if your prospect scrolls to the end of your copy and sees 6-30 more testimonials that tends to build belief.


# 3: Edit your testimonials for length. Many testimonials ramble. You want to take out the meaty punchy part and use that while retaining the tone and meaning of the original testimonial.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Sam and Andrew are spot on. The definition of hype (from a copywriter's perspective) is any claim you make that you don't back up with proof.

Testimonials and case studies offer great proof. If you make a claim, and you have a testimonial that backs up your claim, what better place to put it than right next to the claim you are making?

You can see how I did this with sidebars at my Copywriter's Toolkit site, for one. I won't post a link here, but you can Google copywriters toolkit and find it easily enough.

Also, if you do look at that page, check out what I did with a certain testimonial right next to my guarantee. How many times have you seen that?

What better way to boost the fact that I honor and respect all refunds?

Cheers,

John

P.S. Sometimes where you place testimonials can hurt. You want them to keep reading, and when you insert a bunch of testies in the middle of your copy at the wrong spot, it can actually have a detrimental effect on your conversions. Why? Because they can act as barriers or "speed bumps" in your copy. You've sucked them into your copy, then you go ahead and give them an excuse to stop reading, because you've gone ahead and abruptly changed the subject.

As always, I find the ideal length of testimonial depends upon on your market. In my niche, selling alternative health products in the $50 to $250 range, long and descriptive testimonials work best. How do I know? Well because customers tell me what made them purchase plus I ask them. A novel concept, asking people what made them purchase instead of solely relying on traffic analysis software.

If I purchasing an IM product, I too ignore testimonials for all intensive purposes. This is due to the fact that the same people post testimonials for practically every IM product that hits the market. It hardly gives me the perception of being an independent review.

If your target market is not oversaturated or within the IM field and if your target customer is a typical American consumer, then propsects will not likely have been exposed to thousands of sales letters and the tens of thousands of recycled testimonials they contain. If this is the case, they will likely respond better to testimonials and also rely on them more. This is especially true if the testimonial provides valuable insight and specific results.

Too many testimonials can obviously be hurtful if interfering with the flow of the copy.

In regards to sidebars, another interesting fact I have found in testing various our sales letters is that when I presented testimonials in a sidebar format that stretched from the top of the page down to the bottom (23 printed pages in total size), many of my actual customers did not truly read the testimonials. Many did, but not the majority. (Once again, I get people to reveal this in conversations).

However, they were still influential in their purchasing decision.

Just scanning the testimonials instilled enough confidence in their possible buying decision and subconsciously put their mind's at ease about making a potential purchase.

Even though prospects may not read the testimonials in this sidebar format, having them present is still helpful, at least in my field.

Overall, just make sure you do not present them in ways that interferes with the flow of your pitch but allows people to still view them and know they are there.

One technique I have been using lately is to incorporate a testimonial right into the sales text itself in a format similar to what is seen in press releases and in novels. A few one or two sentence quotes sprinkled around in some paragraphs to support claims I make. This format keeps the flow nice and does not serve as any type of "speed bump".