The Power of Video Testimonials (+5 Business Examples)

One of the earliest memories I have from school days is that of show-and-tell. It was the one time where the entire classroom had to listen to what I had to say, and I was able to share my thoughts and feelings openly about whatever I wanted. Now, many years later video testimonials are the show-and-tell of the business world.

What is a video testimonial?

A video testimonial is a way of presenting your company through the eyes of happy customers. It is a way to communicate relevant information about your business, what it does and how it solves a key problem for customers.

Video testimonials are an ideal medium because of how powerful they can be at generating leads and customers. When people come to your website, they are often looking for reasons not to trust your business. These people desire a seamless and trustworthy experience with you, so give it to them. In addition to telling a story about your business or product through videos, testimonial web pages can serve as a resource that brings customers further down the marketing funnel. These web pages are indexed and can include important keywords to bring in organic search traffic.

That brings us back to show-and-tell. A compelling video testimonial needs to go beyond a simple quote or product demonstration. You?ll need to enlist your most pleased customers or colleagues and have them explain how they?ve benefited from your product or service. The best way to do this is by having them tell an authentic story that a larger audience can relate to?often about solving a common problem.?

Why should you be using video testimonials?

With the increasing demand for video online, the importance of introducing video testimonials to grab customers attention has never been clearer. Traditional written testimonials just don?t cut it in this digital age. Still not convinced? Here?s some compelling video stats to show the importance of video testimonials for your business. 81% of businesses are using video as a marketing tool

• Almost eight in ten (79%) of respondents agreed that video is the easiest way to get to know a brand online.
• By 2020, online videos will make up more than 80% of all consumer internet traffic.
• 59% of executives say they would rather watch a video than read text.
• 51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI.
• Video marketers receive 66% more qualified leads a year.

Creating a video testimonial

Video projects can sometimes be challenging for marketing departments. They require the coordination of moving parts, technical equipment, and skills that may not be immediately accessible.?

You can start by recruiting your most evangelical customers, peers, and colleagues to be in the video. Develop some interview questions to help draw out their story of what makes them pleased about working with you. Have them provide an authentic account of how you made their life easier.After filming the shots you need, you?ll have to find the right video editing software to complete your project.?

Here’s where Moovly’s video editor can be very useful.

?They provide:

• Video testimonial templates to get you started.
• Easy drag-and-drop functionality.
• Libraries of free stock videos, photos and sounds.
• Custom video sizes.
• Professional animation effects.

Once you?ve finished editing your video, create a page on your website to host it and upload the video to your social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. (With Moovly you can also upload your video to social media directly)

5 business examples of video testimonials

Unless you?ve seen a few examples of video testimonials, it may be hard to develop a vision for what you want your end product to look like. These five examples highlight just a little bit of what you can create. Use them to drive your own creative process and create a testimonial video that will convince even more potential customers of the

Conclusion

After watching these examples of video testimonials, you should feel energized and empowered to create one of your own. HR software companies like BambooHR and Workday show off what their customers love about them while SAP uses their video to recruit new employees by showing off their company culture. The key is to drive brand credibility by combining satisfied customer interviews with some easy video editing skills.?

There are a number of possibilities when it comes to video testimonials, so what are you going to bring to show-and-tell for your customers?
Derek Doeing is with G2 specializing in video marketing and HR trends and insights. He’s a recent graduate of Iowa State University and a proud son of Chicago. He can usually be found discussing pop music, politics, and digital marketing on the internet.

Video Marketing Fails and How to Avoid Them

Videos have become one of the most popular forms of content marketing over the past few years?research has shown that 9 out of 10 marketers earn new customers through video marketing. This has led to businesses, both small and large, spending more time and money on creating videos to share with their audience on a regular basis. However, this rush to capitalize on the video trend isn?t always successful, leading to video marketing fails that consequently hurt a business? image. Considering how expensive and time-consuming video creation can be, it isn?t surprising that some brands are simply not able to create the quality of content they are aiming for. But even worse than poor quality videos, it is when the content conflicts with a business? audience, that a marketing campaign inevitably becomes a failure.

