One of the best ways to promote your association and its programs, products, and services is to let your members, customers, audiences, and other stakeholders do it for you.
In other words, to use testimonials.
ASAE’s June 2010 Communications Section newsletter listed 7 key questions to ask to generate compelling testimonials:
- Why did you choose to participate with <your program>?
- What are your 3 favorite things about your participation and why?
- What’s the most valuable aspect of your participation and why?
- Please tell us about any specific success you’ve experienced because of your participation.
- How has your participation benefited your organization?
- Is there anything we could do to improve your experience?
- May we use your comments, with attribution? [VERY IMPORTANT]
So where do you find people who might be willing to answer these questions?
- Your feedback forms, like post-conference and post-webinar evaluation forms. Make sure you have at least one open-ended question with a comment box (rather than all Likert scales), as people will often leave comments you can use almost verbatim once you have permission.
- Your unsolicited praise. Did somebody say something nice about your programs, services, or customer service, either verbally or in writing? Ask them if you can use it.
- Your loyal fans – and you probably already know who they are. When you’re looking to generate fresh testimonials, they should be the first people you ask.