My 2 cents on the new law…
A certain three letter US agency has announced that on December 1st, new laws will go into place regarding using testimonials, claims and endorsements in advertisements.
Now, I’m not a lawyer, so don’t take the following as legal advice. Actually, when I was born God made me allergic to becoming a lawyer, so you don’t have to worry about that. Like anything, do your due diligence. I’m just offering my commentary on the matter.
From my understanding, the old law with testimonials is you could lead with the people who got great results, as long as you put a simple disclaimer under them that says ‘results not typical, yours may vary’ or something to that effect.
With the new law, any time you disclose a results based testimonial, you also have to disclose what the average person’s results were. Exactly how you go about determining average is, of course, wildly vague - so who knows?
Here’s how I plan to change my business to take these new laws into account.
First, when using testimonials I will be using “character based” testimonials, and completely get rid of “results based” testimonials. It sucks, but I think it’s necessary to do this.
So I’ll run testimonials that says “Jason is a caring, down to earth person…” or “Jason’s support is great…”, things of that nature.
I will be using more video. Why? Because the written word lacks certain abilities to use sarcasm, humor, and light-heartedness that you can do in video.
So if I explain in video “what the average user can expect” I can do so in a way that is so incongruent with the message, that when I disclose average, it will have little to no impact on my sales message.
I will use more hypnotic language patterns and NLP in my sales copy – focusing more on creating and anchoring certain emotional states in the reader, than on proof, testimonials, etc.
I will be using more $1 trials, so I don’t need as much copy to sell it, and focus more on the quality of product as the sales device.
I will up my customer support to another level. Here’s the thing about these government alphabet agencies – they only respond to the “squeaky wheel”. They have no time to go out and police everyone.
So the ones that get the most complaints are the ones they investigate.
What this means: I will be hiring a full time staff person just to call people on the phone after placing their orders to make sure everything is okay. I will have “live” IM chat support at least 8 hours a day during business hours.
While nothing you can do will completely eliminate complaints (there are a lot of unreasonable people out there!) hopefully it will cut back on them enough to “fly below the radar.”
The other thing I’m going to be doing is expanding more into tiny, little niches that only do $2,000 to $3,000 a month – that way, again I can make a good amount of money without becoming “famous” in any one niche.
These are just some of the things that I will be doing to best handle the new changes that loom on the horizon.
If you think that you’re an honest person with a quality product and run an ethical business, and that’s all you need to be safe – you’re dead wrong.
This law isn’t about honesty. Every testimonial I’ve ever used was honest. It’s about “typical”. There’s a difference. While it’s my not my responsibility beyond giving you what you need to guarantee your results (YOU have to apply it!) I am liable for you now under the new laws.
Think a high quality product will save you? Think again. High quality is subjective. Day in and day out I’ll get one person demanding a refund saying my product sucked, and 10 minutes letter someone will email me saying that same product was the best product they’ve ever purchased.
I’ve heard people criticize Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, etc. If they find fault in them, surely it’s easy to find fault in us marketers.
Let’s call a spade or spade. You are in the direct marketing business. There are a lot of scam artists in this business. You’re guilty by association. The public looks down on you, even though you are the backbone of the economy.
You don’t get in this game to win rewards and gain respect. You do it because you know you can provide immense value to a large number of people, and in return you can be rewarded greatly for providing that value.
So you can’t wear rose colored glasses. You must learn to adapt with the times and the laws. Reagan used to say “trust, but cut the deck anyway” That’s how you run your business.
Deliver high quality products. Be honest. Run your business ethically. But also operate it as if someone has made it their sole duty to find a way to persecute you. Because they have.
Adapt to it – take your precautionary measures now, so you’ll be less likely to find yourself trying to win a battle in court while all your assests are frozen and the general public looks down on you like you’re a petty criminal.
There’s your cup of sunshine for the day! 
Please reply to this post with your comments and thoughts.
Thanks!
Jason “I’m not a lawyer nor do I play one on youtube” Fladlien