I Heard It Through The Grapevine
When 70% of people claim to look up reviews before making a purchase, a customer testimonial is probably the best reference your company can have. A happy customer is invaluable. They are more trusted than any advertisement and are a limitless source of good publicity.
In the age of social media, brands are what customers say they are. Thanks to online reviews, forums, and blogs, customers can say anything about the products they buy and the brands they support. It’s become such an integral part of consumer behavior that a lot of companies hire dedicated web-searchers to find what customers are saying about that company’s products or services. As a result, public relations and customer service are becoming intrinsically linked because brand image and customer experience are no longer exclusive.
Using It To Your Advantage
Because of this reliance on customer testimonials, you might want to think about making reviews an integral part of your marketing plan. And because most reviews are long blocks of text, why not add a video to shake things up? Ask some of your best customers if they’d like to talk about what makes your product or service great, and build a video production around it. To make your testimonial video more interesting, alternate between interview-style shots of the client in which he or she is talking directly to the camera with scenes where the customer is using your product or enjoying your service. Think of it as a customer testimonial, but with a little more depth and focus on what makes your product or service the best.
Check out this customer testimonial video created by Lydia’s Uniforms:
In addition to being able to post the customer testimonials video on your website, you can also post your video on YouTube. Not only will your video be available to millions of potential customers, but you can boost your search engine results by including your SEO keywords in the title and description.
Client testimonial videos are also great to have on hand at your next trade show booth. Of course you and your brand reps at the trade show are going to sing the praises of your business, but your potential customers are probably more interested in what other, “real” people have to say about what you do.You can even sneak in some footage from previous trade shows when you launched the product to show customers’ first reactions and then how they liked it after using it.
Using Social Media
Maybe you don’t have the funds to create a customer testimonials video yourself. That’s okay! By utilizing social media, you can have customers post their reviews to your site, Facebook, Instagram, etc. at no cost to you. Let your customers do your marketing for you. On Instagram, for example, you can ask customers to post videos of their testimonials by tagging your company page or by using a #hashtag of your company name. You can even have a contest where you pick a random customer testimonial that uses your hashtag. The winner can receive a git certificate to your store/company or a free service.
Other video sites like Vine can also be useful to you. Although Vine only allows 6 seconds of video, it might be a fun way to force your customers to get creative in the way they record their testimonial. MixBit, on the other hand, would allow you to create a mobile-ready video of several testimonials.
Remember, a video of customer testimonials offers all the benefits of word of mouth publicity, without having to meet or actually talk to customers one-on-one. You reach a larger audience, more quickly and more easily. So what are you waiting for?
