Are testimonials more effective than a blog when it comes to generating sales? How can you combine them for better results?
Over the past week or so, Know More Media has published several sponsored posts promoting the Mad Vlad email marketing service. While others have focused on its email safelist or ability to increase sales, I will review its testimonials page (almost a blog review!), which includes blurbs from websites such as the following:
- The Boy with the Big Ear (children's book)
- Jerky Direct (meat jerky distributor)
- MyTravelCertificate.com (travel certificates)
- ProfitXp.com (about making money online)
It's quite impressive to see such a long list of customer testimonials (there are dozens). A testimonial page can greatly enhance sales because it helps you trust that others have already tried a business and found it worthwhile.
On the "needs improvement" side, there are some broken links on the testimonials page, and I'm not sure why some of the contributors' email addresses are published there. Also, the testimonials aren't dated - it would be great to know exactly how recently they were given. Finally, it would be awesome to see at least some of the testimonials themselves at the websites of the testimonial-givers, as opposed to only appearing at the Mad Vlad site. I think all those issues detract a bit from the feeling of trust that visitors should feel.
All my personal communications with Vlad have indicated that he is very likely a trustworthy person, and I am confident that his safelist product/service has helped quite a few people before. As a business blogger who blogs about blogging (say that five times fast - go ahead, it's okay), I am of course biased toward suggesting that adding a blog to the Mad Vlad site could give it a great credibility boost. But I am also intrigued by his lengthy testimonials page and wonder how it might strengthen my own blog or your blog to have such a list of "thumbs-ups" from other folks.
I welcome your feedback for Vlad, his website and his service!
