How B2B Testimonial Videos Can Help Your Marketing and Sales Campaigns Exceed Expectations

Using testimonial videos in your marketing and sales campaigns is a great way to leverage positive experiences from satisfied customers to help you convert potential customers.

9 out of 10 people trust what a customer says about a business more than what a business says about itself. 

And this rings especially true for B2B businesses. Professionals rely on the word of other professionals because they don't want to waste time with a lackluster product or service.

They want the inside scoop, and don't trust what a company says about itself.

Word of mouth referrals are a major factor when a company decides to buy a software or service. Testimonial videos work in a similar way — connecting your existing customers with your potential customers.

But creating a testimonial video that shows potential clients how you can help solve their company's pain points isn't as easy as recording a customer saying nice things about you.

In this post, we're going to show you how to make successful testimonial videos for your B2B business that will help increase the ROI of your marketing and sales campaigns. 

But first, we're going to go over some basic questions we're often asked about testimonial videos.

What is a testimonial video, and why should you care?

A testimonial video is where current (and satisfied) customers speak honestly on their experience with your company. 

Customer testimonials are a great way to utilize user-generated content and provide social proofing, both of which are significant factors customers weigh when deciding who gets their business. 

Using actual customers who are experienced with your product helps build trust between you and potential customers. Plus, it clarifies what you provide. This is especially true in B2B, where businesses need to toe the line between speaking in technical jargon (to show expertise) and speaking so anyone can understand them (to increase clarity and bridge any customer-client divide).

And when it comes to how to deliver customer testimonials, 47% of people say testimonial videos are effective because they help them visualize how a product or service actually works.

Here's an example from roofing solutions company, IKO:

The ability for a video to help prospective B2B clients visualize your offering is a huge benefit of using testimonial videos in your sales funnel's landing pages, something we go over in more detail below. 

By using a testimonial video, you're giving the customer the information they need to move deeper through the sales funnel.

How can you produce effective testimonial videos? 

Now that we know what we're dealing with (and why it matters), the next hurdle is how to produce an effective testimonial video for your business.

You don't want to invest time and resources into making a customer testimonial video that has no effect (or worse, a negative effect) on your marketing and sales campaigns. You don't want someone to watch your testimonial video and feel confused about what they're watching.

Below, we're going to go over:

• Testimonial video best practices
• How to write good testimonial questions
• What's the optimal length for your video testimonial 

If you don't need the best practices and are just here to learn about using testimonial videos in your marketing strategies, feel free to skip ahead.

Testimonial video best practices

The image below is a good, general guideline for how to navigate your video testimonial, but we also want to go over some high-level basics that you can use as you plan video production. 

High-converting testimonial videos don't just come into existence with you setting up a camera and walking away. It takes a good deal of strategy.

Here are three things you want to focus on when making your testimonial video.

1. Use visuals and editing strategies. Utilize the tools of the medium you're using; this includes alternating between different camera angles for emotional impact (plus to keep your customer engaged). Show the business of your customer, show them at work, show them interacting with their team. Plus, you can use visual aids (think charts, graphs, logos) to help keep your audience engaged. 
   
2. Highlight key benefits. You do not want the customer just listing off the benefits you already have on your product page. That's a waste of time. But you do want the customer to cover key benefits. These are the benefits that resonate the most with your target audience.
   
3. Don't script. If you just script the answers you want your customer to say, then you're undermining the greatest strength of even having a testimonial video. You want to showcase the value of your product that only a satisfied customer can describe.  

For more information, check out our guide to producing effective B2B customer testimonial videos.

What are good testimonial questions? 

A good testimonial video is a story, not a staged interview operating under a question and answer format.

You're going to want to avoid questions that give testimonials a "scripted" presence. To do that, focus on coming up with open-ended questions about how the customer uses your product and how their life has changed once they started using your product.

Your company is using this testimonial video to show what your customer has to say about the business. And while we want the testimonial to be complimentary (its aim is still to increase the effectiveness of your overall marketing strategy), you don't want it to appear disingenuous. 

Also, we don't want to overlook the fact that when making a testimonial, you're dealing with two customers.

First, there's the potential customer you're trying to convert. But you're also working with an existing customer. We strongly recommend you make this a positive experience for them and don't make them feel like a marketing ploy.

Here are some questions you can ask during the testimonial to help you get genuine reactions:

1. What was your main concern before buying this product?
2. What was your experience after buying this product?
3. Which specific feature do you like the most about this product?
4. Which part of this product impacts your day to day the most?
5. What changes have you made to your company's culture/process because of this product?
6. If you'd recommend this product, what kind of business is this product best suited for?
7. Is there anything you'd like to add?

How long should a video testimonial be? 

A testimonial video isn't a documentary, but it also isn't a commercial. 

People who watch testimonial videos are looking for information, which means you can keep their attention more than the average video. But don't get carried away. You can see below that shorter videos are more commonly made then longer videos.

Creating a video testimonial that is too long does more harm than good. The longer the video, the higher the chance a customer clicks away or perhaps learns something that gives them pause. 

How we view video and engage with video is an ongoing phenomenon that is dependent on several factors, but it's worth knowing that 60% of viewers stop watching a video after the two-minute mark.

Testimonial Hero's exception to the two minute rule — The Leadership Consortium

They say once you know and understand a rule that you're better equipped to know when that rule can (and ought to be) broken.

That's what we did when making this testimonial video for The Leadership Consortium.

