A testimonial is content your customers make with their opinions and thoughts about your brand. The most impactful form of this content is when they are videos! With the rise of Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, video content has become extremely popular, and even preferred by many. As a result, it has become extremely important to include video content in your digital marketing strategy.
Video testimonials are a great way to get authentic content that truly shows potential customers why they should purchase from your brand. By utilizing them in your marketing strategy, you enable the power of social proof! Social proof is extremely important when it comes to consumer decision making. So, It is essential for your brand to collect video testimonials, and utilize them in your marketing!
Why Video Testimonials Are a Great Way to Boost Sales
Video testimonials allow your brand to build trust since they showcase authentic customer experiences. When your brand creates your own content, it can appear biased. But with testimonials, the content is relatable to your customers, and addresses their wants and needs from their point of view.
Additionally, video testimonials allow your customers to express the emotion that your brand brings them. This is an important aspect since seeing, and hearing, people talk positively about your brand will leave a lasting impression. Video testimonials also allow your customers to showcase your product, or service, benefits in action. This ensures that potential customers will trust that your brand will bring quality offerings to them.
According to The DVI Group, “Research shows that websites featuring video testimonials experience an average conversion rate increase of 80%”. A big aspect that contributes to this is social proof. Social proof is the idea that people are influenced by other people’s actions.
An example is, when you see a friend post about how much fun they had at a museum. You are more likely going to want to plan a trip to the museum so that you can experience it too! Similarly, in marketing, when your peers post about a brand, you will want to check out the same brand. A good or bad review from your peers make or break your purchasing decision. Also, some people will not trust a brand unless their peers have purchased from them before.
Video testimonials can be used in multiple marketing channels, such as:
- On social media (in posts, stories, etc)
- In advertisements
- In email campaigns
- In business proposals
- On your website (check out our blog on this!)
Thus, utilizing video testimonials across your marketing strategy ensures that potential customers are more likely to purchase from your brand, and will boost sales as a result.
Key Elements of High-Converting Video Testimonials
Just having testimonials isn’t enough, you need to think about what you want in the content of the testimonials your customers create. Here are some key elements of high converting video testimonials:
- Authenticity: It is extremely important for the content in your video testimonials to be authentic. Advise your customers to speak from their heart, and to express how they truly feel about your brand.
- Natural Delivery: Make sure your customers appear comfortable on camera. Provide them with tips to ensure they are comfortable and not too formal. For example, you can tell them to pretend they are talking to a friend. By doing this, they will express how they feel without a filter.
- Clear Messaging: When you ask your customers to record a testimonial for you, be sure to instruct them on what to talk about. This ensures that their message is clear and to the point. Creating effective UGC hooks in your video testimonials can significantly increase engagement and conversion rates.
- Quality: Make sure the videos you collect are good quality, and the audio is clear. You can instruct customers to record their video on their phone to get the best quality.
- Specific Details and Results: Make sure your customers are specific about their review. For example, saying “this product is good” is not as impactful as “this product provided me with , and I really enjoyed it”.
- Diverse Representation: Since your customers are diverse, it is important to accurately represent all of them. Be sure to showcase a range of customer demographics and use cases so that each video is impactful.
- Length and Pacing: Tell your customers how long their video should be, and remind them to talk at a natural pace.
- Call-to-Action: Your brand can add an outro to the testimonials collected. You can tell viewers to check out your website, comment their favorite part about the product or service shown, or comment any questions they have.
Winning Video Testimonials
1. Aeropostale
Many people like to see how clothes look on actual customers in video form, which is exactly what this video testimonial on Aeropostale’s Instagram provides. At the beginning, she also mentions they can find their clothes on Amazon, giving the viewer a clear CTA. This video testimonial is impactful since it accurately shows what their products are like in a good quality video, ensuring that potential customers will check out their clothing.
2. Glossier
Glossier shares videos of their customers using their products on their social media. In this video, the customer shows how she uses their products, and states it is her perfect summer lip look. This testimonial is impactful since it clearly shows how the product can be used to achieve a look that customers want.
3. Fenty Hair
Fenty Hair features videos of their customers with all different hair types, showing potential customers how their products can work for them. In this video testimonial, the customer shows how she uses Fenty Hair products, and explained how it helped her hair. This is a great example of how testimonials can be impactful, since people with similar hair types can see how it would work for them!
4. Olipop
5. Dutch Bros Coffee
Dutch Bros Coffee’s customer posted this video showing how authentic testimonials are! The customers in the video state which drinks they got and showed their reactions to each drink. This is a great example of how emotion is expressed better through videos.
6. Sweetish Candy - A Swedish Candy Store
One of Sweetish Candy’s customers made a video trying their candies! They reposted it, so that their customers are able to see the review of their products. This video testimonial is a good example of how your customers’ real reactions to your offerings can make your brand stand out.
7. Black Girl Sunscreen
In this video testimonial that Black Girl Sunscreen shared on their social media, their customer expresses why she loves their product. She explains the benefits of the product, and addresses pain points that potential customers may have. This is an example of how an authentic and easy going video can end up boosting sales for your brand.
8. Bounty
9. Instax
An Instax customer shares this impactful video testimonial! She explains the features she enjoys about the camera, and shows them in action. This testimonial stands out since it is short and sweet, but also shows how many different features the camera has. The quality of the video also helps to convince potential customers that they should look into this camera.
10. Jellycat
One of Jellycat’s customers made a TikTok of their experience inside the Jellycat Patisserie! This video shows their experience, and the excitement in her voice shows exactly why video testimonials leave an impact on potential customers. The video was also taken at a natural pace, making it easy for people to relate to the video, and want to experience it themselves.
Best Practices for Creating Effective Video Testimonials
In order for your customers to create effective video testimonials, your brand needs to properly instruct them.
First, provide your customers with specific questions to answer in their testimonial videos. This will help them think of what to say in their video.
Additionally, it will help your brand have a specific message in your marketing.
Some examples are:
- How did (product/service) help you solve a problem?
- What is your favorite feature of (product/service)?
- What is your favorite thing about our brand?
- Why did you purchase from our brand?
- How has your experience been with our brand?
Additionally, be sure to give them good video taking tips. Tell them to be in a well lit and quiet area. Also, have them make sure their camera is set up in an appealing way. This can be done using a tripod, or by resting their phone against another object. It is also crucial to include if the video should be portrait or landscape so that your company’s content is formatted consistently.
After you receive their testimonial, you should edit their video to fit your branding. This can be done by adding an intro or outro with your logo. It is also important to edit out any unnecessary information. For example, if the person says “Hi my name is ” that is not necessary to include on your social media. You can edit that out and get straight to the meat of their video. It is also important to remember that most people’s attention spans are very short. So, it is good to edit out anything that is a filler, and get straight to the point.
Finally, an extremely important step in asking your customers to create a video testimonial is to get their permission to use their videos in your marketing. Your brand should have a terms of service, or have a disclaimer saying that you have rights to use their video. This way, your brand can avoid legal issues, and you are respecting your customers. If you do not receive permission from your customers, then do not use their videos in your marketing.
