Picture this: you’re a small business owner, and you’re trying to nurture your leads into customers. You’ve already attracted an audience, engaged them on your website, and convinced them to join your mailing list or follow your social channels, but they still aren’t ready to buy. How do you turn them into customers without being too pushy? The answer is video. Whether you have an existing video marketing strategy or you’re starting from scratch, video is the way to go when you need to convince your audience to take action. While most styles of video would be useful in this context due to the effectiveness of video as a medium, the one we recommend for driving purchase intent and converting leads is the customer testimonial.

What is a customer testimonial?

A customer testimonial is simply an existing user of your product or service sharing their experience with your brand. Customer testimonials take many forms, but the two most common are written testimonials and video testimonials. Video testimonials add an extra element of persuasiveness and personality, making them the way to go when you need to convince your audience to take action. The key to a video testimonial is authenticity. You want to prioritize sharing a customer’s story in his or her own words to maximize the impact (and believability) of the story. There are many great reasons to create a customer testimonial video for your company, but there is definitely a right way and a wrong way to go about it. Don’t believe us? Take a look at these 10 examples from great companies we’ve helped get the testimonial video right, and reap the benefits of the 10 tips and tricks that made these videos great.

1. Show Specific, Tangible Results

This example for On Demand Advisors works so well because of the specificity of the testimonial given by Ray White, Chief Marketing Officer of ICUC Social. Specificity is one of the most powerful elements of a strong testimonial video because it provides data points for your prospective leads to latch onto, and helps them visualize how your product or service benefits them in a tangible way. The more you can lead them to imagine exactly how your brand will serve their individual use case, the better. This quote shows that concept in action: “We went from 40 leads a month to over 300 leads a month…15 meetings a month to over 60-70 meetings a month, sometimes as much as 90,” White said, giving tangible evidence to back up how On Demand Advisors helped his company—and how it might help yours. Viewers are left believing in the service and wondering how it would benefit their own business.

2. Capture a Real Moment

This example from Magic Flask offers a creative take on customer feedback by capturing a series of taste-testers’ actual reactions to the Magic Flask in real-time. In this way, they get to include a quick product pitch at the beginning and let the customer reactions do the selling for them. The real-time element makes the video feel especially authentic. By offering a range of varied customer testers alongside a range of varied alcohols to test with the flask, Magic Flask is able to capture multiple reactions across a variety of different products. If this testimonial doesn’t pique your interest in the Magic Flask, we don’t know what would!

3. Use a Single Customer Case Study

This example for email service platform Adestra works because customer Hope Horner, CEO of Lemonlight, is able to share what her company does, why Adestra was the right fit for her company, how she uses it to help her own customers, and why she chose Adestra over the competition (because of the ongoing and unparalleled customer support). By better understanding the specifics of the customer’s use case, your prospective leads are able to better see how the product or service actually works—and how it could work for them. Some brands shy away from including those kinds of details in their testimonials, but they’re missing out. Why leave people with a vague understanding of your brand when you have the opportunity to share all the specific ways it shines?

4. Intercut your Testimonials with Results

This customer content works for a couple of reasons. One reason is the fun, lighthearted customers who happily share how amazed they are with their results. But where this testimonial really shines is in seeing the actual closets the company has designed intercut with the cheery testimonials. It’s one thing to see how happy the customers are, but physically seeing the final products really seals the deal. The key lesson here: don’t be afraid to show off why your customers are so eager to offer their testimonials! You get the best of both worlds—a real opinion from a satisfied customer, and the facts showing your excellence to back it up.

5. Focus on the Customer’s Journey

In this example from Applied Fitness Solutions, customer Susan Cole takes us on her own personal journey, telling us where she was prior to Applied Fitness Solutions, her experience while using it, and her satisfaction with the results after she was done. Like any well-told story, the best customer testimonials don’t just share their happiness with the final product, but build a narrative and take the viewer on a journey that tracks their complete experience. Remember: your prospective customers are going through this same journey, and they’ll be more likely to convert if they can see themselves in your testimonial.

6. Generate Exclusivity.

This example from digital automotive marketing tool LotLinx has one of the best quotes we’ve ever heard from a customer testimonial video—period. When Marketing Director Valerie Muzyka was asked if she would recommend LotLinx to other customers, she said, “I really don’t want to share my secrets, but…absolutely.” In this one sentence, she gives the brand an air of exclusivity and hints that viewers should join the secret club that benefits from LotLinx. One of the most important functions a customer testimonial serves is building trust and credibility with social proof from other satisfied customers. Your testimonials should answer the questions your prospective leads have about your brand. So when you get a quote like Valerie’s, you know you’ve stumbled on something you don’t want your competition to have. After all, if it gives your competition the edge, then it must be good, right?

7. Lead with Emotion

From the very start of the Mona Patel DMD customer testimonial example, the viewer is enveloped in a welcoming feeling. The video leans into the feelings exuded by the customers and uses extra production value, like an uplifting score and shots of smiling dental staff, to amplify that welcoming emotion. And the truth of the matter is your prospective leads will ultimately need to make an emotional connection before they’re convinced to purchase from you. Highlighting the emotional pull that your brand creates is always an effective strategy.

8. Feature Different Target Customers

Female Perspective:

Male Perspective:

In this customer testimonial for Lowes Air Duct Cleaning, Lowes chose to create two separate testimonials—one from the husband’s perspective and one from the wife’s perspective. That way, they were able to appeal to two different demographics and share different perspectives on the same experience. According to Google’s statistics, 68 percent of consumers prefer product videos from “people like me,” which means you want to be mindful of using customer testimonials from all different types of customers to appeal to all of your prospective leads. The best product videos usually feature a wide variety of people of all different ages, ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds.

9. High-Quality Production Matters

The reason this Morgan State University video works so well is two-fold: it highlights the thriving student body on Morgan State campus, and does it with high-quality sound, imagery, and music. There is no understating how powerful production value is for any video, but too often, customer testimonials fall short because the emphasis is on the testimonial, and not the quality. While the customer story should always come first and foremost, having a higher quality video shows your prospective leads your attention to detail and the care you invest in all aspects of your business. This is especially important when your brand or business has a lot to offer visually, like a beautiful school campus or a warm and welcoming office building.

10. Master the “After”

This Elite Dental patient testimonial video might feel familiar to you because of the before and after pictures you’ve probably seen in other commercials, but it hones in on a critical component of making a good testimonial: the after. By using before and after photos of the patient’s teeth prior to their dental procedure, we very quickly realize the value of the service thanks to the customer results. The focus then stays entirely on their satisfaction — and their beautiful smiles.

The Bottom Line

If you would like to learn more about how you can utilize a testimonial video for your own company and turn customers into brand advocates, we can help! Reach out to see more examples and find out how a testimonial would serve your business.