EPISODE 61 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: TESTIMONIAL VIDEOS: HOW TO GET THEM, WHAT THEY SHOULD SAY AND WHERE YOU SHOULD PUT THEM.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
We can all talk about how great we are at what we do, but consumers are a lot savvier these days and will often be a bit suspicious if someone is tooting their own horn too much. However, when someone else stands up and tells everyone how great we are, then people start to take notice.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Welcome to the Boom Your Biz podcast, a podcast for the movers, the shakers, and even bigger action takers in business. I'm your host, Sonya McIntyre-Reid, and each week I'll be exploring the question of what really makes businesses and organizations thrive. I'm on a mission to educate, empower, and inspire business owners and myself along the way.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Over the weekend, I finally pulled my finger out and had some video testimonials filmed for my business. It's something we use constantly in ads for our clients because they are crazy effective. So, I wanted to jump on hand in this mini episode and talk about the power of them, how to get them, what they should say, and where to put them AKA, how to actually use them.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
When it comes to written testimonials and reviews, these are really important for social proof and also your Google search rankings if you are looking at your Facebook reviews and your Google business listing reviews. But, they aren't as effective as communicating the client satisfaction as a video is, and that's the old social media content by the way, video is king.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
There are a couple of ways you can go about getting video testimonials. The easiest is to get your client to shoot a quick selfie video holding their phone in portrait mode rather than landscape. This is better for social media and you can use it as an IGTV. I recommend providing a client with a rough script or questions, but often it's better if they just speak off the cuff.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
The other way that you can do this is through using a proper videographer. If you're going to be using the videos for website content, I recommend going down this path. However, if you're going to be using the videos for social ads, then I would recommend the foreign testimonials. Why? Because they're less polished and seem a lot more real and genuine. People have more trust in them.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
In terms of a script, here are the questions I put together for my clients to answer over the weekend. Number one, who are you and what is your business? Number two, why did you approach our agency, Linchpin Digital? What were your pain points that led to this? Number three, how have you found the experience of working with us? Number four, what was the outcome? What were the results? Did we solve those pain points for you? And number five, what would you say to people considering working with us?
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Boom, five straight-forward questions. Obviously, tailor this to your business, but it's important to make sure that you get across who they are, their pain points, their experience with you, and the final results covered off.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
I found that my clients had written scripts themselves, but it worked out a whole lot better when it was more conversational. This is the other reason why the foreign testimonials can be easier to get to work than the polished professional ones, because I feel like when people in front of the camera, they just freeze up and it becomes really tense.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Another point I'd like to make is that you really need to incorporate that human element. When I was looking around for inspiration and examples to give to my videographer, I felt that every single pace I came across, you could have just switched the agency name out and you wouldn't even know the difference. It was totally faceless, really connectionless, and that's not what I want. That's not me, as I'm sure you guys realize by now.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Okay, so now that you have these videos, what do you do them? Make sure you distribute them. I am constantly amazed at how many of you put all of this effort into producing content, and then you might post it once on one social media channel. So, let me walk you through what this looks like. First of all, I recommend going and getting them captioned. 80% of videos are watched without sound, so head to Rev.com to order those caption files. Secondly, it helps to have a lower third with the person's name and business and their key points highlighted.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
Now, I am no video editor, but I have heard that the InShot app is really easy to use for this kind of thing, so have a play around with it, or you can keep it really raw and real. Again, it can be more persuasive than something that is super edited and polished. I recommend uploading the video on the following; YouTube, this is great for search engine rankings because YouTube is owned by Google, your website, as an IGTV, Facebook, on your LinkedIn personal profile and your business page, and you might even consider sending it out to your mailing list in an email too.
Sonya McIntyre-Reid:
And remember, if you are looking at spending money on advertising, these can make for fantastic ads on social media. Keep an eye out for mine, which will start trickling through the next few months, along with a new agency website. I am so excited.