Effective Corporate Testimonial Videos Start With Interviewer Skills, Not Gear

Stories can really grab people’s attention. In corporate videos, how well you tell a story can make a big difference.

Making corporate videos is a highly engaging way to capture and retain audience attention, and is often more effective than other forms of content.

Interviews give us personal stories and experiences that make the company’s message come alive.

But just asking questions isn’t enough. The interviewer needs to connect with people and ask questions that make them think and share more. This is how you get stories that not only inform but also enhance your business by speaking to them emotionally.

And in the end, emotion and transparency are critical unspoken value-add.  In a study surveying people watching customer testimonials, over 70% said positive video testimonials significantly increased their trust in a business.

Every good video starts with clear goals. Without a well-defined purpose, the video is likely to miss the mark and fail to deliver the desired impact. Is the video designed to highlight a specific feature? Or focus on the results of the outcome?

This is where strong interview skills become crucial.

An experienced video production team can pull out the key ideas and stories from people in a way to ensure the final product aligns with the intended goals and can help impact conversions.

Good interviewers also adjust their questions based on how people respond. This can lead to unexpected insights that make the video even better.

But it’s also very easy to interview someone for 30 minutes and want to produce a 10 minute video.  This is also not good.  According to a 2022 survey by Sprout Social, short-form videos are found to be the most engaging. As many as two-thirds of consumers (66%) say they pay the most attention to short-form videos — 2.5 times more than long-form videos.

Ultimately, defining clear goals lays the foundation for a corporate video that stays on topic, stays brief, and can achieve the desired result in the story being told.

Conducting successful interviews goes beyond just asking questions. It’s about creating an environment where the interviewee feels comfortable to open up and share their genuine thoughts and experiences.

Interviews work best when the person being interviewed feels relaxed and willing to share. It’s about making a connection that helps them open up. This level of vulnerability and openness can add depth, emotion, and humanity to the interview, making it more relatable and engaging for the audience.

When people feel comfortable, they share deeper thoughts and stories.  This means the interviewer needs to be friendly and welcoming.

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During the post-production phase, editors must sift through all the interview footage.  This could be hours of content.

Poorly conducted interviews can result in disjointed narratives, incomplete information, and a lack of cohesion, making the editing process more challenging and time-consuming.

Skilled interviewers can elicit authentic emotions and candid responses from their subjects.  You have clear, focused snippets which add depth, authenticity, and emotional impact to the narrative.

Viewers can sense if an interview is cut so aggressively as if to create a sentence that was not originally spoken.  When 56% of users say customer testimonials are helpful in the decision-making stage, it’s important to capture something authentic.