To create the most authentic and impactful testimonials, you need to identify the goals you are trying to achieve with customer videos. Analyzing your goals will help determine which stages of the buyer's journey to focus on. This will help you define which types of content are best suited to those stages, whether you want to generate demand, close deals faster, or upsell existing customers.
Now that you’ve zeroed in on the goals you’d like to achieve with customer videos, you need to determine a set of attributes or criteria to find best-fit participants. It may seem like a no brainer, but you ALWAYS want to feature customers who have had success or are happy with your product/service. Once you’ve narrowed down these customers you can drill down to the next level for defining your criteria:
Regardless of what you choose, how you define a successful customer should correlate with your goals and needs.
When you've defined your ideal testimonial participant, it's time to create a list of all your customers who meet the criteria. We prefer to keep our list in a spreadsheet so we can keep track of all of the important information about each customer at a glance. We have made a template for this that you can find here. [Customer Testimonial List Template]
Remember that not all requests will be accepted, despite your best efforts. A variety of factors can affect your success rate with customers, including industry regulations, time of year, and other factors. Regardless, you can’t let no’s slow your momentum. If you're hoping to have one customer say yes, you'll want to play the numbers game and ask at least five to ten customers.
After you've identified your best-fit customers, you'll need to focus on making the actual ask and getting customers excited about getting involved. It’s important to keep in mind a couple things that can help improve your chances of getting a yes.
Take the time to determine the best person to make contact, and this could change depending on the customer. There’s a few ways to decide who should make the ask: you can base it on who has been their Person Of Contact most recently, who has worked with them longest, who has better communication skills, etc. You just want to ensure whoever has the closest relationship with the customer is making initial contact.
The ideal time to ask for testimonials can differ depending on the situation and the company. However, there are a few rules of thumb you can follow to help your chances.
What you say to customers when asking for a testimonial is just as crucial as when you ask or who says it. You want to provide enough information about the process that you are making it easy for them to say yes and commit.
Here are some of the keys to making sure your ask resonates with your customer:
Linked here you'll find some example email templates that put this messaging to use and can be customized for your particular circumstances. [Making the Ask Email Templates]
[PDF Template (google slides)] [PDF Template (Canva)] [PDF Template (PDF)]
Now that you’ve given clear insight on the process and made it easy to say yes, you have to give your customer’s a reason why they should. You need to ensure a two-way exchange of value to increase your chances of getting that yes. In other words, you must present the benefits in a way that is mutually beneficial and makes sense for your customer.
Here are a couple ways to present the value of participating in a testimonial video to your customer:
Put yourself in the shoes of your customer, speaking on camera for a video that will be shared across social media. This can be an extremely nerve wracking concept, especially if public speaking isn't your forte, or if you think your story isn’t worth sharing. So, it’s crucial that you take the steps to make your customers feel comfortable and confident about the whole experience, from start to finish. Assist them in feeling brave and encouraging them to share their experience as an example of best practices.
At Testimonial Hero we have talented Creative Producers that are experts at helping people feel comfortable on camera and guide them through every step. So you can assure your customers that they will have an exceptional experience.
You've sent your first batch of emails... but you haven't gotten any responses. That's ok, it's actually totally normal. Persistence is a crucial part of deals that get closed during the sales process and the same goes for getting customers to agree to testimonials. You should treat the pursuit of a customer story like a salesperson trying to close a deal. Don’t go over the top and be annoying, but don’t just let potential testimonial participants fall by the wayside. Following up with a brief email or even a phone call is good practice if your company and industry permit.
The process of asking for video testimonials can be a bit intimidating at first. But the good news is, by using these tips and best practices, you can help your customers feel confident in their ability to act as advocates for your brand. Also, remember that we’re here to help you solve any road blocks using our industry leading expertise, we can answer any questions you have. Make sure you check out the resources and templates throughout this post to start building a strategy for acquiring customer testimonials.