Though one would expect small businesses to be the culprit in this area, due to their lack of resources, it is generally larger and more popular brands that create the biggest marketing fails. This is generally a result of a few key mistakes that anyone can make.

Targeting the Wrong Audience

One of the primary purposes of creating a marketing strategy is to target one?s audience. Whether large or small, businesses study their social media audiences in advance of creating a marketing campaign, and this should be doubly true for video marketing. Creating videos is a labor-intensive exercise, and the last thing a marketer wants to do is spend the time and money making a high-quality video that doesn?t reach its intended audience. While it may be feasible to target the majority of video campaigns to millennials, who consume video content far more than any other demographic if the product itself is not suitable for the audience, the video will fail to do its job.

Instead of targeting audiences that are more likely to be on video platforms, create content that will appeal to your intended market and promote it on the platforms relevant to them. This will ensure that you reach the people who will potentially be interested in your product.

Adopting the Wrong Sentiment

One of the biggest marketing fails in recent years was McDonald?s advertisement about a boy?s dead father. The point of the ad was to show how dissimilar the boy was from his father, except for the way he ate his McDonald?s burger. The ad was resoundingly decried by the public for exploiting grief and for talking down to the audience.

What McDonald?s got wrong with this ad was its sentiment?they were aiming for an emotional response but they went about it by denigrating the ad?s protagonist, who the audience were meant to relate to. Talking down to the audience, even in a humorous sense, is always a risky move, and it wasn?t surprising that McDonald?s failed with this marketing campaign. When creating videos for your campaign, adopt a sentiment that aligns with your brand personality and will appeal to your audience. Use test audiences for tricky concepts but stick to the tried and tested unless you are absolutely sure that your tone of voice in the ad will effectively share your message. If there is a hint of doubt that the video may backfire, it is best not to adopt the concept. As they say, better safe than sorry.

Joining the Band-Wagon

Pepsi?s failed video campaign featuring Kendall Jenner has become an infamous example of the follies of jumping on the band-wagon. In 2017, Pepsi created an ad featuring the hot topic of police violence at demonstrations, suggesting that a bottle of Pepsi could stop the fighting. Unsurprisingly, people were outraged by the way the brand handled the subject and the choice of model for the ad.While it is important for brands, particularly small businesses, to be on-trend, if a subject is co-opted poorly, it can lead to a severe backlash. Not all brands have the staying power of Pepsi to continue to grow even after such a marketing failure, which is why companies need to be careful about which subjects they choose to feature in their video. Subjects that are overtly political will always elicit strong reactions, so it is best to avoid wading into politics, no matter how trendy it is. If one must participate in a trend, do as much research as possible to understand where the trend originated, how people are reacting to it now, and whether or not it aligns with your brand. Choosing the topic for your video is always something you need to be careful about. If you aren?t sure of how well your audience will react, don?t try to force it into your strategy.

Forgetting About SEO

While SEO doesn?t pertain to television advertising as it existed a few years ago, with the digital sphere overtaking all other forms of media, SEO has become extremely important. For the majority of content types, SEO is fairly standard practice, but many companies fail to adopt SEO strategies for their videos. This is a mistake and can lead to the loss of potential customers.To ensure you use SEO best practices for your video marketing, always use keywords for the video title, descriptions, as well as video sitemaps, which Google will be able to read and thus include in its searches. Search engines have become the chief way for people to access brands and optimizing your videos for Google will ensure that you reach your audience.

Long Videos

The attention span of audiences has decreased dramatically. People are busier than ever and there is so much content available to them now that they don?t have time to read or watch everything they encounter from start to finish.

