Customer testimonials are typically hard to get. I thought I’d list a quick way that I have gotten video testimonials from customers in the past using flip cameras and dropbox.

1. Step one buy some video cameras Kodak Playtouch ($179) or Flip Cameras ($80) with your loaded logo (as of today you still can) – see picture to the right.
2. Step two send the cameras to your clients with an email & document asking them to find a quiet room that’s well lit.
3. Step three ask them to turn the camera on, sit in front and read the questions aloud and then answer (its also helpful to send a “best practices how to record”).
4. Step four ask them to upload the raw footage to your dropbox folder you have just shared with them – or ship the camera back.
5. Step five edit the video down to under 1:00 in total time.
6. Step six load the content to your site with appropriate tracking codes to see who watches and what they do next (don’t forget a call to action).
7. Step seven ask for their final approval and tell them to keep the flip as a gift.

Marketing should exploit the immediate connection and effectiveness of using video in their referral process. Video is an effective and simple way to make a connection. These types of clean videos come across as very honest as there is very little “production”. I’ve gotten five testimonials completed in 30 days using this method.

It might be obvious to some but the web is becoming a broadcast system. People love consuming content this way and it really has an impact. You don’t need large budgets or time to enable this component of your demand generation marketing engine.

More good news on business video going mainstream for sales and marketing.  Constant Contact is enhancing its support for the use of video in its email offering.  A couple of notable pieces here:

• Customer driven -  While it has been pretty easy to incorporate a video in a Constant Contact email, clients asked for more functionality and Constant Contact responded.  This means that they heard from a lot of customers around the importance of video for communicating with customers and members.

• Small businesses are using video -  The far, far majority of Constant Contact’s client base is small and very, very small businesses.

• Value increasing,  Cost or creating video is falling  – Given most of Constant Contact’s users are small companies they spend their resources wisely.  They must be seeing value from video or they would not bother.    So, again, the fact that this was customer driven  is further evidence that the value of video for marketing and sales is increasing and the cost of production is dropping.

What other indications are you seeing that video for sales and marketing is going mainstream?

Video is a wonderful medium for digital marketers to use when communicating. Properly employed it increases engagement and conversion.  When stepping into the world of using video for sales and marketing,  it is helpful to understand the different formats that can be employed.   In general there are three approaches to creating video

1. Talking head,
2. Voice Over,
3. Animation.

They can be used individually or in combination.  Most important is to understand which format works best for each marketing and sales goal

Talking Head:

• Approach -  Person, often an employee, speaking on camera
• Benefits    -  Puts a face and some punch into the message.  Authentic, helping to develop trust.
• Examples  -  A customer sharing their success story.  Product manager addressing frequently asked questions.  Chief Technology officer doing a “chalk talk”.  Sending a video holiday card to your clients.
• Cost -  Inexpensive, as you can self produce this content.  Important to simplify approach to make it easy to produce.  Often can combine with Voice Over to make it complete.

Voice Over:

• Approach – Use of images with narration over the image
• Benefits -    Easily engage viewer by combining pictures (including words) and sound (often voice). Great way to simplify a message (and force you to do it).
• Examples  -  Demonstrating a complex product (but not needing an end to end video).  Telling a short (60 second overview) of what your company does, especially for product companies (including those with virtual and physical products).
• Cost/Time  -  Very inexpensive.  You can get stock graphics and photos, use a person within the company as the “voice talent”.  Not hard to iterate and can be done pretty quickly.

Animation

• Approach -  Like drawing a cartoon, but it has “full motion” with sound or voice
• Benefits -     Very engaging, when done well. Similar to images with voice over but a bit more complex and rigid
• Examples -   Similar to those for image with voice over.
• Cost -           This requires an outside expert (unless you have an animator in-house) with longer lead times and expense

The beauty of video is that it enables the business marketing and sales teams to use pictures, people and sound to engage the viewer and create a personal connection.  This is an advantage over just using the written word.  Watch a few news shows and you will see the first two formats used individually or together.  See how effective they are and also how much information is communicated in a short time.
If you have other formats, ideas or examples,  it would be great to have you share them.