How to Add Credibility to Your Business with Testimonial Videos

If someone is thinking of using your business, hiring your services or buying your products, the likelihood is that they will check reviews and testimonials before reaching any decision.

The internet has made it possible for potential customers to do this from the comfort of their own homes. We use reviews to form an instant and sometimes long-lasting opinion about a particular company.

If you want to understand how powerful this is to your marketing efforts, here’s a stat for you: 92% of customers are likely to check reviews or seek out testimonials before buying a particular product.

When everyone has reviews and testimonials on their sites, however, how do you get to stand out from the crowd and make a big impression on your customers? Moving to video can give you a big advantage. It puts a real person in front of the potential customer, someone they can relate to better and engage with on a more emotional level.

The Benefits of Testimonial Videos

A testimonial video can be something as simple as a head and shoulders shot of a past customer explaining what they got out of your product or service. What this type of content delivers ahead of traditional written reviews is that they have personality and character. The video puts a face to the testimonial. When we see an individual talking about a business, we’re more likely to listen to what they are saying and actually more likely to believe them.

Testimonial videos help you build a greater level of trust with potential customers. We tend to see these types of content as unbiased and put a higher store in the positive message they are designed to get across.

We’re also more likely to watch video nowadays that read large amounts of text. We have smartphones that are perfect tools for checking out video of all types and which can be used wherever we are, at home, in the office or on the move.

Videos can also be used in a wide variety of different marketing activities. They don’t just sit on your website – you can upload them to sharing sites like YouTube and even social media such as Twitter and Facebook. This makes them more likely to be shared by viewers in general which is a marketing plus that you can often expect from this type of content.

Creating Testimonial Videos

The big challenge you will need to overcome is getting customers to appear on testimonial videos. People are often happy to write a few lines if you have delivered a great service but may be more reticent about appearing on camera, not least because it takes time.

That’s why it’s important to work with a video production company that has experience in delivering high-quality content such as testimonial videos. They can work with your team to put together a strategy that succeeds as well as help you select the perfect, satisfied customers to promote your company.

Get it right and you can expect your video testimonials to not only bring more customers to your door but to stand the test of time too. Video has a good ROI and will add depth and stature to your brand and marketing.

Why Viral is Not Always the Best Approach

Gong viral is often an ambition for companies that invest in video marketing.

The trouble is it’s a bit like winning the lottery. You hear of it happening, but it rarely happens to you. Focus on achieving a viral hit shouldn’t be part of your video content strategy at all. It can actually stop you delivering what your customers are actually looking for and it could well dilute your brand.

Video Content is Competitive

You’ve spent a lot of money getting your video together, you put it online and sit back, expecting it to go viral. After a week you go back and find you have only ten hits on your YouTube channel.

This, unfortunately, is the kind of thing that happens to businesses all over the world. Once you understand that 400 hours of video get uploaded to a site like YouTube every minute, you begin to realise what you are up against.

Should that stop you from investing in video as a marketing strategy? Absolutely not. Here’s what you need to be focused on:

Who is Going to Watch Your Video?

Any video production company executive will give a big sigh as soon as you mention going viral. It’s not just the chance factor involved in getting millions of hits, it’s the fact that you probably haven’t taken the time beyond this to decide what you want your video to achieve.

Successful video content marketing is all about delivering what your customers are searching for. It’s not what will keep these important people clicking and sharing, it’s about what will keep them watching. In other words, is your video useful?

The key for any marketing strategy is consistently creating content to help build a rapport with your customer and keep them engaged. If you build a catalogue of several videos to market your service or product and highlight your brand, the chances are none of will go viral. But you customers will appreciate them, and they will influence how your brand is perceived.

Searching for a Viral Video Takes You Off Track

A viral video has either got to be something quirky, humorous or downright controversial. The trouble with this is that any one of these can damage your brand more than enhance it.

Spending all your time trying to hit the viral jackpot means you’re spending less time on a video content strategy that could actually work for you. You should be focusing on other factors, including:

  • Stay focused on the story rather than getting a sale. Video is brilliant for building a more emotional connection with your customers. If you can do this the more engagement you should expect.
  • Focus on keeping your viewers watching – many people will jump out of a video within the first 10 seconds if it doesn’t appeal. What can you do to keep them watching? This is all about delivering what they need.
  • Finally, don’t be boring. We have high expectations when we view video and our time is limited. Get your message across in an entertaining way and you should expect to maintain attention for longer.

Our advice is to stop dreaming after the impossible and start concentrating on what you can do to make your video more appealing to the customers you are trying to connect with. Contact our Video Consultants to see what we can do for you.