The Value of Video Customer Testimonial

Your customers and prospects love to learn from each other. Getting clients to talk about their experience – both what worked and what failed – is very valuable in helping to create good thought leadership content and building trust.  That is why I  suggest you think first about the information the visitor or viewer wants to learn when creating a video “customer testimonial”.  Think of it not as a testimonial, but as sharing an experience.  That will set the stage for compelling content. This is especially valuable when the customer shares their story on video – it is authentic and the words are their words.

At Constant Contact, they are arming many people with Flip cameras to capture customer success stories.  This content is proving very valuable and a great way to get prospects to engage with Constant Contact.  Here from Judy Gern, Director of Conversion Marketing at Constant Contact during a panel discussion we co-sponsored in the Boston area last spring

Some thoughts on creating the video customer testimonials:

1.  Remember your audience -  Remember the prime goal of a customer testimonial is to share learning’s with your audience, not to promote how wonderful you and your company are.   Sharing valuable content will naturally build trust.

2.  Authentic -  Don’t worry about polishing up the video.  Your client will naturally be authentic.  They are not actors, so they should be themselves, which makes them genuine.

3.  On Camera – In general, they should be on on camera, not you.  I find that interview style works well and is more comfortable for most people who you will interview.  Often sitting across from each other works well.

3.  Good Questions -  Think of questions that describe the challenge they faced, why it was important to them, how they looked at the opportunity, results or failure, what they learned and what they acheived.