People have a tendency to know what others are doing, particularly when they have got nothing to do their own. You want a demo? Go to an empty field at the nightfall with a small light and start checking the ground as if you are looking for something you have lost. After a few minutes, you will found sundry people are around you trying to figure out what business is going on. If you can manage to authenticate that you have lost your watch, some of them will generously offer help without perusing your claim further.

The response appears to be humanistic behavior. But is a well-grounded behavioral pattern in public psychology. The authentication of the claim I explained is called “Social Proof”.

Have you ever thought such mischievous tricks at directing people to take certain decision can be helpful to you if you are a marketing professional? They can obviously. If your marketing campaign makes use of such social proof, especially “testimonial”, you can set wings to your business. However, your effort at gathering testimonials can bring more harvest if you focus on some specific aspects of testimonials.      

Select testimonials from relevant people: If you are presenting testimonials to your customers to convince them of the wide use of your product, the effort will be more effective if the testimonials are gathered form people who are from similar domain. This will strike identification and assign relevancy to your product. For instance, suppose ypou are promoting your grapgic design company and cites some graphic design companies who are satisfied with your service, this testimonial will be more persuasive.



Pick up testimonials that offer specifics than general: Think you sell a laundry product. If a testimonial says “Pine-Sol does wander to your cleaning”, it will not work. It’s a general statement.

But if the testimonial says “Pine-Sol is powerful clean for powerful women. After I gave it try, my housed looked as clean as it was never before”. This one is more specific and tells you how it works.

Use group testimonials: A single voice does not say much. But a lot of voice means a lot even if they do not anything well-meaning. When you are collecting testimonials to the advantage of your product, try to get select those which mean your product is the need of the hour and is being used by a lot of people. This strategy will indicate the wide-spread appeal of your product.



Use multiple short testimonials instead of a few long ones: If a prospective client believes your product is being used by certain person in the next lane, you fail to meet your objective. But if they are convinced that hundreds of people in the city have loved your product, the client will take it for a bandwagon effect. That is why using lots of small testimonials becomes more meaningful that a few big ones.

Attach importance to a few chosen testimonials: They can be long. But they do their jobs anyhow. Suppose you have got a testimonial that tells the story of an emotional attachment to your product. Suppose you have got one that tells about an enlightenment that your Pine-Sol brought. Suppose, a much-revered experts writes an ode on your cleaner. These are big but these are the most influential.

Give details of the testifying authority: That makes the comment more credible. A comment form nowhere does not make any sense. If the testimonials bear names, contact numbers and locations and clients get the sense that they can get in touch with them, the testimonials carry more weightage.

Consumers are prone to anything new and they like to believe in them. But that liking may not exist beyond a few seconds. If at such a crucial moment they get suitable testimonials, the abstracts become real and general specific. It is up to you how you can exploit this propensity to new ideas, products. Testimonials do the job.