The power of a great testimonial video lies in its ability to provide real, authentic content that viewers can trust. Whether it’s clients or employees speaking about their experience with your company, viewers connect when a testimonial video tells a story about their positive experience. When done well, testimonial videos connect, plain and simple.
Feeling too scripted can take away from the power of company testimonial videos, though. How do you create testimonial videos that strike the right balance?
- Pick the right staff
- Provide questions in advance
- Practice makes perfect
- Include key talking points
- Choose an effective script
- Collaborate throughout production
At Studio Spero, we work with companies in the Calgary area and beyond to make testimonial videos that support a brand’s marketing goals. Here’s what you need to know.
What Is a Testimonial Video?
A testimonial video features a client, customer, or team member speaking candidly about their experiences with your company’s services or products. They involve real people telling real stories, and that provides built-in social proof, making testimonial videos feel different from other marketing materials where viewers might not be able to get past the sense that they’re being sold something.
Why Testimonial Videos Are So Effective
The power of corporate testimonial videos comes from their authenticity. Relaying what makes your company and its products or services stand out is a goal of any marketing material, but a testimonial video has the added benefit of coming directly from a real-life person telling a story about your company.
A testimonial video is engaging, it’s authentic, and viewers see it as more honest than many other pieces of marketing they digest every day. That’s what makes it stand out from the crowd.
- A recent study found that 72% of customers read reviews before making purchases online. Testimonial videos offer social proof that customers are satisfied with your company.
- Another study found that two out of three people said they’d be more likely to make a purchase after watching a video testimonial.
- Hearing from current employees can be a powerful tool for staff recruitment, and testimonial videos can reveal a lot about your company’s culture and values.
Lux Windows & Doors
Check out Studio Spero’s collaboration with Lux Windows and Doors and Anchor YYC in this Client Experience video.
Tips for Creating a Testimonial Video That Feels Authentic
The goal of your testimonial video should be to give an honest account, while also keeping your own marketing goals in mind. There are a few key ways to manage finding that vital balance.
- Pick the Right Staff
The efficacy of your testimonial video will depend on the person or people featured in it. That means you should be careful in vetting and selecting the right staff or clients who will appear. That doesn’t mean they need to look like a Hollywood A-lister, but choosing people who will be confident and compelling on camera does matter.
You’ll want the staff or clients featured in your testimonial video to be passionate, articulate, and who don’t appear nervous on camera. Their words are the most important element of your company videos, so it’s vital that they are ready to appear on camera and speak about their experience in a compelling way.
- Provide Questions in Advance
While you want honest and authentic answers from the people appearing in your testimonial video, that doesn’t mean they need to be speaking off the cuff. Provide questions in advance for them to review so that they can provide concise and coherent answers.
Remember, your company is trying to tell a story about itself and the work that it does. That messaging matters, and your testimonial should be in service of those marketing goals. Providing your interviewee with questions they can think about in advance will ultimately result in your testimonial video having a more articulate and on-brand message.
- Practice Makes Perfect
Chances are, the person being interviewed for your corporate testimonial will not be a trained professional with 10,000 hours of experience, nor will they be accustomed to appearing on camera. Even the most confident person can feel a little anxious about speaking on video, so encourage them to practice what they’re going to say prior to the production day.
Recording themselves on a cell phone is perfectly fine for practising. It gives them a chance to review their own footage and think about where they can refine their answers.
- Include Key Talking Points
Whether you’re shooting a customer testimonial video or highlighting the experience of your staff, you will still pursue important business and marketing objectives. That’s inherently a part of the reason why you’re creating a testimonial video, after all.
Incorporating important talking points and messaging should be part of what the interviewee discusses, but it’s essential to allow them to answer in their own words to avoid making your video feel scripted. Go over key talking points with them in advance of your testimonial video production day, but give them the freedom to be themselves.
- Choose an Effective Script
There are advantages to both scripted testimonial videos and those produced by interviewing the person on camera. A scripted testimonial video will allow you to control the messaging completely, but it can lose authenticity points. An interview-style testimonial video will feel more real, but the answers themselves may be less polished.
- Collaborate Throughout Production
At Studio Spero, we provide clients opportunities for collaboration throughout every step of the production process. Our goal is to create testimonial videos that meet our clients’ visions, and that means they have a voice throughout pre-production, production, and post-production.
That ensures a final testimonial video product that is consistent with our clients’ goals and tells the story they’re looking to tell.
Create Dynamic Testimonial Videos with Studio Spero
A testimonial video is a powerful marketing tool. It provides a sense of realness and authenticity that viewers connect with and feel they can trust, and that’s something every brand strives to build.
At Studio Spero, we create testimonial videos that centre on the messaging your company is looking to highlight, while remaining true to the words of clients and staff who are featured.
Start planning your testimonial video today with our talented team.