How to Create the Best Customer Testimonial Videos

What is a customer testimonial video?

To start this journey we have to first understand what’s the position of a customer testimonial video in a business funnel. Often businesses, and the consultants that help those businesses, think of customer testimonial content as a marketing tool. But that’s not true at all!

This kind of content should not be used to attract new users to our website, but it should be used as conversion content to transform those who are already on our pages into paying customers.

That’s why customer testimonials are great for those users on the fence that are already interested in our products but need the “final push” to finally decide to purchase it.

Why testimonial videos?

The purpose of video testimonials, thanks to the use of audio and images, is to enhance three key factors: emotional engagement, brand trust, and prospect motivation.

When we promote our own brand, we are naturally biased, which is why potential customers prefer to hear feedback from existing customers.

This feedback can describe the experience of working with your company and serve as social proof.

By sharing the positive experiences of existing customers, businesses can increase the likelihood that prospects will trust and ultimately take action.

Where should we publish them?

Since these videos are not part of our marketing strategies, and shouldn’t be published on our main marketing channels, like social media, where should we publish them?

When using customer testimonial videos, it’s important to avoid creating a dedicated testimonial page. Instead, sprinkle the videos throughout your website on pages where claims are made.

This helps to demonstrate that the claims being made are not simply the company’s own assertions, but are supported by the experiences of real customers.

By using video testimonials in this way, viewers and visitors can verify the claims for themselves, thus increasing the credibility of the company.

Are all tutorials created equal?

Before discussing how to produce the best customer testimonial videos, we have to give you a warning.

Not all the tutorials on how to make this kind of videos are actually good. With a quick search on YouTube you’ll notice that there is a great number of tutorial videos to choose from, but many of them give very generic or even wrong advice.

That’s why we always have to be careful with deciding who to trust and in whose hands to put the future of our business. Here some examples taken from tutorial videos that are actually not that great.

Some examples of wrong advice

The creator of one of these videos suggests that the entire testimonial should be in the present tense and should follow the journey of the customer from start to finish.

Shooting a testimonial video of a success story as the transformation happens from the moment the customer comes on board to the day it ends is not feasible for most businesses.

Customers need to experience a company before they can provide a credible testimonial. Unless a business is a well-known brand with a loyal following, customers are unlikely to document their journey with the company from the start.

Moreover, there is a deeper flaw in this reasoning that needs to be addressed. 

This video, and many others, refers to customer success testimonials as actually marketing videos, and consider “present tense” videos as basically advertising.

As we already mentioned, that’s wrong as customer testimonial videos are not marketing videos, but rather conversion tools that belong to sales, not marketing.

The main objective of customer testimonial videos is not to attract more people to your product or service, but rather to help those who are already on your website or product page to convert.

These videos should focus on creating trust and helping customers take the next step in their journey and should not promote the product or service in a glamorized or over-the-top way.

Another advice we found in the video we are analyzing is the “show don’t tell” one, according to which instead of just telling the audience about the impact a product or service has on one’s life, it is essential to show the transformation in action.

It can sometimes be good idea to “show” rather than “tell” in a video testimonial, as a video can effectively capture the visual impact of a product or service. However, this advice is not applicable to every business, as it only works for companies that can demonstrate a before-and-after transformation, such as landscaping, house building, and weight loss.

For other businesses that provide intangible services like software that boosts productivity, showing a before-and-after transformation is not feasible. In such cases, the customer’s feedback captured in their own words is the only way to showcase the impact of the product or service.

Therefore, it is crucial to ask the right questions to create video testimonials to use as conversion assets that build trust and help potential customers take the next step.

What are the best questions?

Since customer testimonial videos are sales tools, businesses should focus on creating an authentic and compelling testimonial video that accurately reflects the customer’s experience.

By asking the right questions and guiding customers through the video-making process, businesses can effectively showcase their products or services and increase the likelihood of converting leads into paying customers.

And this brings us to what to ask. The answer is not easy and straightforward, but after many trials and errors we have been able to pinpoint a list of eight video testimonial questions that work really well. So let’s see them one by one.

The eight questions to ask in customer testimonial videos

1. Introduce yourself and what you do for your customers. Here we are trying to establish the contexts and give credibility to the person.
2. How long have you been working with [NAME]? Here we’re trying to establish the context and strength of the relationship. The longer the client has been with you, the better, as it gives people reason to think you are good at what you do. It also helps to establish trust in you and your brand/company.
3. What were you looking for when you found [NAME]? Here we’re trying to extract emotionally charged descriptions of situations that may resonate with current prospects.
4. What were your frustrations and pain points at the time? Here we dive deeper into the WHY of the search and we try to uncover the reasons to take action. This is good info for our marketing material, but also it creates relatability for the viewers of the testimonial.
5. Was [NAME] able to help with that? Here we use the testimonial to give us credit for the work done. Now that they trust the persons giving the testimonials and relate to them, we create trust in our company by leveraging the good experience these clients had.
6. How did that make you feel? Here we go back to the emotional side of things and reinforce the reasons to act by painting a picture of what the future could be.
7. Did you get any tangible results working with [NAME]? Describe some of them… Here we dive deeper into that picture. We also create more trust.
8. What’s the one thing you like the most about working with [NAME]? Here we try to uncover hidden qualities. We can use those qualities to differentiate ourselves from the competitors. Also, we get to know our strengths in the eyes of the customers, so we can leverage them better! Plus, whenever we pitch those strengths, we have video testimonials to back them up!

Don’t be inflexible: remember that every testimonial is unique

These questions should be used as guidelines for your interview, but you shouldn’t feel constricted by them. Every interview, as every customer, is unique, and should offer a unique point of view.

