Testimonials & Endorsements

Testimonials & Endorsements

An essential tool of business or a potential disaster?

Most businesses do not set out to trick or deceive potential customers. However the inappropriate use of testimonials and endorsements can easily come across as such.

Testimonials from satisfied customers are often hard to come by or sound just not quite right. The urge to make your own or edit the ones you already have to be a little more favourable, can often be to tempting to resist.

Many businesses have fallen into a habit of using logos from prestigious customers as an implied endorsement, in place of a formal testimonial.

The former can lead to accusations of false and misleading advertising. The later is!

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All testimonials must be freely given, be able to be substantiated and relate to your current business.

You are required to hold documentary evidence that a testimonial or endorsement used in marketing communications is genuine and hold contact details for the person who, or the organization that, gives it (UK. Code of Advertising Practice rule 3.45). 

·     You must have documented permission to use that testimonial/endorsement publically. 

·     That it is relevant to that business, service or product. 

·     That the review has not been incentivized (paid for in anyway).

·     Testimonials or endorsements must also be recent and up to date.

·     You cannot use former employers or previous businesses clients or testimonials as your own.

Once you have been accused of trying to trick or mislead your reputation will be very hard to recover.

Have you testimonials made professionally by a competent advertising agency and all this can be taken care of for you. It can be easier for customers to talk freely to an independent third party. Than to the person or business that they have been asked to review.

All reviews do not have to be good. The odd neutral or poor review can often help validate the good reviews. Nobody is perfect all the time!

Gavin Bryan-Tansley - Vid-FX+ Advertising

Is communication an illusion?

To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw. 

"The biggest single problem in social media marketing is the illusion that communication has actually taken place."

How do you judge the success of your communications? 

Clicks, hits, views, likes, etc. Do not indicate that communication has taken place. The whole purpose of social media is to build a dialogue. For that dialogue to happen there must be someone there to respond to enquiries and most importantly make the sale.

Too often I see ad's vlog's blog's or even hear a podcast that piques my interest, I need to know more. I make further enquiries to find a website that is down and no one to answer my enquiries. By then I am talking to someone else who can answer my questions and convinces me that I really do need what they are offering and can negotiate a good deal. 

So, your advertising and marketing has worked, congratulations. Yet without someone there who can take the calls, field the enquiries, to make the sales. You have just given business away to your competitors.

Before embarking on an advertising or marketing campaign you MUST ensure that you have the infrastructure in place to handle the enquiries and sales that it will generate. If you don't someone else will.

Without effective communication, you have no sales. Without sales, you don't have a business.

Gavin Bryan-Tansley

VidFX+ Advertising.

Advertising reaches the customers that your marketing can not.

Gavin at Vid-FX+Advertising.

All advertising and marketing starts with having a good idea, writing it down, then taking it from there...

So, what next, how far do you take it? 

No matter how good the idea. What you choose to do with it, could tell potential customers a lot more about your business, than you intend.

Whether you do it yourself with a home or in-house production. Get a friend,  student or intern to help. Or contract a commercial agency. Defines the value you place on your brand and your customers. Yet the cash value of each is remarkably not dissimilar. What it says about your business is!

1. You are marking time. You really don't want to grow your business much further.

2. You are still unsure and lack the confidence to invest in your business.

3. You are confident about your business. You are looking to grow and take on more business. You are prepared to put your risk your money behind your business.

Your advertising and marketing can say a lot about your business. Just make sure that you are sending the right message.

Brand Advertising - New Rules

A new code of advertising practice ruling on brand advertising is now coming into force.

Previously, ‘Brand advertising’ has been independent of the products or services you sell. The nature of the product or service you sell will now be taken into account when you advertise the 'Brand.'

For instance. There are strict rules on advertising foods with high fat, salt or sugar content (HFSS). Before it had been possible to promote the Store or Band alone. From today, ‘Band advertising' will fall under the same rules as the product/service the band sells.
So, if your brand is XYZ’s and you are known for the famous 'XYZ Burger'. You will now have to follow the rules on HFSS advertising on all your adverts. But, if your main activity is elsewhere, not associated with an HFSS product. That the majority of your sales are from other services. Then the old rules may still apply.
We now wait on precedent being set, to see just how this is to be applied in practice.

Gavin. Vid-FX+ Advertising.