Many companies use online video for customer testimonials.  Too often these videos are nothing more than customer X saying that Company Y is a great company and they have great products.   Just sit the customer down in front of a camera and tell them what you want to say. After 3-5 takes there is enough information to create a short video for a website.  This is the simplistic way to create a non motivational testimonial video.

The problem with the simplistic approach is there is no emotional attachment to the customer. In other words, the “trust” factor of the customer’s testimonial has not been established. A good customer testimonial video is more than just telling someone that Company Y is a great company and they have great products.

Customer testimonial videos need a believable “trust” factor of the unknown customer telling someone they should trust what they are sharing.  Creating these videos involves more creative development time and effort to share additional background information about the customer which is essential to establish creditability.  The most effective way to do this is to tell a story with your customer testimonial videos.

Some of the best customer testimonials videos I have seen are produced by APX Alarm in Provo Utah.  Tom Coleman is an expert at creating an emotional attachment to a customer and a product.  You can see some of APX Alarms customer testimonials videos at this link by click the play button on the image.

The next time you are planning customer testimonial videos, take some time and do something different – tell a story.

What makes an interesting customer testimonial video? While working on a marketing/lead generation project when I was at SmartForce, we hired a company called Mind Blazer to produce customer testimonial videos. They had a unique list to help their customers think about video subject matter that would be interesting. Here is their list from 2002:

Video Opportunity Identifier List

1. Most technically sophisticated customer
2. Most famous / well known customer
3. Customer in the most interesting and/or remote location
4. Most peculiar customer
5. Any customers with celebrity tie ins
6. Most impressive facility (technology)
7. Most historical customer
8. Longest running customer relationship
9. Recent big win
10. Strongest ROI
11. Most nimble customer
12. Biggest challenge your customer ever faced
13. Most humorous or unique customer story

The lesson here is to make the subject matter interesting and unique. Something you would want to watch.