It should go without saying that real customers talking enthusiatsically about your products/service are incredibly powerful.
And yet, too many companies still don't spend the time and, let's face it, money to get out there and film their customer experiences.
Here's how scheduling app YouCanBook.me do it pretty much to perfection.
I'll break it down for you from content, duration and even placement on the webpage.
CAPTURE EXPERIENCES
That word is key. The reason these videos by YouCanBook.me are so good is that they've gone out and captured the stories. We can see the difference their product makes to real businesses.
Plus, as you watch this first one, notice how we don't just see the effect YouCanBook.me has on the driving instructor, making his life easier, but importantly, the effect it has for his customers - we hear from them too.
See all of the videos on the YouCanBook.me site - I've only put two in this post
Short duration
Notice the way their web copy (below) says 'watch 1 minute videos'.
It can be tempting when making a testimonial video to do just that. Make A. Singular.
They could have filmed these four customers and cut them together as one long video, but the length would have started to lose the audience.
Yet faced with four short videos, the audience is actually likely to watch all four one after another. It's a bit like this: if someone gives you a sandwich that isn't cut up, just two slices of bread one on top of the other it would seem like a huge job to eat it. But cut into halves... or better into quarters? That's why buffets are SO moreish. Why you'll eat so many Celebrations in a row but wouldn't eat Mars Bar after Mars Bar. Well, not in public at least.
DIVERSITY
The other benefit of using more than one story (other than the fact it shows you didn't just get lucky with one person) is it shows the range of benefits and can show a range of demographics.
The viewer can choose to pick the testimonial that relates to them the most to view first. There is diversity in these videos - and I'm not just talking race (in fact there could be more done there); there is age, gender, nationality, type of business, formal/informal.
PRODUCT?
Notice they don't actually show us the product in action, it's all about the impact. Now, this is particularly smart for a software company where, no doubt, they will constantly be refining and redesigning their product. So, these videos will never age in that respect.
However, I would say testimonial videos are a great way to subtly show your product in action, so do what works best for you.
If you're a farm shop, it makes sense for us to see people enjoying a roast dinner with your product at a table of smiling faces. If you sell roof boxes it makes sense to see the family packing up their life into one as well as them enjoying their holiday.
It's the product and the effect it has. It's just for a software company it can very quickly date your video, so either leave it out, or make sure the editor keeps those files and can easily switch in new footage. (I worked on a case just like this for a software company last year who rebranded).
But even though there's no visual of the product in these four videos, we do hear the speakers mention specific features of the app that they like.
HOMEPAGE PLACEMENT
These videos are easily found on the homepage, not hidden away.
And the homepage is five simple pages rolled into one.
- Introduction (with explainer video)
- How It Works graphic
- Testimonial videos
- Impressive clients
- Pricing plans
Look how, in just a couple of scrolls you are greeted my customer stories. Face to face with people using the product.
In fact, these might be what you watch first as the 'how it works' video is a button, not a thumbnail so you might scroll past and then come back to it.
The thumbnails themselves are customised for a face we can relate to and an obvious 'play' symbol. They actually open a pop-over embed so the video plays nice and big across the page. We also have a key quote shown so even if people don't watch them all they can see the main points.
The balance of limited but powerful copy, graphics and videos make this a website well worth studying and learning from.
And one of the key ingredients really are those testimonial videos.
So get thinking, who can you speak to?
Who will speak for you?
Make the videos short, personable, diverse and telling the actual story of the product in action.
Need help thinking this through? Get in touch.
Yep. You can book me too.