10 Tips To Producing Genuine Testimonials

By Wizard Partner & CEO of ADco Adam Deatherage

During your quest to make the perfect ad, your client suggests, “Hey, let's try using a testimonial from my favorite customer.” You stop, pause, put finger to mouth--hmmm is the only sound heard by your client. You’ve seen and heard testimonials before, and they usually seem fake, scripted, and contrived. Then, you remember a few testimonial ads that resonated down to your cellular level. In fact, you never forgot those testimonials that seemed genuine and thought provoking.

So here is the question: how do you create a testimonial ad for your client that will be sincere and unforgettable?

Here are 10 tips to producing better testimonial ads.

1. Reduce the interviewee's anxiety level. As a loyal customer, he or she is ready to help as much as possible and will try his or her best to deliver the "right" answers. Make sure to explain to the interviewee that anything he or she says is correct, even if it seems to contradict what the advertiser wants.
2. Don’t use a script. You cannot tell the interviewee what to say. If you do, the language will sound robotic, and most will be able to tell it is staged. Even the smallest hint of a faked response and the testimonial becomes insignificant.
3. Prepare and use an outline of questions at the audio session to keep you on track and on schedule. Send that outline of questions to the person being interviewed the day before the recording.
4. Use open-ended statements and questions like, "Tell me about your business?" Rather than closed statements like, "How long have you been in business?" The first requires a full explanation; the later only requires a simple answer.
5. Talk with the potential interviewee before hand. Even if he or she is your client's best customer, he or she may not have a talkative, outgoing personality. If they seam uneasy about being interviewed, suggest to your client that this particular person may not be the best one for the job.
6. Record more testimonials than you will need. Then you can pick and chose only the best ones. Better to have too many good takes than not enough to make an effective ad. Be sure to tell each person that you interview that there is no guarantee that he or she will actually be featured in the ad.
7. Do not force or cajole statements out of the interviewee. Instead, ask questions, listen, summarize, and repeat.
8. If you feel you must coach an interviewee, do so one suggestion at a time. Take baby steps, or they will be trying to remember too many things at once.
9. Do not use local TV or radio celebrities for testimonials.
10. Producing good, clean audio will positively influence the overall effectiveness of the testimonial.

Your major objective is to help the interviewee feel confident and to trust the process so that they can reveal genuine commentary. Anything south of that, just don’t use it! In other words, almost as good is the same as unusable.