The Edge Marketing

How would you like celebrities to endorse your product?

Perhaps that sounds crazy. Well, here's the info...

But before anything else - let me stress that when I say "celebrities", I'm not talking about Tiger Woods or Tom Cruise!

Who I'm talking about is celebrities in YOUR market. People who are very highly thought of and well known in the market you're selling to. People who your target market look up to.

Take this real life example:

An online publisher named Alex was just about to launch an information product revealing psychological sales tactics.

However, even though his product was of the very highest quality, Alex was looking for something "extra" that would increase sales of the product even more.

What Alex wanted to achieve is to boost *credibility* in the sales message presenting the product. So visitors to his site would actually believe what they read, and therefore be a lot more likely to buy.

Now, since the product Alex was selling was revealing sales and marketing tactics, it would of course be purchased by people interested in selling more online.

So who better to give Alex a testimonial than a world famous marketing expert?...

Alex managed to get a testimonial from none other than Joe Sugarman - hugely successful direct marketer and famous for his BluBlocker sun glasses infomercials.

So - how do YOU go about boosting your own sales with testimonials from celebrities?

Well, let me firstly stress that unless you already have a relationship with the person (you know each other), there's a strong chance they won't reply to you. They may, or they may not. So be prepared for that.

Sending them an email is quick, but I get 200+ emails a day at the moment (spam included), and that's on the low end compared to the number of emails some people I know get.

So email may work if you're looking for a testimonial from a celebrity in your market, but don't hold your breath.

How about a phone call? It's worth a chance, but then again the person you're trying to reach may have a secretary, and what are your chances of getting past them with a testimonial request?

Or of course you could always send them a good ole fashioned "snail mail" letter, preferably including a complimentary copy of your product.

Will this work? Well, it will definitely help get their attention. You may want to contact them via email initially asking them for their postal address so you can send them a review copy of the product.

By doing that initially you're sure to get the right address, and it helps put a mental note in the person's mind that they're going to receive a package from you soon.

Or here's an almost fool proof way: why not buy time from them? Especially if they offer consulting already. It doesn't guarantee they'll offer a testimonial, but if your product's great, chances are they will.

So let's say you've got the product in their hands, and they like it. Here's the last step:

Make it as easy as possible for them. The people you contact are very busy, since that's how they got to where they are.

So what you need to do is write the testimonial for them. And once you've done that, send it over saying "I've included a potential testimonial outline for you. If you would be happy to offer a testimonial for the product, please feel free to change this draft testimonial as you would like to."

Now I can't guarantee you'll get testimonials every time you try, especially if you're not well known in the market or don't have a relationship with the person already. But if you don't try, you'll never know. And just one or two celebrity testimonials can make a real positive impact on your sales for the long term.

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