Testimonials Are a Powerful Marketing Tool
They make up the promotional content that your prospective clients trust the most as they come from people who were once in the same position as they are in now. However, putting together a truly effective video testimonial is not as easy as one might think. Luckily, there are a few best practises that you can follow in order to create better testimonials that get results for your brand.
Be Prepared!
When we say this, we’re not talking about going to such extreme lengths as creating a script – that is probably the thing you want to avoid most when it comes to testimonials. People can spot inauthenticity a mile off, and the power that testimonials hold can go two ways, whether that be helping to build trust between you and your audience when done well, or shattering it when done poorly.
What you want to do is take time to come up with questions that are going to build the narrative of how you helped your customer. Use these questions as a way of getting from the very first step of your customer realising they had a problem, to the very last step of how your brand became the solution. Give these questions to your customers ahead of recording the testimonials so that they can really think about their answers. Of course, you don’t have to stick with what you give them – be conversational during the interview, and if there’s a chance to delve deeper into an answer that they give you, take it, because you never know what other little gems it could offer up that might just be the difference between acquiring a new customer further down the line or not.
Always Keep the Focus on ‘Why’
The whole point of customer testimonials is to help you sell your services, so it’s important to always draw attention to why you are the solution above all of your competitors. Why did they come to you? Why were you the solution to their problem? Without taking the shine off of what you do, it’s essential to bear in mind that for the most part, the foundations of what any brand does isn’t exactly unique; there are always going to be other companies that offer similar services to you. The goal to strive for with customer testimonials is to highlight what sets you apart from those other brands.
Check out this testimonial we got from ShareGate as an example:
The other thing to think about here is emotion. People don’t look to solve problems unless they are causing them a particular issue that is becoming bigger than the problem itself. As well as asking about why you came into the picture when it came to solving the problem, ask why that problem needed solving in the first place. This is how you create an emotional connection between your testimonials and your audience, which can be a very important factor when it comes to decision-making later on.
Keep It Concise
It can be very easy to get carried away when editing testimonials together. After all, it’s not every day that you get to hear people talking solely about you, your brand, and how you solved one of the biggest issues they were dealing with. Knowing what to trim and what to leave in can be tricky, but be brutal when deciding what makes the final cut. Testimonials need to have impact, so don’t make them any longer than needs be. You need people to watch the video, absorb the message and take action, so short and sweet with plenty of punch is the right way to go here.
