Testimonials, New FTC Rules effective Dec 1st
Effective December 1st the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is implementing important new rules concerning you ruse of testimonials in all of your marketing (online, offline, sales, etc.) These rules are meant to protect the consumer from deceptive marketing practices.
You've likely seen television commercials offering weight loss products where the spokesperson says they have lost 50 or 100 pounds using the miracle product - why at the bottom of the screen you may or may not notice the words: "results not typical".
"Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor." - FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials
My hope is that you are already in compliance and that what you testimonials state is what you typical client can expect when using your product or service.
I continue to be a believer in testimonials as one of the most powerful forms of evidence that are actually effective for our clients. That being said, we should not expect testimonials to do the primary job of conveying our marketing message. We all must continue to improve our value proposition for our clients and communicate that value proposition through strong product/service positioning, storytelling, sales psychology and with accurate message to market match.
As always, please work with me to improve your message strategy and message to market match.
Effective December 1st the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is implementing important new rules concerning you ruse of testimonials in all of your marketing (online, offline, sales, etc.) These rules are meant to protect the consumer from deceptive marketing practices.
You've likely seen television commercials offering weight loss products where the spokesperson says they have lost 50 or 100 pounds using the miracle product - why at the bottom of the screen you may or may not notice the words: "results not typical".
"Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor." - FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials
My hope is that you are already in compliance and that what you testimonials state is what you typical client can expect when using your product or service.
I continue to be a believer in testimonials as one of the most powerful forms of evidence that are actually effective for our clients. That being said, we should not expect testimonials to do the primary job of conveying our marketing message. We all must continue to improve our value proposition for our clients and communicate that value proposition through strong product/service positioning, storytelling, sales psychology and with accurate message to market match.
As always, please work with me to improve your message strategy and message to market match.
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