How to Create an Effective Video Testimonial

Video testimonials are an engaging way to demonstrate your existing customers’ belief in your products or brand and encourage new customers to give you a chance. Here’s our guide on how to create an effective video testimonial.

Hopefully, your satisfied customers will be happy to provide you with a review. However, filming a video testimonial requires a little more investment and some may not be able to spare the time. Thankfully, testimonials can be filmed remotely, which allows your customers to create their video in their own time or allows you to record directly via video chat and negating the need for anyone to travel.

This will also bring your production costs down significantly, but you may need to check the quality of your customer’s camera/recording equipment beforehand and maybe even set up something more suitable for them to get the quality of a professional video.

To create the most effective video testimonials, you will need to be selective about whose stories you use. It’s best to start by reaching out to those customers whose journey creates a clear narrative that you can use and those that saw the most measurable results from your intervention.

You should start by having your speaker talk about the specific problem they had and the challenges it caused, how your product or service addressed and solved that problem, and finally how they are getting on since the problem has been solved.

Often, your customers won’t be natural ‘performers’ and too many unnecessary details can make your audience lose interest. Having talking points or questions for your speaker to answer gives the video some structure and keeps everything on track.

Don’t be tempted to script the testimonial, however, as it may come across as disingenuous. You want your speaker’s natural personality to come through – you are showcasing the real people who support your business after all.

As a general rule, it is best to keep your testimonials short. If your video features just a single testimonial, try to cut it down to 2 minutes at the most. If you have multiple testimonials, make them much shorter and cut between them. However, bear in mind that if you go for too many speakers, the detail and impact of any individual stories may be lost.

When switching between speakers, you might want to structure your video with the same ‘problem, solution and follow-up’ formula that you would use for a single speaker. Cut between each speaker talking about what their needs were, then how their needs were met, and finally how they are all getting on now.

Your audience will need a visual break even from the more charismatic speakers – film is a visual medium after all. So, think about how you can break up the visuals and supplement the testimonial with visuals such as graphics, animations or cutaways that represent the key parts of the story.

These visuals shouldn’t be there to distract, but to help the points the speaker is making sink in for your audience or to demonstrate examples that may otherwise be hard to visualise. These may take the form of recreations, mini product demos, or even animated statistics at the end of the video.

Video testimonials are a great way to establish some brand authority by showcasing first-hand accounts of how you can have a positive effect on your customers. Just remember to let your customers describe their experience honestly and don’t coach them too much!

Now you know how to make effective video testimonials, why not give it a try and see how it can work for your brand? If you need help creating or editing your video, please get in touch to see how we can help.