Feb 16, 2010, post by
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is making the world wide web a safer place and I for one am happy about it. This is good news for those of us who do use ethical marketing practices and play by the rules. I don’t believe the FTC is out to meddle in our businesses, but rather has a big job to do – protect consumers and give them the tools to make informed decisions on their own.
One of the new rules that has received a lot of attention has to do with testimonials. Testimonials are usually in the form of written words, audio, or video, extolling the virtue of some product or service.
Testimonials have a firm place in advertising and can definitely accelerate your sales as it helps to add credibility and social proof. I love it when someone has used my product and attained great results, and you can bet that I’m going to use that testimonial on my website and blog. The problem, as the FTC sees it, is that this testimonial may not reflect the “generally expected results” for which a typical user can expect by using this product.
For example, someone is viewing your sales page in which you are selling an e-book. You posted a testimonial you received from a customer who claimed “I made $5,000 the first month after reading this e-book and you can too.” This person viewing the page reasonably expects to achieve the same results. But in reality, perhaps only .5% of the people who purchased your e-book achieved those results, 4.5% made a modest amount of money ($10 to $100 dollars), and the other 95% didn’t even read it. 
Trust me, this is true for many marketers of information products and — talk about killing the message — the “typical” scenario is that most people don’t even read the book let alone make any money! No one is going to highlight that fact. Duh.
In the 1980 version of the guidelines, which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical,” the revised guidelines no longer contain this safe harbor.
You need to know the “typical results” and disclose what these general results are and the depicted circumstances. You cannot just throw up the best case example.
This is a problem for a lot of marketers because they may not have data to support a testimonial and realize it will cost a lot of money to obtain that data.
When using a testimonial in your marketing, you now need to:
- Verify that the person giving the testimonial has actually achieved the stated results
- Verify the typical results a consumer can expect to achieve, and state them
- Verify that the testimonial still stands if you make a change to the product being endorsed
If you cannot substantiate the “typical results” you have three options: not use the testimonial, do research to find the typical results, or use the testimonial anyway and take a risk.
However, there is another option.
During an interview with Jim Edwards (igottatellyou.com), FTC assistant deputy Mr. Rich Cleveland clarified that you could create a relevant sub-group for which you CAN collect the data you need in order to make the disclosure. Using Mr. Cleveland’s webinar example, let’s say you have created a “how-to product” with a program that teaches people “how to increase your sales in door-to-door selling.”
You define what the criteria is, ie., willing to go out and knock on 100 doors a day, willing to work at it for five days a week, willing to sell a product that costs at least $50.
“So, if you are willing to do this, this, and this, then based on this sub-group of 100 people (we’ve sold a 1000 of these courses) we have 100 people who have submitted their results. We’ve averaged them out, and these are the results that are average for this group.”
You are defining the criteria for the sub-group. Note that the sub-group cannot be just one person – it has to be a relevant group.
To sum it up, yes, you can use testimonials. But you should avoid using testimonials that are an extreme example instead of those that are closer to typical.
If you have these on your website right now, you can modify them and delete the “I made this much money and you can too” language, remove the testimonial entirely, substantiate the claims, provide data from a sub-group/define the criteria, or risk having the FTC in your face.
Next time we’ll talk about disclosures, stay tuned.
References and recommended reading:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus41.pdf
http://www.joelcomm.com/new_ftc_rules_for_testimonials_1.html
http://www.igottatellyou.com/blog/ftc-change-interview
Nov 18, 2009, post by
Online, one of the most significant keys to success is getting website traffic. The more visitors you have, the better your sales and profits. Presumably you have a niche and you know your keywords, and regularly conduct keyword research to stay on top of what’s popular. Based on those assumptions here are five quick and easy tips to get website traffic fast!
Tip #1 Make sure you’re actually tagging your keywords
Do you spend a lot of time optimizing your content and then neglect to tag them on your webpage? Tags are where search engines look and if there are no tags they’ll pass right by your web pages. Here’s a quick brief on tags.
There are a number of tag types including,
* Title tags. Title tags are quite possibly the most important place to situate your keywords. Here’s what they look like -
Your title tag is where you place your primary keyword or keyword phrase. The sentence will describe your business in less than 90 characters.
* Header Tags. Header tags are next in order of importance to search engines. They’re ranked in order of importance and look like this -
<h1>Primary and/or Secondary keywords here</h1>
The “1″ designates this header as the most important header on the page.
* Meta Tags. Meta tags provide the small descriptive text found underneath the title tag on the search engine results page. Like title tags these should be kept brief, informative and up to date.
* Alt Tags. Alt tags are used to provide a text description of a graphic. Each graphic on your site should have a description and an alt tag.
Tip #2 Add content to your site daily
Content is essential for traffic and a top search engine ranking. Content is what search engine spiders look for and index – without it there’s nothing to index or rank. Give visitors and search engines a reason to visit and index your site. Make a commitment to provide daily, optimized content and your traffic will soar.
Tip #3 Procure valuable and relevant incoming links
The more websites which link to your webpages the more valuable search engines perceive you to be, though not all links are created equal. Search engines give more leverage to links from sites which are popular and credible and from sites which are relevant to your website topic.
There are different types of links.
- A direct link looks like a basic website address, for example, www.yourwebsite.com
- A text link occurs when the webpage address is embedded in the text. Readers simply click on the link and are redirected to a new website page.
- If the link is to an internal web page, for example an article published on a website, rather than the home page, it is called a “deep link.”
You can encourage linking to your website by:
* Adding content to your site.
* Submitting to article directories.
* Publishing press releases.
* Blogging and participating in social networking forums, chat rooms and social networking sites.
Tip #4 Be Social!
Now more than ever before, internet marketing is about building a community. Whether you offer a forum on your website or you participate in social networking sites, social networking is a valuable traffic generating tactic. Sites like Facebook and Twitter can be powerful tools for generating links and traffic to your site – create a profile and then post comments, links to your site and ideas which generate conversation.
Get involved – many chat rooms and forums are industry specific, find those which cater to your industry, and begin participating. Speak to and connect with a highly targeted audience.
I kid you not, I got a phone call yesterday (Hi Lilly!) from a potential client, she left me a voice mail and this was the message: “Hi Lisa, I saw so-and-so post about you on Twitter so I visited your site and you are exactly what I need!” Trust me, it works.
Tip #5 Advertise for more exposure and traffic
Advertising, when handled strategically, can be used to promote your content and products or services. PPC advertising is often the tool of choice because you control the advertising budget on a daily basis and have the tools to test and track your advertising efforts. Once you’ve honed your PPC ads the return on investment can be phenomenal in terms of traffic and purchases.
For maximum results, create a traffic and SEO strategy. Outline your plan and your goals and then take the necessary action. Take advantage of these five traffic and search engine tips to boost your business.
Copyright 2009, Lisa Wells.
Want to publish this article on your site? You may, but please include the following resource information: Lisa Wells is a Certified eMarketing Associate who partners with successful coaches, consultants, and online marketers, managing their online marketing needs. Move your business to the next level and up your e-marketing game – sign up for her FREE e-course at http://www.eMarketingToolboxEssentials.com.
