Do you remember the last time you believed a wordy testimonial on a website? I sure don’t. It’s become common knowledge that businesses might not always have accurate testimonials on their website. But, what if you could show your visitors that the reviews are real by shooting a videos of happy customers?
If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine how many words a video would be worth! Video testimonials are a great way to show your visitors exactly what they get by doing business with you. Real customers talking about your business making their lives better, is essentially promotion without being too pushy.
There are many kinds of video testimonials out there, depending on how engaging your target market is and how much you want to spend. Before we go into that, let’s talk about the common factors in all of them.
The purpose of any video testimonial is to
- Market your product without an obvious sales pitch,
- Answer any FAQs your potential customers may have,
- Boost your credibility, and
- Show exactly how your product or service has improved the lives of your customers
It may seem a bit out of your reach to get a celebrity endorsement like proactive or any of the other big testimonial-based ads you’ve seen. But don’t worry, your customers want to see the real you and it’s not going to bleed you dry.
What you need to consider
First of all, a video testimonial doesn’t need to be a high resolution, professionally shot, touched up, rehearsed speech in a studio. The best ones come from real people, in real places (like maybe in your store or even in their home) just talking. The more natural it sounds, the more your audience will connect with it.
Another thing you have to consider is, are you planning on having just one video or a series of videos showing the various ways your business has helped people? If you’re doing a series, it is a good idea to have a wider demographic being shown as your clients. For example, if your landscaping firm has helped a family create a beautiful backyard for their kids as well as a woman with her home grown vegetable garden, it shows variety and connects with a wider audience.
The last part of creating a video testimonial is planning. There is a lot of thought that has to go into deciding how you are going to present your video. In order to create a shot that counts, it’s important that you decide beforehand how exactly you want to go about it.
Do you want the video to show the product being used?
What kind of setting do you want to shoot in?
How do you want to get you message across?
And of course, how much do you want to spend?
Let’s talk money
When it comes to the cost of video production, you can spend anywhere from a hundred bucks to a few thousand dollars depending on the kind of time, skill and effects you want to incorporate.
For a basic video testimonial of about 1-2 minutes, with a decent quality shot and a semi-pro behind the camera, it will cost you anywhere between $100- $600. A professional video on the other hand, used for corporate product videos or case studies might cost $1000- $3000 for a 2-3 minute video. There is a free alternative, but we’ll talk about that later.
The 5 W’s of Your Video Testimonial
Who: The customer who is in your video, should be a representative of the kind of customers you normally cater to. They need to be relatable to your audience and they need to speak well.
If you are going to use more than one person in the video, having two complementary people with an interesting conversation is the best way to go.
What: What are they going to say and how are they going to say it? Avoid scripting your speakers and give them talking points instead. Let them build up a story around the highlights of your product or service.
Where: If your business revolves around a service centre, it is a good idea to let your video show what you do, where you do it.
If your business sells a product that can be used at a customer’s home, you can even shoot the video in the comfort of their home. It’s important that the people in your video are comfortable and relaxed when they speak. That way, it sounds more natural, and they will be able to give a better testimonial to your product.
When: The best time to shoot a video is when everyone related to production is free, and everybody else is busy. If you want to shoot in your own establishment, it’s better that your staff are actually working in the background instead of looking around aimlessly.
Along with the planning that goes into video production, you also need to have a pre-production meeting with your videographer, as well as your clients. They should feel comfortable with the people behind the scenes. You can also use this time to guide them on their talking points, and what they need to emphasize, and how they can cover up any fumbles they make during the shot.
A testimonial doesn’t need to be too long. With the short attention span accompanying browsing users, the first 30 seconds needs to engage them enough to watch the entire video. The easiest way to do that is to avoid any long introductions, or general conversation prior to the actual content of the video.
Why: Before you go all in, you need to know exactly why you are making this video and what you want it to say. That way, you can effectively communicate the same to your clients and your production people so that they can give you the best results.
How Can You Get a Testimonial?
Ask and you shall receive. Customers aren’t going to toss video testimonials into your feedback box, you have to ask them for it. When you do, it’s always a good idea to keep them informed about what they are doing. Tell them what you want to accomplish with your video, where it will be put up (website, blog, email), and why you asked them to do it in the first place (a little flattery goes a long way).
If they still seem a little hesitant, try offering an incentive. Give them a discount on their next visit, or a free ice cream. Think about it. If they are good enough customers to talk about you on camera, they deserve a treat for spending their time promoting you. Right?
Using Tools To Get Video Testimonials
There are some great tools out there that you can use to get videos directly from your customers. The best part is, some of them even offer free plans for smaller campaigns.
- Bravo – Their software allows you to create campaigns so that your customers can directly submit their video testimonials to their platform. It also has features that can help you launch video contests to get a larger collection of videos from your customers.
- Vappsy – This app lets your users shoot and send videos through their smartphones. You can also manage these videos and your campaign through your own smartphone.
- Vidrack – Vidrack uses a browser-based video recorder that lets your customers record videos anywhere and upload them to a rack which only you have access to. From there, you can preview, download or delete videos.
The Alternative
If you don’t have the time (or money) to invest in producing video testimonials, you can always make a game out of it. Run a video contest, and ask your customers to submit their own videos talking about how much they love your product and why. Offer a great prize, promote your contest on your social media pages and watch the videos come to you.
You can get the videos through specialized platforms like Boast.io or get direct submissions through Youtube, Facebook and other social media. It’s a great way to engage your customers without too much effort from their side, thanks to smartphones.