Nathan Yerian
There is no denying that video is one of the absolute best ways to convey a marketing message. The combination of image and audio stirs the senses and encourages message absorption.
Many companies are beginning to realize the benefits of video marketing and are turning their marketing budgets toward this highly effective medium. If you're thinking about investing in video marketing, customer testimonial videos are a great starting point for businesses of all disciplines.
Now when it comes to B2B marketing, it's tempting to embark on a video project that looks cool and flashy. We want to be out of the box and prove our colleagues that contrary to the stereotype, B2B is actually pretty exciting. Before you know it, you find yourself wanting cool 3D animation demonstrating some esoteric and complex process that you are very excited about. Now while we do encourage thinking outside the box (we aren't called Adhere Creative for nothin'), and we think animations are cool, this is simply NOT where most companies should start when it comes to video marketing.
Okay, So Where Exactly Do I Start Then?
One of the most important things to keep in mind is this -- marketing should always be geared towards your buyer personas. Yep, not for your entertainment or not simply because you think a certain idea or activity is cool, but that it draws your target market in, positions your brand ahead of your competitors, offers value to your audience, and ultimately lead to conversions.
With this in mind, think about what a potential customer is looking for when they visit your site. There's a big chance they are looking for immediate answers on specific questions in order to categorize you as a possible solution provider to the service-related challenges they are looking to resolve. This, my friends, is where testimonial videos come in.
A Picture Paints A Thousand Words... Moving Pictures Paint A Million
Video testimonials are word of mouth marketing on steroids. Human beings are visual being after all. Over 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text. And what better way for your prospects to consider your potential as the so-called "the one" than by hearing, watching, and experiencing what your customers had to say about your brand.
From mere entertainment to a compelling decision-making resource for would-be buyers, videos weigh in more and more when it comes to purchase decisions. For instance, a study conducted by Forbes in collaboration with Google revealed that
"75% of senior executives watch work-related videos on business-related websites at least weekly, while 52% watch work-related videos on YouTube at least weekly".
So What Makes A Compelling Testimonial Video?
Powerful testimonial videos must be able to make prospects feel confident that you have what they want, that you have successfully solved similar problems, that they too will experience positive results should they buy from you.
Here's a simple trick -- ask yourself the following three questions. If you are able to answer all three, then congratulations, you are on to a great testimonial video! If not, keep fine-tuning your concept until you are able to do so. Videos are a great marketing investment, but as with all things marketing, strategy and execution ultimately define success.
Let's take a look at the questions potential buyers have and how testimonial videos deliver the answers, and prepare them to purchase.
1. Does this company offer what I think that I want?
The modern customer is an information seeking machine. As soon as they identify that they have an issue, they'll go online and research potential solutions. Many times the customer will self-diagnose and self-prescribe, well before talking to your sales team.
An effective customer testimonial video shows your existing customers with similar experiences, and most importantly, it shows how they overcame the issues with the help of your product or service. In short, the testimonial video should be able to help them self-prescribe your solution. The more solutions you can offer testimonials on, the better.
2. Does this company service customers like me?
Are there certain industries, or buyer personas that your marketing and sales teams are targeting? If not, it is in your brand's best interest to conduct a thorough buyer persona research to ensure you're targeting the right folks. Effective testimonial videos should enable your potential customers to ascertain whether or not you have a consistent and relevant track record in a clear and direct format.
Strategically select whose client testimonies you'd like to feature in your videos. Be sure to use customers that are in industries you want to focus on, and that the person delivering the testimony is one of your targeted buyer personas within that industry. In a perfect world, you would have one testimonial video for each industry and buyer persona that you target.
3. If I were to do business with this company, what would my end result be?
Everyone hates buyer's remorse. The crippling thought of, "What if I buy X and it doesn't fix my issue?", stops would-be buyers from moving forward every day. Luckily, we already know how we can show them the end result of their purchase through -- you guessed it, testimonial videos.
Testimonial videos show real buyers after the purchase. Hearing from a past customer that purchased your solution, had their problem solved and is now thrilled with the consequences of their decision, is exactly the thing that would encourage a buyer to move forward. If people can visualize a positive outcome, they are far more likely to engage with your sales team and be on their way to becoming your new customer.
At the end of the day, those buyers are going to make a purchase. It is a matter of what they will buy and who they will buy from. If you have properly used testimonial videos to showcase your offering, experience, and value, there is a good chance that they will be buying from you.
Take a sneak peak at a testimonial video of one of our clients.
