Using the Web and social media to sell real estate

Gathering testimonials for your business is one of the key activities in any marketing effort and it is a key ingredient of many selling pages on the web, but the quality of the testimonial is a key factor in its credibility. We have all seen lame videos, recorded by people who were overly enthusiastic or who simply didn’t know much what to say except praising some product or person without telling us why we should consider it.

I have just found two very relevant posts, both written by Sean D’Souza on the site Copyblogger that give valuable advice on how to get a valuable testimonial and how to present it so that it contributes to out credibility, rather than subtracting from it.

The first article is titled: “The Secret Life of Testimonials” and the second: “Six Questions to Ask for Powerful Testimonials”. Sean introduces us to the interesting concept of the “reverse testimonial”, namely “ a testimonial that starts off in reverse” and instead of beginning with praise and ending with even more praise, they begin instead by describing some kind of problem the person was trying to solve, the uncertainty she was going through before deciding on the purchase.

In this way you obtain several benefits: first of all you mimic the state of mind in which your new potential customer is right now, you first emphasize the “pain” or trouble he is trying to solve, could it also be just his inability to take a decision and then to stick with it. I would add that you are not pushing the decision toward your customer or reader, but are initially withdrawing a bit so that HE reaches a bit, lowers her screens that have been developed in listening to overly sugary testimonial that nobody would believe. Also you address and solve, in the testimonials, many of the objections that would come in the mind of your potential customer.

The article suggests to structure the testimonial, which is not a new idea as such, but which is always a good idea because the person delivering the testimonial will have a track to follow and will feel, look and SOUND more natural. It is like when you interview some important person as a journalist: they always want to have the questions in advance, so to be ready to answer properly and intelligently. This also helps getting testimonials from people that are far away and that have bought your product or service much time ago.

The article suggests six questions you can ask as a routine. They are quite good, but you can develop your own. The key factors being addressed are

1.Objections to the purchase (so that you can defuse them with the rest of the testimonial).
2.Reason for buying despite the obstacles.
3.Key benefit received from the product or service (note it is just one).
4.Additional benefits
5.Reasons for recommending it
6.Additional comments

I would personally add a presentation of the customer herself, who she is and what she does. I know it’s kind of understood but it always an important to give further credibility and also offer her the chance of promoting herself or her company during the testimonial.

Roberto Mazzoni