Reputation is one of the most important factors for any business to consider, with more and more people using the internet to find new products and services, online reviews have quickly become the best resource for any new potential customers looking to use your product or service. Text reviews can be incredibly powerful and drastically influence people’s opinion of your business (even if they’ve never bought your product or used your service). However, even excellent text reviews have their limitations – in-depth text reviews are not engaging, not easily shareable on social media, easily fabricated and above all else their emotional impact is extremely limited.
The Power of Video Testimonials
More and more companies are choosing to create video testimonials and it’s easy to see why, they overcome all of the issues above in addition to indirectly marketing your business. There’s many different reasons as to why video testimonials have proven to be really effective in gaining new business, here are the top 5 factors that make them a necessary tool for any business:
The Power of a Personal Story
If you want people to understand the value of your product or service on a personal level then video is without a doubt the best form of mass communication. Our brains are designed to establish trust through face-to-face interaction, it immediately sparks a connection between viewer and interviewee, something that text testimonials simply cannot do. Video provides you with many of the benefits of direct personal interaction but in a medium that is easily shareable to millions of people online. Choosing the right the client or customer to feature in your video can make all the difference, to get the best results from your video testimonials I recommend crafting a structured story around their experience of your brand. You’re using video testimonials as a way to gain new business, so carefully consider the type of consumer you’d like to encourage to use your service. For example if your target audience is small start-up businesses you don’t want to include your largest corporate client as it will be very difficult for them to relate to the interviewee’s experience.
Trust
Plain-text testimonials on a website can easily be fabricated and for this reason it’s completely understandable that potential clients may question their authenticity. With the influx of businesses gaining new customers through social media, word-of mouth marketing has never been more relevant. Potential clients and new customers are much more likely to trust someone they’re able to build a relationship with – with video viewers can connect with an individual, and what’s could be more powerful than having real customers vouching for your business? Video Testimonials are proven to be one of the most persuasive and effective forms of social proof that your business can use. Having previous clients that your target market can relate to will further cement their trust and provide them with confidence that you’re a genuine company that delivers a reliable service or has the product they desire.
Increase Engagement
There’s no doubt that text is great for delivering certain information. However, it’s now very clear that people would much rather watch a video than read vast amounts of text —especially online and on mobiles. Video has the power to engage viewers and create an emotional connection through storytelling, something that also helps us gain a greater understanding of products and ideas. In order to be successful in converting a potential client you need them to have a complete understanding of how purchasing your product is going to change their life.
Powerful & Affordable
Video is quickly becoming the go-to marketing tool for almost any business in recent years due to it’s amazing ROI (return on investment). It’s becoming much easier to monitor your marketing results using a range of metrics, allowing you to easily tweak content to make it even more effective.