The first six seconds of a video is said to be the most crucial in attracting your audience?s attention, but even the most engaging video will lose the audience if it?s longer than a minute. The best performing videos are short, sharp, and to the point. Canadian Tire?s 2016 ad for the Summer Olympics was one minute long and featured a strong story about diversity and inclusion that was guaranteed to grip the audience. While Canadian Tire has a large marketing budget, a small ice-cream shop called Jeni?s Splendid Ice Creams created a YouTube video ad that had the same effect on its intended audience, and was only 30 seconds long and created on a small budget. The positive response the ad received was because of its brevity, its tone, and how well it leveraged its subject matter.

Though it can be tempting to create one long video that shares all the brand?s messages, the chances are that it will not be seen by the intended audience. Creating several smaller videos is a better tactic to capitalize on video marketing.

Branding Incorrectly

One of the surprising mistakes that even the biggest companies make is branding their videos incorrectly. While large businesses have recognizable logos, small businesses can use logo templates to create excellent logos for their brands. Whether the video is meant as a television advert or for YouTube, branding correctly is the key to your audience recalling who the video is by, which will lead them to make a purchase. Without proper branding, even the best videos will fail to garner the leads a business needs to turn a profit. While over-branding a video can turn an audience away, there are subtle ways to initiate brand recall without stamping your logo on every shot.? Tide?s Super Bowl advertisement featuring Stranger Things? David Harbour effectively kept their branding to a minimum but had such a strong story that they were instantly memorable. Though it may not be possible for small businesses to replicate Tide?s success, there are some smaller things they can do to achieve brand recall.

Including one?s logo and tagline at the start and end of videos is a good way to remind one?s audience of the brand. It is also beneficial to add a website link for the audience to learn more about the brand and make a final purchase.

No Call to Action

Once your audience has watched your video, they need to know what action they are expected to perform. Should they visit your website, your blog, download an app, or visit a store? It is imperative that they know the next step or your marketing video will have failed to achieve its goal. Always include a call to action at the end of your video, with clear directions for what you want your target audience to do after watching your content. Include a slide at the end of your video with a clear call to action, or add it as part of the voiceover for the video. On YouTube, you can remind viewers to perform an action by adding it in the description, as well.

Conclusion

Video marketing fails do not need to be a part of your brand?s legacy. By following a few best practices, you can create videos that are impactful and encourage your viewers to buy your product or service.?

For small businesses and enterprises, and educational institutions, it can be challenging to remember all the steps for creating a powerful video. Moovly is a convenient online video making tool that not only has in-depth tutorials on video making but also helpful video templates that can be customized, so you can create strong brand videos that convert your audience into loyal customers. Ronita Mohan is a content marketer at Venngage, the online infographic and design platform. Ronita is interested in a variety of topics with regards to digital marketing, visual content, and online engagement, which she enjoys researching and writing about.

Twitter: @Venngage

Why Good Video Editing Software is Crucial to Your Video Marketing

Video marketing has never been more important for businesses of all sizes.

While text and images will always play a role in marketing, video is where it?s happening right now ? and you want to make sure you are getting in on the action.

?Just take a look at these stats:

• Video marketers enjoy 66% more leads per year
• 53% of consumers are demanding more video content
• 88% of marketers are satisfied with their video marketing ROI

But here?s the thing about video marketing:

While you can shoot pretty good videos with a smartphone these days, creating a regular supply of engaging videos for different purposes (explainer videos, training videos, whiteboard videos, promotional videos, etc) remains a big challenge.

That?s especially true for smaller businesses with smaller budgets.

So what can marketers with limited budgets do?

Many of the video marketing challenges faced by businesses are solved by using high-quality video editing software.

Here we look at why good video editing software makes such a difference if you really want to make a splash with your video marketing in 2021.

1. Save Time & Boost Production

Here?s how it usually goes:

• You spend hours (or weeks) creating your video and making sure it?s just right.
• You spend endless late nights editing it until it?s perfect.
• Finally, you release it to the world ??
• ? and you get a handful of likes and shares before it is quickly forgotten.