Here's why the extra-length works:

1. TLC starts with the actual stakeholders within the business and then moves to its customer testimony. This introduction was necessary because TLC's message is key to understanding its product.
   
2. TLC strives for diversity and inclusivity in its program. Because of this, we wanted the video to be able to attest to the various ways it accomplishes that mission, which meant going roughly a minute over the two-minute rule.

Hopefully, you can see how the rules change based on the industry and the goal.

How to use testimonial videos in your marketing and sales campaigns 

To recap, a testimonial video IS:

• An organic and honest way for your existing customers to connect with your potential customers.
• A fantastic method of showing how your product works and helps improve other businesses
• A tool to move your customer through the sales funnel.

A testimonial video IS NOT:

• A documentary about your company or a commercial to promote your brand. 

Now let's go over the three ways you can use testimonial videos to significantly increase the effectiveness of your marketing and sales campaigns. 

1. Put testimonial videos on your landing page 

Landing pages are where you try to close mid-funnel to bottom-of-the-funnel customers. Good landing page practices will have you utilizing social proofing, showing expertise, demonstrating authority, and building trust with your potential customers.

And how can you show social proof, expertise, authority and build trust in one single medium?

Video.

Here's an example of a company doing just that.

Why is this a good example?

We like this landing page for a few reasons. 

First, it leads with a strong headline aimed at establishing authority and trust.

Second, this landing page is laser-focused on two things. The testimonial video on the left and the form on the right. That's a great visual metaphor for how testimonial videos work in marketing campaigns. 

The video is going to do the leg-work and sell your product for you, and the form is there to capture your next lead.

Putting a testimonial video on a landing page is that it adds a human touch.

Sometimes clients think that text-written reviews are as good as testimonial videos. In fact, they might even argue that they are better because they're cheaper to make and are immediately visible versus a video that has to be played and consumed.

But the problem with text-based testimonials is the human element gets lost. 

We won't go as cynical as to say that your customers might even think they're fake (though that can be a legitimate concern).

But think of it this way: Most of us know how it feels to receive a call vs. a text. Which one enables you to connect more with your friend or family member?

The human element comes through so much stronger because now you're dealing with facial expressions and tone.

Finally, good written testimony can get saturated real quick. It's all too easy to go to a B2B testimonial page and see quote after quote next to various headshots. When something is that status quo, it's the innovators who take it one step further who reap the greatest rewards. 

For more on this topic, check out our complete rundown on how you can boost conversions on your landing pages with video testimonials. 

2. Use testimonial videos as tutorials to help educate (and convert) potential customers 

In B2B, you're selling a relationship with your service, and depending on your service, it can be difficult for your customers to understand how your company will integrate with their business.

In this way, think of testimonial videos as akin to tutorials on YouTube.

A tutorial is just someone saying, "Hey, I've done this before. It's great. Let me show you how."

Your existing customer is saying the exact same thing in their testimonial video. They're explaining how your business helped solve their pain point. They're explaining how your product works, using language and terminology that will resonate with potential customers.

Remember, businesses get in the habit of speaking in branded vocabulary that sometimes gets lost in translation. Meanwhile, customers speak like other customers.

Here's an example of what we're talking about — a great testimonial video focused on educating potential customers:

Klara lets the doctor's office communicate with patients via text messages. The testimonial starts with a physician explaining the benefits of Klara, specifically that it lets his staff communicate with patients quicker than if using a phone call. 

He ties this paint point to the fact that, without a solution, his business would not be able to grow.

Then we get to see the benefits in near real-time, as his office logs into a Klara account and responds to patient inquiries. What is really great in this testimonial is we see how Klara helps its client (the doctor's office) better service their customers (their patients). 

With this example, prospective customers understand:

• The pain points experienced by the customer
• The solution offered by the businesses, and
• The actual service being used in real time

3. Create a dedicated testimonial page on your website

Where you end up placing your testimonial video will depend on your intent. But we're strong believers in setting up a testimonial page as a sort of hub of all your social proof.

These pages give your company a face, booster credibility, and therefore can increase conversions. 

Here's a good example of a testimonial page from Hubspot.

First, the headline is backed by a statistic (always a big plus in the results-driven world of B2B): A company used Hubspot to grow its business by 81%. Fantastic.

Second, you have two CTAs. You can read their story or play a video.

When you scroll down a little further on this testimonial page, you get this:

While we like that Hubspot gives their customers a choice, we also like the video-first approach of the testimonial page on ChowNow.

It's visually striking, given the illusion that the entire screen is a video. It really shows the variety a company has with how they set up their testimonial page.

Click here to see more of our favorite testimonial page examples. 

Conclusion 

How we consume content is changing. It seems like every year, video is becoming more and more popular as a way to share and consume information. 

There's still a lot of untapped potential in using this fact in your B2B marketing and sales campaigns. A business that is video-first, putting its customer testimonials out of text-based only format and into visually engaging videos, will stand out. 

Testimonial videos fit nicely in email marketing campaigns, social media campaigns, and as user-generated content on landing pages. They are great tools to educate and convert.

In our experience, B2B businesses that foster a stronger relationship with their customers do better overall. And video testimonials are a direct conversation that occurs between your existing customers and potential customers, allowing you to show the value of the hard work your business is already doing.

Taking your satisfied customers and turning their experience into a tool that guides potential customers towards product is marketing magic, and we're here to help.

Reach out to a Testimonial Hero expert today to learn more about making an impact on your marketing and sales.