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Trust is a necessary part of any relationship between a business and its customers. Without it, you won’t get those initial sales, or maintain good relationships which result in repeat purchases.
There are lots of ways to build trust, and video testimonials are among the most impactful and influential. But what makes them so effective as a marketing tool?
Videos are innately engaging
Engaging target audiences is possible through the written word alone, but it’s more efficiently achieved with moving images and sound.
Humans form bonds through face-to-face interactions, and video testimonials replicate this experience, triggering engagement far quicker and with greater effect than the alternatives.
Essentially, if we can see others discussing their experience of a brand and its products or services, it’s like having an in-person conversation, which gets all the right signals firing in our brains, fostering trust as a result.
Information is easier to retain
Another reason it’s worth collecting video testimonials from existing customers is that this format is better at conveying information to audiences in a memorable way.
Any details about your business, brand, products and services that’s mentioned in a video will stick in the minds of viewers to a greater degree than if they just read it on a website or print ad.
Furthermore, if people have no problem remembering your brand and what it represents, they’ll be more likely to put their trust in it if they encounter it in the future.
There’s a lot to think about when building an online presence and setting up IT resources for your business. In the battle of static IP vs dynamic IP addresses, which is right for you? How should you optimize your site for search visibility? Which social media sites should you focus on?
Today, you can’t just rely on consumers finding you through one channel or platform. It’s better to take a holistic approach, and expect new arrivals to discover your brand in several different ways.
Video testimonials are a good way to cover several bases in one fell swoop. They work great when embedded on your website. They are easy to repurpose for social media posts. And of course they’re sharable in their own right, letting existing customers distribute them across their networks, sowing the seeds of brand recognition far and wide.
Honesty is a compelling policy
Video testimonials are more trustworthy than traditional ads for brand building because they feature real people and aren’t scripted, but represent the honest opinions of actual customers, expressed in a more natural way.
Of course that isn’t to say that you can just publish any freewheeling footage of a customer speaking unguided. The best testimonials are brief and to the point, not because the lines have been fed to the participant, but because their responses have been well directed by the right questions being asked.
There’s strong demand
It’s not just that businesses are sourcing video testimonials from customers purely for marketing purposes, but because they’re actually trying to fulfill a demand for this type of content from modern consumers.
People expect to find testimonials, both written in reviews and recorded on camera, when they’re deciding whether or not to buy from a given company. This is a mutually beneficial step in creating trust between customers and brands, so it cannot be ignored.
Final takeaways
Video testimonials aren’t the only option for getting consumers to trust your brand, and you need to back them up with good customer service and consistently high standards across what you have to offer. However, they’re a potent weapon in the arsenal of any modern company, whether up and coming or established, and so deserve your time and attention.
