When it comes to your marketing strategy, video testimonials can be a key tool to driving sales. While traditional advertising methods still play an important role, modern consumers are increasingly sceptical of polished marketing campaigns and are wise to disingenuine marketing. Instead, modern consumers seek genuine experiences and authentic feedback from real customers.
This is where testimonial videos come into play. These videos feature real customers sharing their authentic experiences and insights, forming emotional connections that resonate with viewers.
In this blog, we will explore the benefits of video testimonials, and how these videos wield influence over consumer behaviour by providing invaluable insights into the real experiences of satisfied customers.
What is a testimonial video?
A testimonial video is a marketing tool that showcases satisfied customers or clients sharing their genuine experiences and opinions about a product, service, or brand. Unlike written testimonials, testimonial videos add a compelling visual element that enhances credibility and trust.By featuring real people expressing their satisfaction and highlighting the benefits they’ve received, these videos resonate with a wider audience.
Benefits of video testimonials
Now we know what a testimonial video is, let’s take a look at some of the benefits of them:
Control the narrative and create a story
Whilst reviews can work wonders, there is a complete lack of control over what the reviewers may or may not say. With video testimonials, a brand can control the narrative they way they want to help get across the messages that they want out there.
A company is able to decide exactly what message they want to get across to their customers, allowing them to pick particular clients they know have had good experiences to share their stories.
In turn, this allows a company to more accurately reach their target audience. It is essential to create a testimonial video with a compelling narrative that captivates viewers and keeps them engaged from start to finish.
Build trust
When customers share their genuine experiences and satisfaction with your products or services, it adds an authentic and trustworthy dimension to your brand.
This authenticity is what helps to build trust with new customers, making them more likely to choose your brand over competitors. When customers share their stories in their own words, it adds a genuine and authentic touch to your brand’s narrative. It also humanises your brand, making it more approachable and relatable.
This sense of connection fosters a community of loyal customers who feel part of your brand’s story. By highlighting what makes your brand unique, a testimonial video effectively differentiates you in a competitive market, leading to increased brand recognition and sales growth.
Provide social proof
We’re going to put our smarty pants on for a moment here and delve into a bit of psychology to show that there is proof that a testimonial video helps to influence the public’s decision making when it comes to purchasing a product or service.
There is a psychological concept called social proof that explains how people are influenced by others’ decisions. In marketing, social proof can be seen in the form of a video testimonial. They serve as a form of social proof, showcasing real people who have benefited from the product or service.
It essentially elicits a herd mentality, whereby when people see that a certain product has worked well enough to solve someone else’s similar issue, it is most likely going to work for them too.
Creates an emotional response
Humans are emotional beings, and emotions play a significant role in our decision-making process. Storytelling in testimonial videos helps to create an emotional connection, engaging people on a deeper level. Emotional connections are powerful drivers for purchasing decisions, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
Testimonial videos leverage this aspect by appealing to the viewers’ emotions. When people see others expressing joy, satisfaction, or gratitude for a product, they are more likely to associate their positive experience with the brand.
Highlighting Key Features and Solutions
Testimonial videos provide businesses with the opportunity to focus on specific features that set their products apart from the competition.
By highlighting these unique selling points through the lens of user testimonials, a company can communicate exactly how you should spend your hand earned money on their product.
Shareable
Video is a powerful tool, and as we’ve mentioned, people like to connect with the story behind a brand. When this happens, it creates a desire to show their peers in hopes that they too can have a similar reaction too.
Videos allow people to not only connect more than text but they are also easily shareable. With around 5 billion videos being watched every day, it’s no secret that people prefer watching videos to any other type of content. This is a lot of potential shareability!
Testimonial videos are easily shareable with a simple click of a link. They can be retweeted, shared on Instagram or sent to someone via email or text.
Whilst word of mouth advertising is undeniably effective, the instantaneous nature of online shareability helps brands and companies to have their testimonial videos discovered with much more ease than ever before.
Video testimonials are great content
In the digital era, content is king. Therefore, it stands to reason that any company that wants to boost their sales must find multiple sources of content to help get them noticed and stand out from their competitors.
Customer testimonials are a great source of video content, providing companies with the opportunity to share these videos across multiple different social media platforms.
