When talking with friends and colleagues in the tech arena, the discussion around making a testimonial video sets me thinking that many of them are missing the point.
A common basic mistake is having someone in your company talk about your product features or service achievements. Typically, this person is an executive and/or the most knowledgeable person in the company.
The point is that a testimonial video is not about you! It’s about your customers!
Most customer testimonials or case study videos are boring and miss their goal: to build trust in your brand by using Social Proof (something else which isn’t you that talks about your product).
If you follow these steps, you’ll end up with an inspiring testimonial video.
The first part of the video should create a Hook or a Curiosity Gap: the gap between what your viewers know and what they want to know.
I always create some curiosity in the first 5 seconds of the video. Otherwise, I’m going to lose the audience’s attention. Keep creating the same curiosity throughout the video from one section to the other — that is also important.
Convince your customers to give a testimonial right after a positive event occurred relating to your product or service. This is where your customer has the most recollective memory of your brand and how it solved their problem.
This is the perfect time for your customer to be enthusiastic and have authentic statements about your brand!
“Show me, don’t tell me!”
Johnny Harris is a respected journalist and former correspondent for Vox, a news and explanatory journalism website that is known for its in-depth coverage of current events and pressing issues. He has become known for his expertise in the field of foreign affairs and international conflicts.
Harris is a highly-skilled storyteller whose videos get millions of views each time, and this is mostly due to the unique structure he uses.
He shows visual anchors of his story before he reveals their context. That creates small Curiosity Gaps that keep his audience fascinated.
If we apply this to our testimonial video, it means that we should use many ‘B-rolls’, or small pieces of video content inserted into the main testimonial video that will help the audience to visualize the context brought by your customer.
Audio! Audio is half of the watching experience. It starts with getting quality sound from your customer’s voices and using the right soundtrack and sound effects to elicit the right emotion you want in your audience.
When a customer talks about a problem they experienced before they were introduced to your product or service, there should be a subtly sad soundtrack playing in the background. When talking about how your brand changed their way of doing business, it’s time for an upbeat soundtrack.
The last and most important part is: Delay. The. Reveal. Keep your audience in suspense until the very end. They will want to know what this great product, software, or service is that made such an impact on your customer. The answer/reveal comes right at the end of the video.
If the testimonial video is done correctly, it should create a moment of inspiration. The audience — or, to be precise, the prospects — will want to explore your brand further, and this will drive them to the next step down the funnel. When putting your emphasis on brand awareness for top-of-funnel video marketing, your call-to-action (CTA) should be minimal. In this case, your Brand Logo should be sufficient.
These kinds of testimonial videos — or ‘case study’ videos — typically take up to 2 minutes. Anything longer than that could mean a blow to your video, unless you are a reality show producer that can keep your audience in suspense by utilizing the Curiosity Gap and delaying the reveal till the end.
Now, one can argue that with the endless scrolling in today’s crowded social media, videos should last no longer than 30 seconds, and should be built in a completely different structure from the above.
I would say that it all depends on the goals of your video. If you are aiming for brand awareness, testimonial videos as described above are the best way to build trust and create credibility for your brand.
If you are in performance marketing, acquisition, and converting leads, then a short brand-problem-social proof-CTA structure is the right one for you. These types of videos are more commonly used in B2C and some SaaS companies.
Want to create inspiring testimonial videos? We at ViDiMONi can help!
