Looking to develop brand recognition and increase conversion rates on your product or service? A well-made customer testimonial can do just that. It is one way to promote what your company has to offer in an authentic, sincere way. The one thing it does for sure is separate your product or service from similar competitors, helping you bridge that gap between the consideration stage and the desired action.
But what exactly is a customer testimonial video and how do you create one that will help move the needle forward?
How do customer testimonial videos increase conversions?
You know you need a way of zeroing in on prospective clients, maybe they’ve checked you out already, but they aren’t convinced they need your product or service specifically. How do you convince them otherwise?
Video content is a powerful tool that helps attract, engage, and nurture users toward a sale, but a customer testimonial is key in actually helping prospects convert. Just take a look at some of the numbers:
- Customer testimonials are the most effective form of content, coming in at an 89 percent effectiveness rating.
- Brands that inspire a higher emotional intensity receive three times as much word-of-mouth as less emotionally connected brands.
- 56% of users say customer testimonials are helpful in the decision-making stage.
- Of consumers surveyed, 72 percent say positive reviews and testimonials make them trust a business more.
- Eighty-four percent of people say they trust consumer reviews just as much as they would trust a recommendation from a friend.
So now you know video testimonials help your customers convert. What is the best way to make one? Let’s start!
What is a customer testimonial?
A customer testimonial video is essentially a positive review from a happy customer where they go in depth about how your company helped them and what their experience was like working with you. It’s highly personal and very honest and plays a huge role in increasing your conversion rates.
These videos are especially powerful because people trust the opinion of other people – even strangers! Getting a glimpse into the life of real customers who actually endorse what you have to offer provides authentic social proof, a major contributor that takes users from the nurturing phase to the conversion phase of the buyer’s journey.
How do you make a good customer testimonial video?
The key to creating an emotional, impactful testimonial video. By keeping the message centered around the positive aspects of your brand it gives your product or service credibility in the eyes of a consumer who has never tried it.
Have the person being interviewed answer a few questions: Why did they choose your brand or product? What are the benefits of using your product or service? Why should others try your product or service?
You want to avoid simple, “yes” and “no” questions – those won’t get you any solid answers and definitely won’t spark that emotion needed to help the viewer connect.
In addition to sparking an emotional connection, there are two different types of testimonial videos that work best in capturing the heart of your business.
1. Testimonial Compilation
A testimonial compilation includes quick, positive sound bites from several different customers. This opens the floor for multiple talking points and highlights a variety of different personalities and demographics. These are also great because the multitude of perspectives lends more credibility to your brand. This can be cut down into short clips for social media and great for remarketing paid advertising to help future nurture those leads who have not yet converted.
2. Testimonial Highlight
Testimonial highlights are videos that include one longer interview with one of your customers. These interviews go a little further in depth than compilations do, and help communicate a deeper understanding of why your brand, product, or service is so exceptional. Usually, these testimonials have a stronger impact and can often touch on special benefits or features you offer.
3 Impactful Places to Use Your Customer Testimonial Video
Now that you have your testimonial video, what are you going to do with it? Well the good news about these videos, unlike other types, like How-to or FAQ videos, customer testimonials can be distributed almost anywhere you have an online presence.
1. Website
One of the best places to use your new testimonial video is your website! Depending on the structure of your website, there are tons of places you can naturally embed your video testimonial. The homepage is a great place to start. You don’t necessarily want a testimonial to be the first thing a visitor sees, since they’ll need a little more context before being drawn in, but presenting your testimonial further down on the page can provide the social proof a user is looking for and increase their overall time spent browsing.
You can also add your testimonial to other pages, like your How It Works page, your About page, various places on your blog, and on your ecommerce pages if you’ve got them. Having a ecommerce product testimonial video will absolutely increase sales. Embedding them on ad landing pages, like the ones you might use for search or social ads is also essential – someone who has clicked on an ad of yours is showing interest in your company. Using a testimonial video to hook them will not only help them convert, but add to your overall credibility.
2. Social Media
Though social media videos are typically short and a little more visually bold, a customer testimonial that tells a good and engaging story can also be a great performer on social. There are the usual channels, like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter, where you can organically reach fans who are already following your page. A pro tip is to use captions to captivate users who may be scrolling quickly and listening without sound.
You can also run ads on these channels to reach a new audience. These channels are great for retargeting users who have already visited your website, providing the second touch point for them to gain trust and accountability for your brand.
Videos are great for building custom audiences. For those who watched more than 25% of the video, you can later run a more targeted and engaging ad to convert the new audience.
Finally, you can also upload your video to other platforms, like YouTube (the world’s most popular video hosting platform), Quora, or even Reddit or Slideshare via a presentation. These are less thought of platforms that still have amazing reach in certain niches and industries and can drive an unexpected amount of brand awareness.
3. Email
Customer testimonials are a great piece of content to share with anyone you have on your email lists. Besides providing the social proof that may re-engage them, emailing out a video testimonial is a great way to spice up your email content. Use it in a regular weekly or monthly newsletter, in your next promotional email, or even your sales or customer support emails. If you have any automated email drip campaigns, a customer testimonial is a great way to nature those warm leads and get them to convert.
Conclusion
Using video testimonials are a powerful way to increase your conversion rates with many strategies. Remember a good customer testimonial must have an engaging customer with a great story to tell! If you are interested in creating your own customer testimonials, reach out to us directly!