How to use a testimonial video
Let’s say you’ve decided to go ahead with creating a video testimonial. That’s great! Now, the next step in ensuring it helps to drive sales is knowing how to use these pieces of video content in order to leverage yourself and get the desired traction.
Homepage
Your homepage is the digital front door to your business, and it’s crucial to make a strong first impression. Incorporating a compelling testimonial video on the homepage can instantly capture visitors’ attention and pique their interest.
Putting customer testimonials at centre stage allows newcomers to your website to immediately see the experience that your current customers have had.
Product page
So you have a few customer testimonial videos about how great your product is. What better place to put that video than on the product page itself?
When using customer testimonial videos, it’s important to keep the customer journey in mind whilst they browse through your website.
If the customer testimonial video is talking about a specific product rather than how great your company is as a whole or how fantastic your customer service was, it might be wise to place it on the product page to help further cement their decision to buy from you.
Specific video testimonials page
For those who do not want to beat around the bush, you can create a dedicated testimonials page where you can post videos of your customer testimonials. This page serves as a centralised hub for showcasing a collection of authentic feedback from your satisfied customers.
It even provides the opportunity to create different categories in the testimonial page,by having for example a video testimonials section and written testimonials section.
Social media
The power that social media wields is undeniable. With so many people using a variety of different social media channels every day, your potential to reach new customers with video testimonials is huge.
Remember when we spoke about social proof earlier? Social media is a great example of where social proof exists, allowing an unlimited amount of people to witness exactly how your product has benefited someone’s life.
Customer video testimonials can be used on social media to strategically target your desired audience’s pain points.
Many different social media channels also allow you to use functions such as hashtags to help increase your discoverability. Keeping an eye out for trends can also help to boost your discoverability, and sometimes it takes a clever and creative idea to create a link between a certain trend and your product.
Another great way to reach customers and drive is through an email marketing strategy. Video testimonials can be a valuable addition to your email newsletter which are often customers who have previously expressed interest in what you’re offering.
Research suggests that email marketing can be up to 40 times more effective than social media, allowing people to receive specific emails that showcase different types of products.
Companies can include video testimonials in their email marketing that can be tailored specifically to the customers. For example, segment your email list based on customer interests, and send relevant video testimonials accordingly.
Tips for a top-notch testimonial video
Producing compelling testimonial videos requires careful planning and execution. Consider the following tips to ensure impactful and engaging content:
Keep it authentic
Authenticity is key to the success of a video testimonial. Avoid overly scripted content and allow customers to share their experiences in their own words. This genuine approach resonates with potential customers and strengthens the credibility of the video.
Keep it concise
While it’s essential to capture all relevant details, testimonial videos should be concise and to the point. Focus on the most impactful elements of the customer’s story to maintain viewer engagement, and don’t spend too long dragging out any one point.
The video can start out by showing how the product or service offered the perfect solution to the customer’s problem. This allows viewers to empathise with the situation and understand the context for the solution presented.
Next, highlight the unique features and benefits that addressed the customer’s needs effectively. Round it off by showing exactly how it managed to solve the issue that was mentioned at the start.
Select the right customers
Choose customers with diverse backgrounds and experiences to showcase a wide range of perspectives in your testimonial videos. This will help them resonate with your customers.
Creating a comfortable environment
Some customers may feel nervous in front of a camera. Creating a relaxed atmosphere during interviews can help to ensure that customers feel comfortable sharing their stories genuinely.
Ask thought-provoking questions
Plan a set of open-ended questions that encourage customers to share their experiences, challenges, and ultimate satisfaction with the product or service.
Add visual variety
A solid testimonial video may also incorporate visual variety through relevant B-roll, product demonstrations, or customer interactions.
Incorporate calls-to-action
Concluding the video testimonial with a clear and compelling call-to-action and help to direct potential customers to take the desired next steps.
Conclusion
When it comes to video marketing, testimonial videos rule the roost in terms of helping to drive sales. It is the connection that is created between customer and company that makes video testimonials such a powerful driver for sales.
By harnessing the persuasive power of testimonial videos, businesses can create an authentic and compelling narrative that inspires trust and drives sales like never before.
Here at Perspective Pictures, we know a thing or two about what makes a great video testimonial. We can help you plan it from start to finish, creating something that you are proud to put out there into the world.
For more information, contact us today where our friendly team will be waiting to assist you with any and all video related queries!
