By Aleksi Halsas
Testimonial videos are a great way to convince your potential customers that your product is exactly what they are searching for. You could do it yourself, but it feels too tacky and you might feel that a promotional video from the company people itself lacks its credibility. But customers do feel convinced about investing in a product if they hear praises about it. Customers often trust a product or service if they hear their peers singing its praises and this is where testimonial videos come in.
Testimonial videos can be designed in such a way that you can show your customers successful experiences of the past clients. This encourages your future buyers to develop trust and faith in your brand. People generally have a tendency to invest in products or services which have been used and approved by their fellow customers.
Video testimonials prove to be beneficial in any stage of your marketing strategy, but they have the maximum impact when the customer is making his decision to buy or not. These videos have to be made in the right way and you need to take care of all the little details.
Here are some tips on how you can make the perfect testimonial video.
1. Make your video as natural looking as possible.
A testimonial video is more effective if it is natural. It should give the feeling of authenticity to the audience and not look as if it is scripted. While making a testimonial video, you should focus on capturing the natural expressions and response of the interviewee.
2. Do not script your video.
You might have a great script, but you must remember that for an authentic looking video, you need to have authentic answers. An interviewee may not be a great actor and hence it is necessary to tell him/her about the concept and let them show their love for your product or service in their own way.
3. Show some context in your video.
While capturing the video, also show your viewers around and give them a view of the backdrop and surrounding, even if it is a buzzing restaurant place. This will add richness to your story.
4. Prepare yourself for impromptu responses.
Although, you need to be prepared before the video interview, you must remember to relax a bit and change or twist your questions a bit as the situation demands. If you come up with only pre-scripted questions, it will appear as a forceful interview and not as a normal conversation. Listen to what your interviewee is saying and come up with questions accordingly.
5. Give the interviewee some time to prepare.
While preparing your interviewee with the video, do not give them direct questions that you will be asking, instead, give them a brief idea of the concepts that you will cover, otherwise he/she might get too prepared and will sound like a robot and an unnatural person, which could spoil the authenticity of the video.
6. Check the place where you will be filming in, in advance.
Take a tour of the place you will be filming your video to have an idea of the most ideal spot where you can capture the best lighting and the frames. Ensure that your frames are clean and interesting, but also make sure that they are not distracting. Pick a place that your interviewee is comfortable in.
7. Prepare a general structure for your video.
Lay out a general structure or a brief storyboard that you intend to follow in your testimonial video. This will help you film some insert takes that can be used as an example.
8. Ensure that your interviewees speak freely.
Encourage the interviewee to be in a conversation. Tell them to take some time and speak freely about their experience with your product and company. This will give you more material to choose from and you can always edit later.
9. Include some negative points of the clients as well.
Do not make your video sound all goody and happy. You must include all the issues your customer was struggling with before they found your product. Then include how your brand or product helped the client solve his/her problem.
10. Edit the video wisely.
While editing the video, you should have some extra footage to choose from. Take the best takes from the interview while creating your final video. Be faithful and honest about what was said in the interview and do not alter too much. If you alter the video too much or try to arrange the dialogues and scenes haphazardly, you might get a very unnatural looking video which will discarded or ignored by your target audience as spam.
Follow these above mentioned tips and create a great testimonial video to attract your clients and customers. These tips are simple and easy to follow.
