Testimonial videos help businesses close sales. This is a fact that nobody can deny.
But do you know why that is?
It’s because testimonial videos build brand trust. Trust is the deciding factor for whether or not your customers will make a purchase – if they don’t trust your brand, they’ll back out.
Testimonials provide evidence that your product or service actually works as promised. In fact, 90% of customers admit that their buying decisions are heavily influenced by online reviews.
In this post, I’ll discuss what a testimonial video actually is, and how to make a great one for your business.
Let’s get started!
What is a testimonial video?
In simple terms, it’s a means for you to showcase the rave reviews of happy customers and allow them to personally vouch for the hard work you put into your product or service. It’s living proof that you provide value to your prospects, and a highly effective way to speak directly to website visitors.
It taps into the universal truth that we are all influenced by the opinions of others to some extent – a website with a customer testimonial video will inevitably generate more leads and close more sales than a website with no testimonial page at all.
Think about it: you can tell potential customers your product or service is brilliant until your lips turn blue, but it will never prove as powerful as showing real customers sharing their success stories.
A good testimonial video will always involve a real customer of yours endorsing your brand and your product. This customer will ideally be someone that once had the same struggles as your current prospects, and found a real solution in your offering.
Why not just use text testimonials?
Text testimonials are all well and good, but they fail to utilize one of your most powerful marketing tools – video. Not to mention that video testimonials are far more engaging and convincing than a page full of text. They will help reduce your bounce rate by keeping visitors on your site for longer and increase the odds that new visitors will feel confident enough to make a purchase.
We hear a lot in today’s world about how people are responding more and more strongly to visual marketing. According to TapSnap, visual content performs 4.4 times better than text-based content and 65% of audiences are visual learners.
Website visitors are also 64% more likely to buy a product on an online retail site after watching a video.
How do I prepare for making a testimonial video?
First and foremost, think about how your video should feel. The key terms you’re aiming for are ‘natural’ and ‘authentic’. A good testimonial video should also feel relatable: it has to feature real fans of your brand and natural, unscripted responses.
Why? Because nobody will believe someone sprouting a rehearsed or robotic opinion! Don’t be scared to show your real customers telling their real stories to ensure your testimonial video is engaging, credible and enjoyable.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put some planning into producing one. Creating video content can be tricky so enlist the help of people who know what they’re doing, including writers, filmmakers, video editors, graphic designers and animators.
Prepare a list of questions in advance, but don’t be too attached to them or get upset if your customer goes off track!
Remember that your featured customers are doing you a favor and treat their time as the precious commodity that it is. Plan ahead so everything runs smoothly, prepare the types of questions you want them to answer and be ready to prompt them if required.
This will not only help you get all the information you need, but also make your testimonial video feel professional and natural. Instead of having an interview with your ‘testifying’ customers, you could even try to make it a conversation.
Always give your subjects plenty of time to elaborate. You probably only have one chance to get them on camera. It’s always better to have too much information than to have too little.
What do I need to do during filming?
During filming, you need to remember to give context to your video. For instance, are you recording this conversation inside of an office? Is this office located in San Francisco, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Tokyo… or Mars?
Show some shots that give context to your viewers to add a whole new level of credibility to the video. You might want to punch in a geographic location or list the specific place in which the interview is taking place.
Small details add visual interest as well as brand context.
Here’s a great example of this principle in action from Phelps Agency.
What is the most important thing to focus on?
It may sound a little negative, but the most important thing to focus on is the pain points.
Your customer’s pain points are what your audience will identify with the most. So don’t leave them out! Encourage your clients to talk about the problems they were experiencing and how they found a great solution in your product.
Providing evidence that your brand is capable of solving people’s pain points (and is not afraid of discussing them) will make your audiences trust you a whole lot more.
Try to focus on the specifics of each featured customer’s buying journey as much as possible to help audiences differentiate between them and show that you truly care.
How about the editing part?
It can be daunting to be faced with a whole pile of raw footage and limited time/resources to whip it into visual magic. You might want to outsource it to a video editing professional.
But if you edit it yourself, the main thing to remember is to edit wisely. You obviously don’t want your video to be too long, but you should take care not to leave out any important parts of the conversation.
Wise editing involves:
- Stay true to what your interviewee has said
- Use advanced editing techniques to give your testimonial a good rhythm
- Layer music over the top (if appropriate)
- Ensure everything is in high-definition
- List any credits, make sure the sound is clear and consistent, and have some explanatory text surrounding the video so people know what they’re clicking on!
This WireBuzz HubSpot testimonial video is another good example of these elements in action:
How do I promote my testimonial video?
So you’ve finally got your customer testimonial video ready and you’re really happy with how it looks. Great! Now it’s time to promote it.
Keep your video testimonials to one page on your website. Share them around with the featured customers and encourage them to share them with friends. You can even ask them to use a specific hashtag – chances are, they’ll be proud of helping you and will readily share it for you!
Be sure to let them know that any feedback is welcome and emphasize how much you appreciate their time and energy.
Next, send your testimonial video to non-featured customers who you think might be interested. Add a link to your testimonial page in your homepage, ‘About Us’ page and social profiles.
You might want to amp up the trajectory of your testimonial videos even more by posting it as an update on various social platforms. Simply write a catchy status like, ‘Want to see what our customers really think of us?” and ensure the link opens in a new tab.
If your business or brand has a LinkedIn Page, uses Google+ or other forums, put your testimonial videos front and center there as well.
Wrapping up
Testimonial videos are a form of high-quality content that can easily translate into customer trust, conversions and sales.
Showing a customer happily endorsing your brand is the best way to spark identification in your audience and give them the final reason they need to close a sale.
Remember to keep everything natural and ‘real’ – your customer’s testimony, your conversation with them and your video editing. Anything that seems rehearsed or scripted, loses credibility.
Oh, and never forget to get creative. To enlist customers to feature in your video, you can send out an email newsletter inviting them to showcase creative uses of your product or mount an iPad in your storefront or office where customers can leave their two cents worth in their own time!
Guest Author: Victor Blasco is the founder and CEO of Yum Yum Videos, an audiovisual designer and a video marketing expert. Aside from running his businesses, he loves studying Chinese philosophy and is a real geek about science fiction films and comics. The force is strong with this one. Follow Victor on LinkedIn here. See Yum Yum’s page about customer testimonial videos here.