The Video Testimonial and The Power Of Expectation Vs Experience

When it comes to deciding what kind of video content your brand, business or organisation wants to make to reach and connect with its intended audience the video testimonial is an often overlooked element.

Its easy for many marketing and communication teams to discard the video testimonial as old school, dated and tired but what this thinking fundamentally fails to recognise is that a well execute video testimonial allows for an immediate, human connection with your customers.

In order to fully understand the value and power of video testimonials (particularly when it comes to social content or content promoted via social channels), you must look at the two root words more closely: video and testimonial.

Video as anyone who is anyone in marketing (or otherwise) has quickly become the most effective content medium in online and social marketing.

Whether it’s a brand video, product video, live streaming event, or testimonial, video engages audiences and activates them to take action unlike any other comparable content form.

Then you look at the testimonial aspect.

Testimonials – whether written, visual, or auditory – always hold great value with customers.

When people make a purchase or even a key decision that leads to a purchase or point of contact, they want social proof from unbiased sources.

Well produced and executed testimonials provide just that.

They are persuasive without being pushy or too sales driven and they speak to what a customer is grappling with at that very moment - expectation vs experience/

Experience is what’s happening to us. 

Expectation is what we’d like to happen to us. 

How many people do you personally know who live in a state of almost constant disappointment over their life situation or over small choices they make everyday (from buying coffee, lunch, clothes, houses, the list goes on)? 

They are simply comparing what they experience to what the expect, and leaving a huge gap between the two.

Testimonials that use what I refer to as the E.V. E model (expectation vs experience) play into this perfectly by allowing a genuine real person to share their initial fears, hesitations or trepidations (touching on many of the elements your customers find to be common customer pain points with your product or service) before choosing a product or service and how these fears and trepidations were overcome by the amazing experience they hand with your brand, business or organisation and how the product or service delivered exactly what they wanted from it.

Well executed video testimonials are raw and honest.

They erase that hard to define often invisible barrier between a brand, business or organisation and their potential customers, eliminating doubt and uncertainty while nurturing a building a genuine atmosphere of trust.

From personal experience having shot and directed well over a thousand testimonial videos throughout my career, it is far more difficult for a customer to appear disingenuous or fake through a video testimonial than through its written counterpart.

In turn, viewers watching your testimonials feel their authenticity and as a result feel more connected to the work you do, which may be the deciding factor in turning them into a future customer.

Getting started with video testimonials

Brands and business of all sizes can really struggle with asking for testimonials.

There is often a pre-conceived psychological trait that causes almost a sense of embarrassment around asking for them or finding people who will represent a large enough segment of their target audience.

This is the first internal hurdle to overcome.

You have to believe in the importance of video testimonials and work with your numerous customer service teams to cast potential customers who have provided good feedback previously and to always be prepared to ask an appropriate customer for a testimonial when the opportunity arises.

You should however be highly selective in who you choose for your customer testimonial videos.

You don’t just want any customer to volunteer.

In order to have value to your audience (your customers) the story contained within the testimonial needs to resonate, it should be wherever possible emotional and the greater the stakes for the customer and the brand in the video the more impactful it will be.

You should carefully identify the most satisfied customers you have and then set up some pre-interviews with them to see if they’re interested in being featured and if their story has all the elements of emotion, drama, expectation and experience you are looking for to really gain traction with your target audience.

Don't write a script

Scripted testimonials (even if derived from genuine customer feedback and insight) have no currency or value to their audience.

They are the equivalent of fake news.

The best way to craft a compelling customer testimonial is work out how the story engages the audience (what are their wants and needs, their expectations and prior experiences we should be aware of) and what are the relevant product or service benefits that filled or solved that need and compile a short bullet list of points.

From this list you can generate some leading questions that should give the customer a chance to speak from the heart, while guiding the direction of their story.

In the hands of a capable director who has the right mix of curiosity and empathy this technique will yield amazing results.

Keep the video brief

Testimonials should be short.

They can be achieved in as little as 30 to 90 seconds if you follow the don't write a script process outlined above.

They certainly shouldn't be longer than 2 minutes.

Make your customers look good!

This should be a no brainer...

But if you want your audience to buy into the customer experience portrayed in your testimonial content than you want that experience to look great.

A key part of that is having your talent look good on camera.

There is nothing worse in a testimonial than seeing that the creators of the video have taken no care to represent the customer (who by extension represent the audience) in a good light.

This doesn't mean going over the top and mis-representing the customer (in fact this process should as with all the processes involving working with the customer to create a compelling testimonial be consultative and treated with the respect their participation deserves) but small additions like good and flattering lighting, use of appropriate lenses, perhaps a small wardrobe suggestion and some light make-up can make all the difference in terms of how your audience perceives how you perceive them.

Conclusion

Creating a great video testimonial isn’t as easy as many people think—it takes a much greater investment of time and effort than many other digital marketing methods.

But a well-made video testimonial can be one of the most valuable pieces of content that you’ll create.

The production cost is also minor and when weighed against the significant return on investment provided - video testimonials pull well above their weight.

Thomas J Elliott is the Senior Producer/Director for APV an advertising agency specialising in video and animation with offices in Wan Chai Hong Kong. 

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