Video testimonials are one of the best ways to turn prospects into paying customers. They can supercharge your business’s sales and attract extra leads over to you like moths flock to a light.
Video brings out happy and excited emotions in a way that’s much harder for text to do. It directly connects with your prospect’s feelings and desires and is getting more popular every year.
But like everything else in life, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do videos.
Here’s what NOT to do when you shoot a video testimonial.
1. Use Boring Backgrounds
Do not have a customer stare into a webcam and give a testimonial. Webcam headshots may have been the thing several years ago when video was starting to gain traction, but in 2019, they look far too unprofessional. There is a plethora of great video testimonial software which can enhance how your video testimonial will look.
2. Never Smile
If you don’t really care about making your brand appear trustworthy, warm, and welcoming, feel free to keep a face of stone and never smile. (But of course you care a lot, so on the flip side, always smile.)
Smiling makes people feel happy and comfortable. Nobody’s going to hand over their credit card info if they feel uncomfortable. So smile.
3. Display Zero Emotion
Your videos need to be full of emotion. One of the reasons videos are effective is because they easily convey (and evoke) emotions. Emotional videos make that crucial heart-to-heart connection between you and your prospects.
When a customer is happy, relieved, and excited because of the results you’ve delivered for them, those emotions carry through the video straight into your prospect’s heart and mind. If your videos don’t display emotion, prospects will disconnect from your brand and find a more down-to-earth company who seems to better understand real life.
4. Answer Only General Questions
People are coming to you for their specific needs. They’re not coming to you so you can fix some vague and general problem they’re dealing with. Nobody deals with vague and general problems anyway – to them, their problems are specific.
Answer specific questions in your video testimonials so prospects know exactly how you’ve helped others and how you can help them. This builds trust and credibility between your brand and the person on the other side of the web who is watching your videos.
5. Say “I Highly Recommend”
Those words have been repeated over and over again and mean nothing to people. The only way you’ll connect with your prospects is to make it obvious what results your product/service has brought to other customers.
In other words, your video testimonials should explain why customers like you. At the end of the day, what did your product/service do for them? Prospects want to specifically hear what you have done for other people.
Just like answering specific questions builds trust and credibility, so does laying out what you’ve specifically achieved for your other customers.
6. Don’t Include a CTA
What’s the point of a testimonial? If it’s strictly to make you look and sound nice, then keep out the CTA (Call To Action). No need to promote someone to take action if all you’re trying to do is come across as a nice business.
On the other hand, if you’re displaying testimonials to spur people on to take action, then always include a CTA. At the end of the video, tell them what you want them to do. Make it clear what the one thing is that viewers should do once the video is over.
Is it to click on your landing page? Download a guide? Book a call? Just because you have a good-quality video that looks authentic doesn’t mean it will cause a prospect to turn into a paying customer.
So now that you know how to not shoot a video testimonial, you might be wondering why you should fool with video over text anyway.
Why you want video testimonials over text testimonials.
1. Videos Evoke Emotion
Videos can pull out people’s emotions like no other. Because the viewer is sitting there watching someone else’s facial expressions and tone of voice, they’ll get excited, pumped, and inspired just by seeing someone else act that way.
It’s all about making that emotional connection with your audience. When someone can see your customers’ happiness and relief, it takes testimonials to a whole new level. It helps viewers make a deeper connection with your brand in a way that rational statistics never can.
As far as text is concerned, it takes an immense amount of time, effort, and expertise to write copy that works in the same way as a video testimonial does.
2. People Like Videos More Than Text
There’s no doubt about it. People love watching videos and are more likely to click on a video than scroll through a page of text.
A Forbes study found that 59% of executives would rather watch a video than read text. It also discovered that four times as many customers would prefer to see a video about a product than read copy talking about a product. And as far as testimonials go, 56% of respondents said videos are helpful.
3. People Share Videos More Than Text
Did you know that videos are twelve times more likely to get shared than text and images combined? As much as people prefer videos over text, it’s no surprise that they get shared with friends, family, and colleagues more than text does.
If you want your testimonials to reach a large audience, make them videos. They’ll be singing your praises all over social media.
4. Video is All the Rage
Because of its huge payoff and potential, video is here to stay and is constantly growing more popular. In the beginning of 2017, only 63% of companies were using video as a marketing tool. That number jumped up to 81% a year later. And today, it’s climbed up to 87%.
5. Videos are Easy to Capture
Don’t think you have to get fancy with expensive video and audio equipment. If you have a phone, you can take a video. As long as the video isn’t grainy looking and the audio is clear, your video can still look very professional.
Plus, everyone already has a phone, they’re easy to carry around with you, and you can view videos with them no matter where you are.
6. You Can Display Videos Anywhere
You can plug in your video testimonials all over the place. Put them up on your website, landing pages, and sales pages. Use them in your Google and Facebook ads. Post them on your YouTube channel. Promote and share them on all of your social media platforms.
There’s no end to how you can use your testimonial footage in your advertising and marketing channels.
Next Steps
Now that you know how to not do a video testimonial as well as why videos are important, you need to start capturing them. This is where things can get tricky if you don’t have the right resources to utilize.
That’s where we come in. We’re here to make capturing and displaying your video testimonials a breeze, so you start reeling in more leads and closing more sales.
We offer several options for you to take advantage of. You can place a button on any of your web pages to encourage people to give online testimonials. You can use your website’s URL link to capture a testimonial from email, SMS, WhatsApp, or your website.
You can use our mobile app to make capturing a video quick and easy. Or you can import a video with Facebook.
Once you start shooting and promoting the right kind of video testimonials, you can leverage them to build your authority, bring in more leads, and make more sales.
Start your video marketing program today with a Free VocalReferences Account
