How to Plan Video Testimonials | Creating EFFECTIVE Customer Testimonials
This is the most important step in creating Video Testimonials (Actually, Video Case Stories, but you should know what I’m referring to by now).
You’re going to learn the most basic aspects of planning your customer interview:
- What do you want them to do?
- Who do you want to target?
- How are we gonna do that?
If you’ve been with me on this journey, you should already understand the importance of video testimonials and what they could do for you, your business, your team, and your customers.
But if you haven’t yet seen our recent blog posts, you can start here.
We have already established how much of a powerful tool video testimonials (A.K.A. the Swiss Army Knife) are for your business.
Prepare to discover how we plan our customer interviews step-by-step so that you can kickstart your journey on making your own customer video testimonials.
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST TESTIMONIAL MISTAKES?
Here is the biggest mistake that most business owners make when shooting video testimonials:
Step 1: They ask their customers for testimonials
Step 2: They shoot the testimonials
Step 3: And then put ZERO to little thought into post-production
Typical, right?
BUT WE WANT YOU TO DO BETTER.
So before anything else, we need to answer the question:
WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR VIDEO TESTIMONIALS TO DO?
We have to talk about GOALS.
Do you want your video testimonials to drive more traffic?
Leads?
Sales?
Upsells?
Which one of these do you want them to do?
You can find that out by determining your NEED.
This is necessary because if you do not set your goals, you are going to end up someplace WEIRD.
You’ll come up with terrible case stories that you don’t like; you’ll end up with the wrong questions and the wrong answers.
The next you would want to look at is current campaigns.
You need to determine what type of campaigns you’re working on CURRENTLY.
Are you working on email long-term nurture campaigns? SEO? Pay Per Click? Email onboarding?
These are the easiest places for you to be placing your video testimonials.
Thinking about these things will drastically affect the direction of your Video Testimonials.
Understanding your PLANNED CAMPAIGNS will also help.
Are you planning for future campaigns?
Those campaigns also need to be thought about thoroughly.
For example, your retargeting campaigns.
We’re talking about planning out your video testimonials to support your retargeting campaigns, like your website, because your videos need to follow your customers around.
Now that we know what our Video Testimonials NEED TO ACHIEVE, it’s time to think about…
WHO ARE YOUR VIDEO TESTIMONIALS TALKING TO?
Being INTENTIONAL about who you want to reach out to is key.
Identifying who you want to reach out to will tell you where to find those stories.
For that reason, we have created the “Case Story Arsenal Builder.”.
This tool is perfect to help you brainstorm who your subjects are and where you could find them so you could have an organized list for a smoother process.
We don’t want to waste so much of your time by teaching you all about the Case Story Arsenal Builder, so if you want a quick tutorial on how you could use it, click here.
Once you have that down, it’s time to find out:
HOW CAN YOU COLLECT YOUR CUSTOMER STORIES?
First of all, you need to decide who’s going to collect your video testimonial stories.
After that, you need to know what type of stories you’re collecting.
These two are crucial before getting started for you to have a better sense of direction.
And now that you’re collecting, we highly suggest getting started through a Remote Interview.
Getting an initial remote interview will help you gauge your customer’s story to prepare you for the actual face-to-face interview.
And certainly, a Remote Interview is something that you could do RIGHT NOW.
So if someone came through with a big success today, you can immediately conduct an interview the next day.
You don’t need to keep them waiting, because having that interview right after a big success brings out those raw emotions.
And if we wait too long, the story fades and the emotions that they portray will not be the same.
That is why having someone within your team who is dedicated to collecting these stories is crucial.
This is your most valuable marketing tool, so you have to do whatever it takes to collect these stories as soon as possible.
Another awesome way to do a customer interview is by conducting a Video Shoot in your Office.
Compared to remote interviews, this is a lot more difficult to do.
BUT IT’S NOT IMPOSSIBLE.
HOW TO CONDUCT A VIDEO SHOOT IN YOUR OFFICE
You still need to have the right set up:
- Prepared set of questions
- A good location set up
- Find a videographer that understands marketing
These are things that you certainly need to plan out for a successful customer interview.
But in the process of the interview, you still need a good interviewer.
Because after years of doing interviews, we have found that finding just anyone to ask the customer questions is not the best way to effectively collect these stories.
See, it’s not just about the questions.
It’s about HOW you ask these questions that greatly affect the outcome.
Purely sticking to the questions might sound too robotic.
So the interview has to be in a conversational manner, to help make the customer more comfortable, and to pull out those TRUE EMOTIONS.
Now that you have it all planned and prepared, on the next blog, you will DISCOVER HOW TO ASK THE QUESTIONS FOR YOUR VIDEO TESTIMONIALS.
But by now you should know that what I really mean is VIDEO CASE STORIES.
If you’re not sure where to begin or you want a simple, done-for-you solution to your video case stories, schedule a call with one of our video case story experts today!