That’s why active listening is key when conducting customer interviews. By paying close attention to what your customers say and actively seeking out areas where they can elaborate, you can uncover valuable insights that are crucial for your potential customers to hear.

It’s important to remember that conducting these interviews is not just about recording them, but also about being ready to ask follow-up questions when necessary.

With practice, you’ll be able to refine your interview technique and elicit even more valuable insights from your customers.

How to conduct the interview

We have previously established that customer testimonials in video format are a great sales tool and that to gather all the information needed the customer should be asked the right questions about their experience with the business.

But what’s the best way to record all this content?

The answer is quite simple: Zoom.

Why Zoom?

It will be very rare that you’ll be able to interview in person the customers that live close to you, and asking them to travel to shoot a video together is almost never feasible.

Using Zoom is also better than asking your customers to record videos by their own and then send them to you because with this strategy you would not be able to actively listen to what your customer has to say in real time and to conduct the interview the way you prefer to.

Recording testimonials via a Zoom call is also a convenient and hassle-free option. Since you likely already communicate with your customers on Zoom, this approach does not pose any additional challenges and should not affect your existing relationship.

As a result, if you request a testimonial from your customer this way, they should be willing to participate.

Which Zoom settings should you use?

You can change some of Zoom’s default settings when recording the video to improve the quality of your interview and make the editing process easier.

Once you have logged into your Zoom account, you can access your settings and scroll down to find the recording settings.

Here you have to ensure that you have selected all the appropriate options. Specifically, you should select to record the active speaker view, the gallery view, and the screen share separately. This will create three separate clips for you to work with in the editing process.

During the call, it is important to note that you are not sharing your screen. Instead, you are speaking directly with another person and because of this the active speaker view is the most important recording to have.

Additionally, it is recommended that you also flag the option to record an audio-only file.

This will give you a separate audio file in case there are any issues with the audio quality during the call. By following these steps, you can ensure that you have all the necessary files to create effective customer testimonials.

For optimal recording quality, it is recommended that the participant names not be displayed during the recording as it can be distracting.

If you end up deciding that you need to show the customer’s name at any point during the interview, you can easily add it in the editing process.

Should the recording be top notch quality?

It’s important to note that the quality of video recorded on Zoom may not be exceptional. This should not worry you: when it comes to customer testimonial videos, the focus should not be on the quality of the video, but rather on the content of what your customers are saying.

That said, it’s crucial to prioritize obtaining high-quality audio as much as possible over video quality.

Even if the video quality is not top notch, the way we use the recording is actually very important. As we’ll see more in depth later, when creating a customer testimonial video, the focus of the editing process should be on crafting a compelling story with the customer’s answers.

It is therefore recommended to hire an editor or use a professional video editing software like Adobe Premiere if you have the expertise to produce a final product worth publishing.

The importance of good audio quality

The customers’ message will be delivered mostly by what they are saying so it’s of great importance that the audio quality is high. A bad audio recording can be distracting, will make the answers hard to follow, and will detract from the overall quality of the testimonial.

To ensure that your customer testimonial videos have excellent audio quality, it’s essential to assist your customers in improving their audio. One effective way to do this is by providing them with a microphone.

You may consider purchasing a good-quality microphone and sending it to the customer to use during the video recording. This will significantly improve the audio quality and provide a much clearer and more concise message for your audience.

Create a compelling story

Your customer’s testimonial should not be simply a collection of cut and dry answers to your questions, but should tell an engaging story that will help prospects choose whether your business is offering what they are really looking for.

Overall, the focus of a customer testimonial video should be on creating an emotional connection with the viewer and showing how your product or service has made a difference in someone’s life.

That’s why, after collecting answers from the customers, it’s essential to shuffle them and build a story that flows smoothly.

The beginning of the video is particularly important, and it should be able to catch the viewer’s attention.

There are two main ways to start a testimonial video:

• Start focusing on trust. By beginning with trust, you are establishing your company’s credibility right from the start. This can be achieved by selecting a quote from your customer that highlights your brand’s strengths and values. This approach immediately reassures the viewer that they are dealing with a reputable company, which can help to build trust and increase the likelihood of a positive response.
• Start focusing on relatability. This statement should describe a problem that your customer had before they discovered your company’s solution. By describing the problem in their own words, your customer can create a sense of empathy with the viewer, who may be experiencing a similar issue. This can draw the viewer in and make them more invested in the testimonial, leading to a more effective outcome.

Both methods can be effective, and the choice of which to use may depend on your brand’s goals and target audience.

Just be careful: this first segment should not be too long as it would end up boring the viewer and delay the introduction of the customer. It should be a short, catchy snippet that will make the prospect curious and willing to know more.

Right after this section, it’s important to introduce the speaker.

This segment must include the customer’s name and profession, establishing their credibility. The introduction is a vital component of a testimonial video because if the customer is not deemed credible by the viewer, the value of the testimonial decreases significantly.

Once you have established the credibility of the customer and the viewer’s attention is captured, the other parts of the clip can be cut and shuffled as desired and you can move on to weaving together the answers into a story that makes sense.

We can help you!

After reading this article on creating effective customer testimonial videos, you should have a thorough understanding of the process. But applying of this knowledge can be harder than it seems!

And that’s not it. It is important to note that customer testimonials are not the only tool available to businesses seeking to grow.

By utilizing services like Funnelytics and visitor behavior analysis, you can gain valuable insights into your business that can be used to create hypotheses and test experiments, ultimately leading to increased conversions and business success.

If you don’t feel ready to do it alone, we can help you!

If you’re interested in learning more or are curious about how these strategies could help your business grow, visit leadsandconversion.com/start to book a call. 

The call is free, and many business owners and managers have found it to be an eye-opening experience.