The problem is, it?s often difficult to tell which videos are going to be a hit and which ones will be ignored.

When you publish a video (whether that?s an explainer video, promotional video, or something else) and it doesn?t get the results you were hoping for, you need to create another video?fast.

But the thought of going to all that work again? It?s enough to put you off video marketing entirely.

While huge companies with massive budgets may be able to spend hundreds of hours on flashy marketing videos, the challenge for small businesses comes in producing a consistent stream of videos that generate engagement.

And that?s where good video software can make a huge difference.

Take Moovly.

The way Moovly is set up makes the process of creating professional videos super easy.

It provides:

• Set templates to get you started
• Drag-and-drop functionality
• Over a million items ready to use
• Video backgrounds

Once you know your way around, you can create a video in minutes.

The ?Clips? feature is a good example of how easy it makes the video-creation process.

These are pre-built media objects that are already animated. You can drag them into your video and then edit them and combine them with other elements quickly and easily, building new content that looks amazing?fast.

You can even create your own templates and reuse them. Once you?re happy, you?ve got something you can use time and time again to create similar videos, without wasting any time.

To save even more time, you can even publish new videos directly to social media in a few clicks. That way, you can get them where they will be seen by your audience straight away.

What that means is:

Once you have made your first video, you?ll be able to make another and another without spending weeks over every single video.

And the more video content you produce, the more content you can test. That means over time you can find out which videos work best for your audience.

2. Save Money

Creating videos the old way can be expensive. Firstly, you will need to buy expensive equipment, hire a professional videographer as well as a professional editor. It all adds up!

But the things you can now do on your own?with nothing more than a computer and the right video editing software?are amazing.

At Moovly, you don?t need to hire anyone to help you.

The video editor is based on HTML5, making it a powerful editor that works seamlessly on all browsers. No need to fuss about with plug-ins and no need to download anything. You don?t need to install a thing.

It?s foolproof.

It also comes with over a million royalty-free media objects including:

• Stock videos & images
• Motion graphics
• Music
• Illustrations

That means you don?t need to spend any more money on content because most of what you?re going to need is already there. So you can combine them with your own media and make your videos look professional in no time. Professional use of video is also a great way to grow your social media following.

If you?re running a small business and you?re serious about video marketing, you?ll know how important it is to have professional-looking videos. But hiring professionals to create videos for you every week can be expensive.

Good video-editing software could be the answer.

3. Create Videos That Stand Out

Perhaps the most important factor of all in successful video marketing is this:

You have to create videos that people actually want to watch.

Yes, video marketing can be an amazing marketing strategy. But this is no secret, and now everyone wants to get in on the action.

As such, there are a lot of videos being produced, and it?s harder than ever to get your videos noticed.

You need to create lots of videos regularly?we?ve already been over that.

But you also need your videos to be different, unique, to stand out from the crowd. They need to look professional and attractive while telling a story.

That?s no easy feat.This is another one of the areas where Moovly excels. While making it remarkably easy to create videos, it also goes way beyond the basics, providing a much deeper level of customization than you would get with many other editors.

Animations are one area where you can clearly see this.

You can create genuinely high-quality animations in seconds using nothing more complex than drag-and-drop.

You can even add voice-overs to bring your animated characters to life.

And to make sure the final result is as good as possible, you can ensure your audience watches your videos in HD 1080p too.

It goes beyond being a simple editor, and you?ll realize you?ve got something much closer to professional editing software used by the pros?but for a much smaller investment!

The animations, the special effects, and the ease of use?there is so much you can do to make your videos stand out. This doesn?t just make them professional, it also makes them fun, exciting, and engaging.

That?s perfect if you want to create a regular supply of videos that stand out and get noticed.

Final Thoughts

Take Your Video Marketing to New Heights

Video marketing is here to stay, and smart businesses are taking full advantage of it.

