Who better to vouch to your future customers than your current satisfied ones?
Happy customers are some of the best marketing resources you have at your disposal. If a customer is about to purchase your product or service, they (of course!) want to know what they’re about to purchase is great. But they don’t want hear it from you.
This is where testimonial videos come in. Video marketing is one of the most efficient marketing formats today, as videos are attention-grabbing, engaging and easily shareable in the current online world.
In fact, in a recent study, 26 percent of video viewers searched for additional information about the video’s associated business and 15 percent visited the store who posted the video.
So while testimonial videos probably fit will in different stages of your video marketing strategy, your priority should be focusing on them during the decision stage in the buyers journey.
Houston Video specializes in creating engaging, effective testimonial videos. This type of content needs to be approached and executed in the right way, otherwise you risk backfiring and sounding self-promotional or tacky, leading to losing credibility.
10 Tips for a Great Testimonial Video
Tips #1-5
#1. Make your video as natural as possible
One of the first things you should be thinking bout is to give your customer testimonial a feeling of authenticity. Make it natural, credible, and believable.
How and where you film creates the face of your business and gives your brand the credibility it needs within your target group. Testimonial videos are also a huge sign of respect to the individuals who give their opinions.
You entrust your reputation to these clients, showing them that you value their opinion and want to document it. It is crucial they feel natural answering the questions in an environment they are comfortable.
#2. Don’t Script It
For the answers to be authentic, it needs to have authentic answers. Don’t write a script, let your interviewee use their own words. It’s tempting to sometimes let the interviewee write answers themselves. While it may be seem comforting, reading/recalling a script can change the sincerity in the delivery.
Your testimonial should not be a presentation of a lot of numbers. That is a realm of a case study. Your testimonial should be an emotional connection to the experience of your product. The value is in the customers story.
#3. Put Your Video Into Context
Whether you’re shooting your video in a store, your restaurant, or an office, make sure to show some context in your video. Remember, you are creating this video to be watched by a specific person. Use your location to reinforce add context of what that viewer is expects.
If you is discussing construction job-site safety, it may be more valuable to film outside on a job-site than within an an office. Even if it is noisy, even if the interviewee or viewer work at a desk, being outside adds visual weight and humanizes the conversation.
#4. Prepare Questions in Advance, but Listen to the Responses You Get
It’s important to be prepared. It’s important to approach your interview with questions you would like to cover. The best testimonials sound like a conversation. Remember to have a conversation!
Listen to to what your interviewee is saying and always ask a follow up question. Don’t be afraid to let a conversation go a little off track. Sometimes that is where you will find the greatest content.
Anecdotes and valuable stories typically only come out after the imposing feeling of a camera (and an interviewee) have dissolved.
#5. Give Your Interviewee Some Time To Prepare
It’s good if you give your interviewee the questions you’ll be asking them in advance, so they have time to prepare. But it’s even better to give them just a general idea of the topics you’ll be covering in the interview.
This is so they don’t get tempted to practice the answers too much, as it will make the the conversation robotic and unnatural.
Houston Video Customer Testimonials
If you follow these 5 tips, you’re on your way to a great customer testimonial video. In our next post we will discuss the next 5 tips for a creating a meaningful client testimonial video.
Video testimonials are examples of some of the most effective tools in your marketing arsenal. With 78 percent of people watching online videos on a weekly basis, you can’t afford to miss out on such a powerful marketing tool.
Contact Houston Video today to learn more about the importance of testimonials in your advertising. 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 create and scale a profitable marketing campaign. Contact us below to see how you can incorporate customer testimonials into your video marketing strategy.
