We all know the value of word of mouth for growing and expanding a business. Nothing is stronger than a personal recommendation. Testimonials are perhaps the next best thing as they can give your potential customers the reassurance that your products and services are really worth considering. It’s hard to sing your own praises, and it rarely works when you do. In a testimonial, you have a third party saying what you might not be able to.
Text-based testimonials are a common way of sharing customer experiences. However, they do have the potential of getting lost amongst mountains of other text and content.
Using an online video format for testimonials helps get your message across in a way that’s going to keep your audience’s attention. Video is an authentic and credible way to communicate your customer’s message. Rather than simply telling potential customers why they should do business with you, you can show them.
Here are Visual Culture’s five tips for creating quality video testimonials:
1) Ask for a testimonial
If a customer ever tells you how much they value your service or asks what they can do for you, ask them for a video testimonial. In fact, even if they don’t, ask anyway! Testimonials are that valuable.
2) Don’t waste time – be prepared
The last thing you want to do is to waste your customers’ time, so ensure you know what questions and what kind of responses you would like to get before you interview your customer. This will also ensure you don’t forget an important question on the day and that you don’t run overtime. Keep the interview short and straight to the point. You should be able to capture everything you need with around 5 questions.
3) Make your customer feel comfortable
Speaking in front of a camera can be daunting for many people. It’s important your customer feels comfortable and relaxed so they can express themselves clearly and confidently. A great way to do this is to treat the interview as a relaxed conversation. Rather than firing your questions one after another, start with some simple warm-up questions to get the ball rolling and then ask your set questions. Don’t rush the questions and remind your customer that they don’t need to provide a ‘perfect’ answer.
4) Ask for specifics
Specifics are especially effective in a testimonial. Rather than “we saw a big improvement,” get your customer to state exactly what the improvement was, such as “we saw a 110% improvement.”
5) Don’t over-edit
Testimonials work best when they are in “real” language, from the heart of the interviewee. Those small grammar and language quirks help the viewer connect and demonstrate they are real.
See how we have put our tips into action in this video testimonial with our client, Edlyn Foods
So if you’d like to revamp your client testimonial webpage – why not film your happy customers? Give Visual Culture a call and we’ll help you produce a fantastic testimonial video.