But like with anything, just doing video marketing is not enough?you have to excel if you want to take full advantage of it.

If you?re serious about video marketing, make sure you use the right tools. Just like using the right camera will produce better video footage, using the right video editing software will produce a better final result.

Eoin is an award-winning Film Maker and Creative Director of Kartoffel Films, a video production agency based in London. With over 22 years? experience in the sector, Eoin oversees all of Kartoffels? films from concept through to production. Over the past eight years, Kartoffel has produced over 1000 films and animations for the UK and international markets.?

8 Excellent Reasons To Use Explainer Videos For Your Business

Visual appeal, richness, conciseness, and affordability – these are the incredible qualities that explainer videos have to offer a business. The explosion of explainer videos in recent years, with 39% of people wanting to see more explainer videos from brands, is no accident. Most users are visual learners and have short attention spans, making it one of the best ways to get your message across, no matter whether it is technical or otherwise complex. And even following some quick tips can make the whole process as easy as possible. In fact, explainer videos transform the brand message into an easy-to-digest and enjoyable format.?

Here are some excellent reasons why we think explainer videos deserve a place in the minds of brands.

1. Present your Brand Message Concisely

Let?s face it. Brand messages are often not apparent to the audience at first blush. Presenting the brand message through content or text can be inefficient given the web user typically has a short attention span and is, moreover, primarily a visual learner. People, on an average, respond better to information that is seen and heard vis-a-vis that which is read.?

And explainer videos do just this! By highlighting the important details in a concise manner and presenting information in a visually engaging format, they ensure information transmission, retention, and recall in the most efficient manner possible.?

2. Build a Better Connection with Your Target Audience

The explosion of video content in recent times stands testament to the effectiveness of videos in conveying information and building engagement and connect with the target audience. Videos have been shown to generate empathy for the product and interest in it apart from increasing the relatability of the product through visually engaging material. All these feed into the perceived authenticity of the offering which, ultimately, aids sales.

3. Increase Conversion Rates

Explainer videos are nothing short of a weapon in one?s conversion arsenal. They have the ability to grab audience attention and make them care about the business. In fact, 64% to 85% of explainer video viewers are likely to purchase the product showcased. They do this by ensuring a great user experience and generating engagement.

Explainer videos can boost conversion rates by as much as 80%. They also serve to keep the conversion funnel simple and cut through the clutter that can be created by multiple assets on the website in no more than a few seconds!

4. Showcase Brand Personality Effectively

Given the captive audience on a website, one has total control over how one portrays their brand. Explainer videos help one showcase the brand?s personality effectively to the target audience using the visual methods they employ and allow the brand to be perceived in the best possible light.

Introduce the brand, humanize it, and help audiences build trust in the brand using explainer videos. For example, if one caters to a B2B audience, it can be an effective method to use buyer personas donned in corporate suits in the explainer video.

5. Improve Brand Recall

Explainer videos, by their very nature, use the power of storytelling to build a strong relationship with the audience. This, in turn, results in brand recall long after the video has been consumed.

Stories are a powerful medium to let potential customers know that the business understands their struggles and can help them overcome them. And explainer videos use stories effectively to help build a positive perception of the brand and, just as importantly, retain them. Take animated explainer videos, for instance. They use the nostalgia associated with cartoons to generate positive emotions towards the brand, which is, essentially, half the battle won!

6. Improve Search Engine Rankings

Videos are found in the 70% of the top 100 search engine results as they increase dwell time – the amount of time a user spends on a website. This is a ranking factor at Google, one that explainer videos help boost considerably by hooking visitors! Also, video thumbnails generate far more clicks from users than text links.

The fact that Google owns YouTube is possibly playing a part here! YouTube itself is the second largest search engine around, and with explainer videos, the brand gets to be on it which then allows it to be found by more users. Allowing the brand to be found on YouTube or Vimeo has the potential to generate plenty of inbounds links, too, for the brand.?

