The ultimate goal of any digital marketing tactic is to convert prospects into paying customers.
Combining the power of video content and customer testimonials can create a robust marketing tactic that brings more traffic to your site, builds trust with your audience, and nudges conversions.
Below, we’ve compiled some of the most valuable video testimonial best practices, as well as three real-life SaaS examples to get you started.
A testimonial is a way for existing customers to share their positive experiences with your brand, product, or service.Testimonials can take many forms, but the two most common ones are written testimonials and video testimonials.
According to recent reports, however, 68% of users prefer watching videos to learn about new products or services, as compared to articles, ebooks, presentations, and infographics.
This means that video testimonials can be a wonderful source of information and an important marketing staple that any marketer should have in their tool belt.
Before you get started, it’s worth noting that – when turning to testimonials – most people are typically looking for unbiased social proof from real customers that help answer one single question: “Would this product work for me?”All things considered, the main goal of most customer video testimonials should be to give prospects an opportunity to see and hear what current customers have to say about your business and products.It also stands to reason that seeing how others have already benefited from your product will help your prospective customers recognize that they share the same challenges and see how your solution can solve that problem for them too.
In the world of SaaS, it’s hardly a surprise that video content is an extremely powerful tool for increasing brand trust and lead generation.
As research has found, 84% of marketers state that video marketing is a great investment for lead gen, with 78% reporting that they’ve experienced overall improvements to their business’s bottom line.
Most marketers (94%) further agree that digital marketing videos have helped increase consumers’ understanding of their product/service, reducing the number of product support calls they’re receiving.
Not convinced yet? Here are four more reasons to consider:
You can approach the production of an online testimonial video in many different ways.
There are, however, a few key aspects that are often present in videos of this kind – being concise, highlighting what’s in it for the prospect, establishing an emotional connection, focusing on benefits, and leveraging good filming gear and techniques.
Did you know that our collective global attention span is decreasing because of the abundance of information presented to us?With this in mind, as marketers, we only have a limited amount of time to captivate and show the customer testimonial.Keeping the video to the point – and highlighting tangible results – is a key element of developing video content that is appealing enough to persuade the viewer and hold their attention throughout the entire video.
In most cases, the length of your online testimonial video should be kept between 60 seconds and 2 minutes.
A high-converting testimonial video focuses on the customer’s pain points and problems. It highlights exactly how the product or service helped solve them and states why they prefer it over your competitors’.To get the most out of your customers’ feedback, avoid yes-or-no questions. Instead, consider asking questions such as:
As humans, we like to think of ourselves as rational creatures. In reality, however, most of our purchasing decisions are driven by emotional reactions.When it comes to evoking emotions online, nothing beats video.Think about this: because the mirror neurons in our brains create a feeling of proximity to those around us, to a certain extent, we tend to feel the emotions we see in a video.Building an emotional connection and creating virtual proximity can enhance the power of your customer video testimonials.Effectively, the sooner you can trigger an emotional response, the greater the chance that your viewer will stay with your message long enough for you to build the story.
Simply put, features describe what a product does and how it’s different from the competition. Benefits, on the other hand, showcase how that product can serve consumers.In today’s highly competitive digital space, you want to make it easy for viewers to quickly reach a conclusion about how your product can help them. To do so, your online video testimonial should highlight how using your product can improve a consumer’s life.Think about how your product connects to your audience’s desires. This could relate to helping them reduce costs, save time, or be more productive.
The quality of your production can make or break your video.While you don’t need cinema-quality equipment, investing in good filming gear is a good idea for creating eye-catching videos and showing your audience that you care about every detail.As a rule of thumb, when creating video testimonials, make sure the visuals are clear, the sound is audible, and there’s a minimum amount of background noise.
One of the most important things to remember before you go on to collect video testimonials is creating the right setting. A professional environment with good lighting is often a great choice.In addition, setting up a long-sided interview (i.e. having the interviewee’s eye looking a few degrees off the center of the lens) can create a feeling of balance and comfort for the viewers.Other best practices for making a video campaign go viral include choosing the right video-making tools and learning how to add visual elements such as text, graphics, and overlay.
As with any other video marketing piece, authenticity will go a long way in terms of ensuring that your viewers stick around until the end.Note that most people today will have an easy time picking up when someone is not authentic. This often means that – to get a more genuine response and drive credibility – you’ll want to keep diversity in mind and avoid scripting the interview.Instead of following a script, consider using an interview questionnaire as a guide. Try to keep the interview conversational and ask open-ended questions that help the interviewee recall their experiences with your product. In addition, don’t be afraid to dig deeper and follow up on areas where you’d like them to elaborate on.Above all, don’t forget that the more at ease the interviewee feels, the better the end result will be. Choose customers whose businesses you’ve helped improve and be sure to give them enough space to express themselves freely.
So what do persuasive customer video testimonials look like once executed? Here are three great examples from SaaS companies to inspire you:
This testimonial video from Adestra is a great example of showing the specifics of a customer’s use case.
The video includes the customer’s pain point (searching for an email platform with good customer support) and discusses why they chose Adestra. This is a great strategy to enable prospects to better understand how the service actually works and how it could help them, too.
Some of the most crucial aspects of creating an effective video marketing workflow include being able to clearly define your persona, polish your answers to their questions, and shape them into impactful messages.
Consider this example from Monday.com. The testimonial video is short and sweet, successfully emphasizing the buyer persona’s pain points while focusing solely on the product’s most important features and the way they’ve affected the client’s work processes.
LotLinx’s video testimonial features a number of satisfied customers. The details and the stories that they share in the video are relatable to those of a lot of other industry professionals. Additionally, the casual, outdoor environment lends an element of authenticity.
Perhaps the best touch in the video, however, is the hint of exclusivity. When Marketing Director Valerie Muzyka was asked if she would recommend LotLinx to other customers, she said, “I really don’t want to share my secrets, but absolutely.”
Whether you’re already leveraging the power of video marketing – or are starting from scratch – creating video testimonials is the way to go when you need to build trust and convince prospects to take action.
Ready to dive deeper? Here’s why you need to start integrating video into your content strategy.
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