When putting marketing materials together, many businesses quite rightly take steps to highlight the elements of their products and services that set them apart from their competition. However, it’s not uncommon for these claims to be made without support from believable evidence.

Facts and figures that illustrate the real returns a product or service can offer are a great start but often, the use of comments from genuine customers can add significant value.

Here are my ten steps to developing truly effective testimonials:

1. Ask promptly

You stand the best chance of receiving positive and detailed feedback if you ask for it soon after the job is completed or the product is received. Ideally, at the point of sale, set a reminder to contact the customer in one week to collect their feedback.

2. Ask personally

You will tend to receive a much better response to requests for testimonials if you ask personally by phone. If you put a general request in the post or in an email, it will probably get filed and forgotten about, but if you take the time to make a call, you may well be able to take down a testimonial over the phone, which can then be sent to the customer for their approval.

3. Name names

Testimonials are only worth including if they are convincingly linked to ‘real’ people. Boasting the opinion of “J. Smith, London” is unlikely to be believed, but if the quote is credited to “Jeremy Smith, Stoke Newington, London” and accompanied by a photograph, it will naturally gain credibility. For business-to-business testimonials, a named contact from the company should be given and, if published online, be accompanied by a link to that company’s website.

4. Get permission

Remember that a person’s feedback about your products or services, however positive, might not be intended for public distribution so always get written permission from customers before making their testimonials public. You should make them aware of where and how the testimonials will be used and seek permission again if you later intend to use them for a different purpose e.g. TV advertising.

5. Tell a story

Testimonials should encourage a potential customer to identify with the situation described and imagine themselves in possession of the product or service. This encourages an emotional investment that will make them more likely to buy. To do this effectively, testimonial should describe the problem and the solution in considerable detail, leaving the potential customer thinking, “This person had a problem just like mine, and his was solved by this product”.

6. Illustrate the decision making process

If you can, aim to include testimonials from clients who have tried alternatives but found your offering to be the best available. Potential customers are likely to be in the process of weighing up your offering against that of your competitors, so displaying the opinion of somebody who can provide details as to why and how they found your business to be superior can be very persuasive.

7. Keep it short

While detail is great, if a testimonial is too long, people will be unlikely to read it so your aim should be to include enough detail to make your point while still being concise. That said, certain products and services warrant a lengthy testimonial in order to communicate the key points. In such cases, consider providing a brief summary statement ahead of the main body of the testimonial or use pull quotes to highlight the key points.

8. Use them creatively

If you have gone to the trouble of gathering effective testimonials, don’t just publish your testimonials in one place such as your company website. Think creatively about whether you can include them on any communications you send out. For example, a brief yet pithy testimonial could be included underneath your email signature, featured on your product packaging or included in press releases.

9. Keep them current

Collecting testimonials should be an ongoing effort, rather than a one-off exercise. Introducing a regular flow of new testimonials looks infinitely more credible than reusing the same tired handful of quotes, while acting quickly to release testimonials about new products or services can significantly help with their launch.

10. Be honest

No matter how tempting it may be, it is never wise to fabricate or exaggerate your testimonial claims. If forgery is discovered, the damage to your reputation could be long-lived and it would be difficult to regain your clients’ trust. If your offering is genuinely good, real testimonials should not be hard to gather, and as long as you ensure that they are realistic, relevant and engaging, they can provide a significant boost to your credibility and become an important element of your marketing communications efforts.