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Have you ever requested a testimonial from an important client? More often than not, satisfied customers are willing to record a brief but positive blurb about your business. However, if you cannot clearly visualize your aspirations for your finished customer testimonial video or fail to provide your interviewees with guiding customer testimonial questions, you may be disappointed in the final product.
Many customer testimonials review the quality of their experience with a company without giving the relatable context that can lure in new leads and curious potential customers. Online video storytelling expert, CEO of authenticWEB, and Host of The Garlic Marketing Show, Ian Garlic, warns that a customer testimonial video without a story may be a waste of your time.
Telling A Story In Your Customer Testimonial Video
Rather than squandering time and resources creating boring, review-like testimonials, Ian encourages businesses to spend some time thinking about the bigger picture. What is the purpose of your customer testimonial video?
Most businesses hope to turn customer testimonial video views into buying customers. So, how can you use your customer testimonial video to convince a warm or cold lead that you’re the brand for them?
1. Create the Connection
Most businesses present client testimonials as a referral from a happy customer to anyone with a similar situation in need of a particular service or product. Although those viewing the testimonial do not know the interviewee on a personal level, they may trust the testimonial because they identify with the individual.
That means, if you want your customer testimonial video to convince new customers to buy from your brand, viewers need to identify with the interviewee and their situation. Developing
your interviewee by including a small piece on their background can improve any customer testimonial video.
2. Explain the Conflict
Can you think of a single good story without conflict? Since authorship of the Odyssey, exciting stories that resonate with their listeners have always featured unexpected crises and problems of every variety. So, too, should your customer testimonial video explain the problem that led your client to purchase your products or services.
3. Add Some Emotion
Your customer testimonial video might not feature a life-changing story with customers choking back sobs as they praise the quality of your service, but you can still add the element of emotion to your production. You’ll want to understand how your customer felt at each stage of their story.
How To Ask Customer Testimonial Questions
According to Ian, part of planning out the story and collecting the information you need involves forming targeted customer testimonial questions.
According to Ian, your customer testimonial questions should encourage the client to tell a story rather than report on the quality of their service. Create customer testimonial questions that clarify the context of the story as well as the emotion felt at each stage.
Keeping organized in this process requires having a versatile system in place that can be used for any of your customers. Have a list of customer testimonial questions planned ahead of time that can work for clients from any industry. Your customer testimonial questions can always be updated or expanded as you learn.
Videos can be powerful. We recommend them for solar marketing and in any industries where visuals and customers stories are persuasive.
What To Avoid In Your Customer Testimonial Video
Through years of experience, Ian has seen some pretty memorable customer testimonial video examples–both good and bad. Ian provides tips on how to avoid common pitfalls in creating a customer testimonial video:
1. Don’t Be Shy
Too often, the customer testimonial video creator does not ask enough questions or asks the wrong questions. If you want to get to the core of your customer’s story, don’t shy away from asking questions.
2. Don’t Leave Your Interviewee Without Direction
Ian can’t help but cringe knowing that some entrepreneurs forget to properly prepare their interviewees for the customer testimonial video. Be sure to communicate thoroughly with customers in order to be sure you are both in agreement about the production.
3. Don’t Rely On Your Interviewee For Creativity
It is important to prepare and ask customer testimonial questions to gain insight into certain aspects of the story. Your customer testimonial questions can shape the type of dialogue your interviewee provides for the customer testimonial video.
4. Don’t Forget The Big Picture
Ian reminds us to keep the big picture in mind. Sometimes it can be helpful to work backwards mentally, considering first your broadest objectives and honing in on smaller goals. Remember that, ultimately, your customer testimonial video should address concerns of potential customers and plan your customer testimonial questions accordingly.
5. Don’t Get Ahead Of Yourself
Without careful planning and preparation, such as creating a list of customer testimonial questions to ask, the customer may not know what kind of information you want to include in your customer testimonial video.
Overall, creating a customer testimonial video involves storytelling, interviewing, and video production, but Ian might argue that the most important stage is actually planning. With a system in place and thoughtful customer testimonial questions ready to go, you can tell a story in your customer testimonial video.
KEY INSIGHTS
- Testimonials focus too much on results and do not connect well with everyday viewers.
- Plan out your customer testimonial video before jumping in, taking consideration of the storyline and presentation.
- Including a customer testimonial video on your company website can help you gain new leads and rank higher on Google.
IAN’S TAKEAWAYS
- Get in the habit of collecting stories from clients and do not be too shy to ask about customer experiences.
- Learn the right questions to ask in order to evoke emotion and create a story.
- Relatable customer stories are more effective than bland testimonial reviews for converting new leads.
MORE FROM IAN
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