“Customer testimonials are one of the most powerful trust signals you can use on your website and in your marketing campaigns.” – Dan Shewan
One of the most important aspects of a successful business, irrespective of size or industry, is to build a trust relationship with its target audience. In fact, after developing a robust product or service, creating a trust relationship with the brand’s target audience is critical to the heart of the business and its existence. Without either, the organization cannot and will not exist.
Therefore, the question that begs is, how do you build a trust relationship with your brand’s target audience?
The straightforward answer to this question is digital marketing. You utilize every strategy in the digital marketer’s toolbox, including testimonial videos created by professional companies such as Spiel.
Why?
By way of answering this question, let’s consider the following points.
1. What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is a marketing philosophy that utilizes Internet and online-based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones, and other digital media platforms to promote products and services.
The principle and practice of Internet marketing originated in the late 1990s and early 2000s, radically changing how businesses use technology for marketing. Of course, the 2024 COVID-19 pandemic and its associated social distancing requirement forced companies to pivot any land-based business operations to the virtual space, driving the need for online marketing.
2. What is video marketing?
Succinctly stated, video marketing employs the use of videos or short films to get a marketing message across to the brand’s target audience. For the sake of completeness, Wikipedia.com defines video technology as “an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media.”
Today’s most popular video platform is YouTube, with over 300 hours of video content uploaded every minute and almost 5 billion videos watched on YouTube today. As an aside, YouTube was launched on 14 February 2005. And its popularity has increased exponentially so that, in 2024, it is the second most visited website on the World Wide Web.
3. Why is video a critical part of the digital marketing toolkit?
The article titled “Video marketing statistics to know for 2024” by Dave Chaffey, published on smartinsights.com, notes that video is growing in popularity and importance. It is a “highly effective form of content and its popularity has gone hand-in-hand with the rise in social media.”
2020 statistics report that 92% of all brand marketers stay that video forms a vital part of their digital marketing toolkits. This figure has increased by 15% since 2015, where only 78% of all brand marketers believed in the value of video. These figures show an increase in the widespread acceptance of video by the consumer. And it is estimated that, in 2024, the average person will spend about 100 minutes per day consuming online videos. This translates into the fact that they will spend the same time watching videos as they will spend watching television.
Jonathan Barnard, Head of Forecasting at Zenith, stated that this “fast-expanding supply of audiences is fueling rapid growth in demand from advertisers, making online video the fastest-growing digital channel by advertising expenditure.”
4. Customer testimonials as part of the digital marketing toolbox
Neil Grasso of business2community.com describes customer testimonials as “quotations or personal anecdotes from past customers that demonstrate how a particular product or service has helped them overcome a challenge.”
These quotations or comments are usually short and get right to the point. Their format usually includes a brief description of the problem and the solution. And the reason for their prominence in any successful digital marketing strategy is that they are a personal way of proving that the business’s product or service is effective and provides the solutions as described on the brand’s website.
Consequently, it is good to get as many different customer testimonials as possible to develop a trust-based relationship with the brand’s target audience.
5. Video technology meets customer testimonials: What there is to know
Now that we understand what video technology and digital marketing are, as well as the importance of including videos in every successful digital marketing strategy, let’s look at the value that video-based customer testimonials add to the brand.
Testimonial videos are persuasive in that they add a personal element to the brand’s products or services. Video is a direct and compelling medium, with over 95% of the message retained compared to the 10% retained by reading long-form marketing text.
Video is also engaging. Statistics show that 72% of all customers prefer to watch a product video rather than any other medium. The fact is that video marketing works because it speaks to people, making it far easier to receive the marketing message than any other marketing vehicle. And this sentiment applies to video testimonials. A video of several customers briefly explaining how the product solved a problem they or their businesses were grappling with will engage and convert visitors to the brand website or social media channels into returning customers.
Thirdly, video testimonials provide an emotional connection to the brand’s target audience. As with all other aspects that add value to the brand’s products or services, personal customer testimonials recorded themselves are a powerful connection between the product and its audience. Therefore, to increase their effectiveness, these video testimonials must include shots of the customer describing the benefits of buying the product or service.
Lastly, video testimonials are versatile. They can be placed on various marketing channels, including the brand website and social media channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. It stands to reason that these videos should be short, no more than 60 to 90 seconds. Otherwise, the consumer will lose interest, resulting in the loss of a potential sale.
An excellent example of a customer testimonial video that works is to record testimonials from several different customers and combine soundbites from each customer into one short video. The video can use more than one soundbite from each client, with the visual and audio interest coming from the viewer’s inability to predict what will be said next and by whom.