7. Generate a Great ROI

Given ROI is the key metric every business worries about, this alone should give you enough reason to opt for explainer videos! Over half of the businesses out there say that video is perceived to be the type of content that generates the highest ROI.

Video content is also great for repurposing, for instance, into GIFs for Twitter or simple DIY videos for Instagram. One could also reshuffle them to create content with a different flavor. All this means their shelf-life is effectively extended. So, with explainer videos, one can rest assured that the money spend will find its way back in just a few months? time, no longer, and then it?s a profit all the way!??

8. Easily Share the Content via Email or Social Media

Explainer videos offer a great way to share the brand?s content. Consider this: the simple inclusion of the word ?video? in the subject line can hike up open rates by 19% and click-through rate by 65%.

As for social media, one just needs to train their eyes on Facebook to see the success of video content. It becomes immediately clear that being able to share video content easily on platforms such as Facebook or Facebook-owned Instagram comes as a huge benefit to brands using explainer videos. Convinced that explainer videos are worth your while??

If you?re looking for some inspiration to make one of your own, here are 5 great examples of explainer videos you?d love.

5 of the Best Examples of Explainer Videos – Explained!

Atoka

A search platform providing business-related information on Italian and British companies, Atoka uses a minute-long explainer video that begins by making the company?s raison d?etre and target audience clear to viewers – being at the top of one?s data game is of crucial importance to sales and marketing professionals.?

This is followed by a clear explanation of the functionalities and features of the platform even as the maintenance of a continuous focus on increasing the productivity and efficiency of one?s organization drives home the point effectively. Supported by on-point graphics and animation that relentlessly continues to make its point, Atoka takes it away with this explainer video!

Headspace

Using uniquely crafted 2D characters, Headspace sells meditation to viewers in a simple and effective manner. Frequent changes in the tone and volume of music highlight the changing focus of the video and gently nudge viewers to pay attention to the changing narrative. This happens even as the videos show similarly crafted but a wide variety of characters that render the video similar in visual tone but simultaneously also highly engaging.

Mesosphere

Mesosphere – a data center management system breaks down complex functionalities into simplified, easily digestible pieces of information using an isometric animated video. Simple object animation and subtle colors come together to visualize a complex business in an easily understandable manner while the music supports the cause by being minimalistic yet intriguing in itself. A simple, explanatory script renders the video easy-to-follow while graphics that reflect the colors of the brand renders it easy on the eye.

Parkbench

Parkbench – a B2B company – uses this explainer video to make clear its business to viewers. A video that completely does away with music and focuses on visuals and the script to get its point across, this one uses visuals that are almost always in blue monochrome to convey information. Its engagement quotient is further heightened using a crystal clear voiceover that comes across as simple and straightforward due to the absence of background music.?

Slack

This 2-minute long explainer video for Slack – a messaging service for businesses – makes clever use of 2D motion graphics that include elements from the logo to make the business come alive for viewers. A comprehensive problem-solution breakdown of the script further clarifies the applications of the service for the audience, resulting in an engaging experience. Further, music that?s minimal and intriguing at the same time moves the script forward.

Depending on the budget, one could use an online video maker or approach a video production agency to create a custom video for one?s brand.? As far as online video makers go, we recommend Moovly, an altogether excellent online video editor and video maker for small-medium businesses, large enterprises, and education.?

Wrapping Up

Explainer videos allow brands to increase brand awareness, improve conversions, earn inbound links, and educate the target audience – all in one move. Thus, explainer videos, by their very nature, help you accomplish multiple marketing goals – in under two minutes.

So, do your brand a huge favor and get an explainer video for it today!

Koushik Marka is the founder and CEO of Studiotale, a video production company. He is passionate about helping brands grow with video and has expertise in video marketing, 2D animation, and vector illustration. When he is not working, he loves playing video games and traveling.