From crisp product reviews and star ratings, to elaborate articles and special customer experiences captured on camera, testimonials have always played a huge role in shaping brand perceptions and improving or depleting company reputations.
People seek solid validation before shelling their money out for buying a product or availing a service. While word of mouth and friends and family may influence buying decisions to a certain extent, a vast majority of customers rely on public reviews, testimonials and ratings to satiate their insecurities.
Why are testimonials effective?
Customer reviews and client testimonials work for almost every kind of business, since they help build credibility and create a good impression about the brand and its offerings amongst the target audience. There are some undebatable advantages of customer testimonials, but since you already know about them, we won’t go there. Instead, let us take a look at why testimonials in the video format are all the rage today.
Why use video testimonials?
Customer testimonial videos are basically short AVs that capture a person’s experience in his/her own words. The purpose of video testimonials is the same as that of a review or customer experience documented in the text format. However, client testimonial videos take the cake and work better than text testimonials because today’s audience prefers this format more than any other format. Blame it on the shortening attention spans or the fact that people spend more time watching videos than any other activity online, customer testimonial videos are the need of the hour for your business.
Here are some other benefits of using customer testimonial videos:
- They engage the audience much better than text testimonials
- They add a degree of relatability, since the viewer can connect with the customer on screen
- Videos are easy to access, watch and share across a variety of devices
- Video testimonials can add immense value to your business website
- Customer testimonial statistics suggest that videos have a higher recall value than text content
When done right, video testimonials also look and feel genuine (rather than scripted). Think about it from a customer perspective – you don’t shop from a new store or buy a new product or avail a service unless you have gone through people’s reviews, ratings and recommendations, do you? The same applies to what your business is offering to its audience.
Manufacturing, technology, IT, hospitality, product, healthcare, education… no matter what industry segment your business belongs to, customer testimonial videos work like magic across all domains.
RELATED: CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL VIDEO EXAMPLES
How to use customer testimonial videos?
There are a few ways in which video testimonials can be used by enterprises for maximum impact and expanded reach:
- Host them on your website
Being one of the primary checkpoints for any business, there is every possibility that your prospective customers will visit your official website to learn more about you. It helps to have your customer testimonials on the site, since it is likely that the visitors will want to learn about your customers’ experiences. What’s more, if digital marketing experts are to be believed, Google loves websites that have relevant videos and also gives them preference over other similar websites that do not have any videos.
- Upload them on your official YouTube channel
Have a video? Put it up on YouTube! That has become the basic mantra for video promotion around the globe. With billions of users and a section of them being your target audience, it is a good idea to upload these testimonial videos on your YouTube channel.
- Promote them via social media platforms
Use your social profiles (Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) to share these videos with people who follow your business. You can even consider investing in paid advertising so that the video reaches your target audience and the brand gets more visibility.
- Incorporate a few snippets in your brand or company profile video
Gone are the days when you would go for client visits, expos and events with huge brochures about your company. It is the age of videos – so, if you are considering making a business profile video or brand video, inserting a few customer testimonial clips and shots therein can really elevate the quality and impact of the video.
- Run email campaigns using these videos
If you have a decent-sized email ID database of ex-customers, existing clients and potential patrons, you can consider email marketing as a branding exercise. You can embed video testimonials within the emails or send them as attachments.
So, you have more than enough reasons to invest in creating high-quality customer testimonial videos and some ideas of how you can use and market them effectively. It goes without saying that client testimonials are important for all kinds of B2B and B2C businesses. If you are looking for customer testimonial video production services, check out Toolbox Studio’s offerings.
