In the world of construction, today and throughout history, the most important element of marketing is to inform your prospective customers of what your Company is capable of. Word of mouth is the best approach of letting people know about your service and according to a recent survey, 67% of consumer decisions are influenced by word of mouth. Testimonials are often a great way for people to find out more about your company and how your services can be used for their specific needs, so think of video testimonials as ‘word of mouth v.2’. There is an assortment of testimonial styles, so don’t think that a video is your only option. You can also choose to get written or spoken testimonials, but video is becoming the preferred option as it is easily viewable and shareable thanks to web hosting sites like YouTube.
Making a video testimonial isn’t as easy as simple as pointing a camera at a client and asking them to speak for a minute; a good testimonial requires the proper equipment, preparation and patience. So how do you get the word out to your clients about why you’re the right choice?
1. Plan It
First of all, you want to make sure your testimonial is being targeted towards the correct audience. Make sure you’re aware of your potential client’s needs; you don’t want to sell something that the average prospect has no use for. If you don’t know what your prospective clients needs are the best thing to do is ask several of your clients why they chose your service, use your strengths to your advantage.
You’ll need one or more of your clients to agree to do a testimonial. Ask at the right time, when your customers are experiencing the benefits from your product or service. Inform your customers how beneficial a video testimonial would be for you, and how you would really appreciate their invaluable feedback. If possible, offer something to your client so that they receive some benefit for it as well, although most satisfied clients won’t ask for anything in return. Once they agree, you should try to make the process as easy as possible for your client by travelling to your client rather than them having to travel to you.
You’ll want to create a testimonial that falls in line with your brand, which means that you’re going to need to think of finding the proper setting (location where service was completed); obtaining a good camera; writing a decent set of questions and even making sure that the person being interviewed is wearing the right tie (you don’t want him in the competitor’s colors right?). Once you’ve planned out all the aesthetic details you’ll want to focus on the questions. You can opt for an ‘open mic’ concept where the interviewee answers questions with no prior knowledge of them, but if you want your testimonial to seem professional then you should do a dry-run interview with no cameras on. This will help everyone involved feel more comfortable, it gives you a chance to try out your questions and it gives the other person a chance to think about their answers for when the cameras do start rolling.
2. Execute It
After you have the right setting, the perfect set of questions and you’ve built some rapport with your guest it’s time to roll the camera. You can choose to do a ‘one-way’ testimonial with your client answering a script of questions, or you can do it ‘two-way’ and present the testimonial as an interview. If you choose to do it ‘two-way’ you’ll need an assistant to work the camera and make sure that you’re devoting all of your attention to your guest and representing your brand properly. However, with a ‘one-way’ testimonial you can simply film your guest answering questions and using a movie editing software at a later date you can make the questions appear on screen.
To set your testimonials apart you’ll want to be as authentic and meaningful as possible to help customers relate and see how your product or service helped resolve the same problems they’re dealing with. Your testimonial should also have quantifiable statistics; hearing that ‘Product ABC saved me $500’ is better than hearing that ‘Product ABC saved me a bunch of money’ so make sure your client is comfortable with using real numbers.
You should make it a goal to collect testimonials from as many different sectors you target as possible, in your case likely being commercial, residential or institutional. This diversity will not only ensure that all of your prospective customers have a chance to see an assortment of solved problems, but it will give you a variety of videos and prevent you from rehashing the same one.
3. Share It
Now that you have your finished product you should share it with as many people as possible. Youtube is a great medium for this so go ahead and upload it. You should already know how valuable social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are for your brand so you should already have a presence. These sites are not only free to use but valuable aggregators that can help your testimonial be seen by people who wouldn’t normally frequent your website. Your video should also direct viewers to your website with a call to action at the end. This will increase traffic and stickiness in the long term. Be sure to also post the video on your homepage so that your current clients can see as well and even get encouraged to do one as well.
How do you know if your video is having an impact? The number of views should give you an indication but if you want to dig deeper, then Youtube provides an analytical tool that lets you see where in the country your views are coming from and at what times. Remember that testimonials can come through a variety of ways: a ‘like’ on Facebook, a star rating, a product review or a constructive comment on the testimonial are all varieties of word of mouth advertising.
Don’t leave room for guesswork when doing client testimonials. Make sure that you have their expressed written permission, especially if you plan on using their name or company in the video.
It sounds so simple but many Companies don’t realize the importance of a customer testimonial. Do yourself a favour, start looking through your customer database, find your most satisfied client and give them a call today. The happier the client the more willing they’ll be to participate. Good Luck!