Customer testimonial videos are not only a great tool to help turn leads into sales, they are also a great way for people to learn more about what your product or service will do for them.
In this article, I’ll be discussing how testimonial videos, as part of your video content marketing strategy, will benefit your audience.
I’ll briefly go through the customer’s journey and how to nurture the right content in each stage. I’ll then take a closer look at the types of content a customer in the decision stage is looking for before diving into the aspects that make a testimonial video useful for your audience.
The Customer’s Journey
It is important to understand the customer’s journey in order to get an idea of what type of content works best in each stage. It goes something like this:
- Awareness Stage – The potential customer becomes aware of a need fulfil/she must fulfill.
- Consideration Stage – The potential customer then considers different solutions that will help him/her address that need.
- Decision Stage – The potential customer is ready to make a decision as to what solution he/she should pursue.
Since each stage requires a specific action from potential customers, it is only natural that all marketing efforts become attuned to the necessities of each stage.
For example, during the awareness stage, your content should be about grabbing people’s attention. Succinct and strikingly beautiful videos highlighting the aspects that set your brand apart from the rest is one way to do it (eg. commercial spots).
For content geared towards those who find themselves at the consideration stage, it is recommended that it be less promotional and more informative. At this stage, customers are evaluating different solutions so brands should focus their efforts on helping customers find exactly what they need to compare across the different products. How-to’s and educational videos are some examples of how to provide this kind of useful information.
Once customers are past the consideration stage, it means they are ready to make a decision. Any content effort at the decision stage should be made in the spirit of sealing the deal. That is, that the customer finally decides on one solution out of the pack.
Testimonial videos are perfect for this last stage. This is what I’ll focus on for the remainder of the article. Instead of discussing how to make a testimonial video, I’ll be focusing on why this type of content is beneficial to your audience.
The human factor: Don’t be a faceless company
In this day an age, it is easy to go by in life with the least amount of interaction with other human beings. Technology has made it so that we can buy, consume and even make a living from the comfort of our own homes. Sure, it has made life a lot more convenient, but it has also made us a lot more weary about the entities we interact with online on a daily basis. Today, you can’t be too sure who is human and who is not.
Even written customer reviews can be the product of sophisticated bots posing as customers. The human side of your brand is important and video is the perfect medium to bridge this gap.
Not only is a video useful to showcase the people behind your brand, it is also an opportunity to let your customers do the bidding for you. This is particularly useful to your audience since they probably want to hear from actual people who have used your product and not just from a spokesperson representing your company.
This creates empathy between your current customers and the future ones, helping you build a community around your brand.
All About The Benefits
Brands are more likely to talk about features rather than benefits. However, in the end, the benefits of a product is all any prospective buyer really wants to know about before making a purchase.
Current customers are more likely to highlight what these benefits are. They’ll intuitively bring to light the must-knows and whys. Think of it as customers speaking a common language amongst themselves. “Buy this because of this”, period! Plain and simple. Your audience will thank you for letting other customers pitch your product in terms they can relate to and not as if they are being sold something.
Buyer’s Anxiety Be Gone
Remember, at this point, buyers probably already have a full rundown of the technical aspects of your product or service. What they don’t know is how your product will fare in the real world or, more importantly, how it will fare with them specifically.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd_DqkdCPls
Testimonial videos will afford buyers the opportunity to see themselves already owning the product. This will help confirm their decision. It will dilute any anxiety and/or cognitive dissonance with regards to buying the product. Soothing this kind of apprehension is something every buyer wants even if it’s not something they articulate openly. I mean, nobody wants to pay for something and then be unhappy about it, right?
Mix It Up a Little
Consumer testimonials are useful on their own. However, bundling them with other kinds of content makes for a more robust source of information.
For instance, developing a playlist of videos with both testimonials and product demonstrations will help your audience get a more complete picture of what your product offers.
However, this other content, doesn’t necessarily have to be more video content.
Say, for instance, that your audience gets to your video, but they are not able to play it at that particular moment. You can remedy this situation by adding a link with downloadable content. It could be an infographic or if you want to be more technical, you can link it to a whitepaper.
It also wouldn’t hurt to include mentions from trade publications as long as it expands on the items I mentioned earlier in a positive light (human factor, benefits, and mitigation of anxiety)
Doing this will help you cover all the bases so that your audience doesn’t miss an opportunity to learn more about your product.
Conclusion
Finally, a testimonial video is like the cherry on top of a series of promotional efforts on behalf of your brand. So you better make it a good one. By this I mean top end quality video production. And not just in terms of technical quality, but in terms of content quality.
Testimonials should be genuine accounts of actual customers. They should be able to capture all the non-verbal cues that reassure the reliability of your brand. This is more art than science, but if the testimonies speak from a place of honesty, then there shouldn’t be any trouble capturing that human factor. The one that will connect your audience to your brand.
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