Testimonials are powerful. They can convert prospects into customers…

And if you aren’t careful, they can land you in hot water with the Federal Trade Commission (more about that later).

Social Proof
Testimonials are a form of social proof. When we are unsure of the correct course of action, we look around to see what others are doing and we give a lot of weight to what they say and do.

The more people we see doing something, the more correct we assume the action to be.

Let’s say you show up for an appointment in an office building. Suddenly, the fire alarm sounds and the little strobe lights start blinking.

What do you do?

Odds are, you will follow the other people filtering out of the offices. After all, it is their building.

The same psychology is at play when your customer sees your sales pitch.

Does This Product Really Work?
When your prospect starts reading your landing page (a.k.a. “sales page”), how do they know whether or not your product works? How do they know it’s worth the price you are charging? How do they know if your customer service is any good?

Enter the testimonial.

If your customer can hear, read or watch positive comments from other customers, they will be reassured. They will be more likely to buy. If those customers mention specific numerical results, the proof will be even more credible… but there is one problem.

The Catch
Before we dive into the dangers of testimonials, I want to make sure I’m being clear. Testimonials work. I think you should use them. I also think you should operate within the law, so let’s get to it.

I’m sure you are familiar with the weight loss commercials featuring people who have lost an insane amount of weight. In the past, they were able to just include the disclaimer “*Results Not Typical.” Those ads were very popular (because they worked), but everything changed on December 1st, 2009.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) updated the rules for online advertising – particularly regarding disclosure.

My Interpretation
I’m not an attorney (and you should consult one on this issue if you have any questions), but here’s my understanding of the new rules:

The “Results Not Typical” ad format won’t fly under the new FTC guidelines.

My interpretation is that you’ll either have to eliminate the quantitative results (e.g. remove “I lost 32 pounds in 3 weeks.”) or just go with qualitative results (e.g. “I used the XYZ for 3 weeks and I saw amazing results.”).

If you want to use quantitative results, you’ll have to figure out how to get feedback from a statistically significant sample of your customers (including the customers that buy your product and never us it!) and then advertise the average result.

Either way, testimonials are very effective. If you don’t have a system in place to collect testimonials and to then use them in a legal manner, then get busy and create one. After all…

What you say about your product is not as important as what other (less biased) people have to say about your product.

That’s my $0.02. What do you think?