Some of the most persuasive sales messages are those that come from other clients or customers who are satisfied with the product.
Some of the most persuasive sales messages are those that come from other clients or customers who are satisfied with the product.
A good customer testimonial video allows you to speak to the value add benefits of your product beyond listing features. When you use your own staff to speak of your own company, potential clients may trust you, but may take the claims with the grain of salt.
This is because client testimonials offer social proof, which is known to be one of the most powerful decision-making factors. Marketing studies indicate that customer reviews and other forms of consumer-generated marketing content are seen by potential customers and clients as proof that product or service works as advertised. But a great testimonial shows how it can be beneficial to them.
Engaging client testimonial videos are short, but to the point
Brevity is crucial when you are using videos for marketing purposes. The target view time is often 60-90 seconds.
But how do you compress a complex B2B solution into 60-90 second answer? Or when the business circumstances take longer than 60-90 seconds to set up?
Shorter Is Better
The solution in modern video deployment is increasingly to release multiple videos in short 60-90 second chunks (instead of a single 5 minute “case study).
I have seen countless times where a great (expensive) 5 minute only has 20% of it’s starting audience are still watching by minute 3. Meaning the information and call to actions at the end of the video are not being seen. Regardless of how good the video may be, the audience is not engaged.
Freedom To Choose
By breaking the video into two or even three shorter videos, you allow the viewer the freedom to select what they are interested in learning about, in the order they are interested in learning about it.
Using this simple technique can result in fewer people quitting a video part way though. Often, you’ll see even more people watching the video. This is attributed the psychological interpretation that 60-90 seconds requires much less commitment than a 5 minute video.
There are many ways to break apart your video into digestible chunks. But it is important to let clients tell their own stories. Clients often only use, or deeply identify with, a few select features that create a direct result for their use case. The quickest way is to separate the customer testimonial based on the features they enjoy speaking about.
The key to an engaging client testimonial is to create an environment where a customer can tell a story. By separating by feature, it allows the customer to tell their journey towards success but focused on an individual feature. But no matter how testimonial is divided, the client story should follow the story structure.
Fours Steps To Customer Testimonials
First, have the clients tell the story of what it was like before they worked with your business, product or service. This will help capture the attention of potential customers as a relatable situation.
* SECRET: While your product may be used many different situations, my suggestion is to start with the industry or situation you consider your product to be the best seller (or that you are trying to boost in sales). Eventually you collect multiple testimonials to cover other use cases.
Secondly, have the clients tell the story of their experience during the time they worked with your business, product or service. This can include staff interactions, training, processes, or what it took to integrate your solution into their business. The point is to indicate to potential clients they should expect to have a positive and smooth experience working with your company.
Third, have your clients talk about the end results of working with your company. Let them talk about the benefits they received.
And finally, have your customer discuss how your product or service affected their lives. You didn’t just solve a problem, they are now able to do more work, or more accurate work, or grow their business having used their solution.
How Can I Help?
I have helped companies build incredibly successful video campaigns built entirely around customer testimonials. Houston Video specializes in producing affordable, effective, and engaging customer testimonials to help you improve your sales. Contact us below to see how you can incorporate customer testimonials into your video marketing strategy.
