Tip: put customer reviews/testimonials in your email marketing

February 12, 2009 in Tips

Mountain Gear did it and found the following:

Mountain Gear, delivers even better results when it includes reviews of top-rated products by its customers. In a recent test, e-mail containing customer reviews produced 5%-8% higher click-through, 14%-17% higher conversion and 81%-85% higher average order value than e-mail without reviews promoting the same products. [Internet Retailer]

This makes sense of course – they are effective marketing on a website, why wouldn’t they be in marketing emails? If you’re selling retail items which have customer reviews, this is a no-brainer.

In my own experience with consulting, I’ve had good success sending references including testimonials and mini case studies from the references as part of the sales process. (Typically sent along with a proposal).

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In my past life as a magazine publisher I remember what initially sold me to local printing company. It was a big ticket sale, $30,000 to $50,000 per issue, so the sales process was multi-step. During one of the meetings, the sales rep tossed a think binder on the table. It was a stack of testimonial letters from customers. The original, not photocopies, each printed on the company's original letterhead and signed. The rest of the due diligence for me was to convince myself of my already-made decision to go with this printer.

(Later down the road the quality turned out to be a lemon so we hired an expensive consultant and found a much better deal across the country.)