The hardest part
of testimonials is the actual acquisition (covered earlier in the chapter); distributing them
around the site is easy.
Formats
Customer quotes can be delivered in several different formats, depending on how the subject
is interviewed. Plain text is by far the most common??”it??™s simple to gather, simple to
produce, and simple to add to a web page. It??™s also by far the easiest to get approved
because the writer and original speaker can collaborate on cleaning up the text to read
more smoothly.
Multimedia-based testimonials??”namely audio and video recordings??”are far more laborintensive.
Not only are they a chore to create, seeing as a second party actually has to
operate a recording device, but they do not give the client the opportunity of editing their
words beyond what can be accomplished in the post-production room. This also works
against the business trying to use the testimonial??”if the quote is inaccurate, mumbled, or
poorly recorded, it may be lost; there is rarely a chance for a second take.
INDEPENDENT VALIDATION
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8
However, if done correctly??”and if done correctly on a consistent basis??”the company
ends up with a library of marquee media that can be promoted heavily across the corporate
site, like in Figure 8-9.
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