No-one sells your company better than a satisfied customer and harnessing their endorsement can be a very powerful marketing tool.
Focusing on the story of one or more customer’s experiences can help to set the scene for your business, and give other potential clients an insight into the service they might experience with you. Testimonial videos tend to take the format of interviewing customers in a conversational style and using this to narrate the visual footage of the product in use.
Top tips for creating the best testimonial films:
1. Find an enthusiastic client; one who genuinely has a great experience with your product or service.
2. Don’t force the script! The beauty - and beast - of testimonial films is that you are dealing with real life humans, not professional actors, and they can sometimes crumble when the camera points at them. Don’t panic, an awful lot of magic can happen with editing to remove the ums, errs and stutters in post production! The important thing is to keep your subject relaxed, talking as naturally and freely as possible about their experience.
3. List the USPs that you want included. Allow the interviewer to know the key points you are trying to get across, so they can try and tease these out of the customer in conversation.
4. Think about where your product can be seen in action or displayed in its best light. Allow the film crew access to behind the scenes locations to give viewers an insight into how things work. E.g. the product being delivered into the warehouse, opening the packaging and showing the product or service in use.
5. Keep it short - 2-3 minutes end film time is plenty. And from the main footage it is a good idea to create a 15 or 30 second teaser with key soundbites, which is great for inviting people to watch the full film.
As an example of a testimonial film, here's one for Solent Laundry Solutions who install specialist machines into small laundry establishments. We interviewed customers about their experience and key individuals from the management team to talk us through the process.
Another example of a corporate testimonial film is this one, created for Adam Knibb Architects, which showcases a project they did for a client. This shows the full 1.5 minute film and a 15-second teaser.
