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Get The Peer Principle of Persuasion into your next campaign
“What others say about you and your product, service, or business is at least 1,000 times more convincing than what you say, even if you are 2,000 times more eloquent.”
— Dan Kennedy, author of No B.S. Sales Success
Too often, communicators use first-party testimonials. That is, they quote their own VP of product development on how great the new product is.
Use third-party testimonials We know you think your product or service is great. But can’t you find anyone who agrees with you? Image by Nghia Le
Hey! We know you think your product or service is great. But can’t you find anyone who agrees with you?
Instead, add third-party testimonials — those from people outside your organization — to your PR and marketing communications. You’ll get great results.
Tap the Peer Principle of Persuasion.
Testimonials work because of something communication theorists call The Peer Principle of Persuasion. That is, if I believe it worked for someone else, I’m more likely to believe it will work for me.
That’s why Amazon’s customer reviews are so helpful. I know that if Orbiting the Giant Hairball was helpful to other business communicators, it will probably also be helpful to me.
Bottom line: If you’re not using testimonials, you’re missing a key element of successful PR and marketing campaigns.
Learn how to create testimonials.
Write Killer Bites
Turn lame-ass quotes into scintillating sound bites
Half of reporters complain that quotes in releases don’t sound natural, according to a 2014 Greentarget survey. Maybe that’s why 78% of them don’t regularly use quotes from releases.
No wonder! As one of my clients says, “Quotes in news releases sound like the teacher in a Charlie Brown cartoon: ‘Wah wah wah wah.’”
Transform your quotations from bleh to brilliant.
At NOT Your Father's News Release — our two-day hands-on PR-writing master class on Sept. 6-7 in Atlanta — you’ll learn how to transform your quotations from bleh to brilliant. Specifically, you’ll learn how to:
- Write tight bites. Even a lame quote will sound better when you use our quote length targets.
- Put a quota on quotes. Steal a trick from The New York Times to avoid overquoting.
- Write quotes that sound human — not like a computer spit them out.
- Avoid the worst PR clichés. PR Newswire sees 1,284 of these in a single month.
- Steal techniques from Silver Anvil winners. Make your sound bites sound better.
Learn more about our
Atlanta master class.
