Testimonials are an important part of marketing as they provide social proof. However, written testimonials have lost much of their punch these days. On the other hand, video testimonials can be very powerful. The problem is it can be tough to get them from your customers. But in this video I share a simple trick to solve this.
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Dave,
Kudos to you for your timely video. Our customers readily give us “written” testimonials, but we’re a rich media based site featuring videos so it makes since to get video based testimonials, too. Your suggestion iof mailing a camera (even as a gift) is impressive.
d-
Hey Dave,
I clicked on the two banner ads to the right ” “Learn how to create dazzling videos” and “Tools that give your videos instant impact” and got this error “Sorry, the page you requested
is temporarily unavailable
Please wait a moment and try this page again”
Just thought you would like to know
Holy shnikees. That is effin brilliant. Enough said.
Heck, send them a little camera … heh heh …
You were holding up the mighty little
Kodak ZI8 there. Took me 4 months before
I was able to get ahold of one of those
babies at Best Buy.
I would have LOVED if someone sent
me a camera like that.
Hmm ..Wonder if I can get Tony Soprano to
take a couple of moving vids around his place
of business. I’m sure it would make the feds
very happy.
And then there’s that exotic dancer customer
of mine. I’d be more then thang excited
to get her video testimonial and photos of
her place of biz recorded for my website.
Okay, I’m just fantasizing. But I’m old and I
get excited easily … And I sure wait each
week and appreciate your little vid tips
to cling into my mailbox.
Gad
Dave,
Which camera did you shoot this vid with? Great definition and clarity. You can count your chest hairs.
Is this the canon t2i, and if it was, how do you prefocus not having a little side LCD you can
turn toward you. Your videos have a sharpness I don’t see anyone else achieving on the web.
@Professor Petrocelli – It was shot with the Canon Rebel T2i.
Great Idea! Would be awesome if you provided some links to recommended recorders. I wouldn’t mind if it is an affiliate link. After all you should get something for such a great idea.
Dave love the idea of taking the pressure off of them by letting them do it themself but wouldn’t the typical customer have a hard time emailing over the files once they recorded the testimonial?
@Bill Breed – They wouldn’t email the files…video is too big for email. They would use a large file sharing service like YouSendIt, etc.
Perfect thanks Dave!
HI Dave,
Great idea! Do video testimonials conflict with the new FTC ruling about testimonials?
Jim Edwards did a great interview with someone from the FTC late last year just as the new regulations were coming into being. It seems that testimonials are still allowed but what is said on them is what they are clamping down on. You can see the interview over at his blog here: http://www.igottatellyou.com/blog/ftc-interview/
Cheers,
Robin
@Jason – All testimonials must follow the same rules, regardless of format.
@Bill Breed
One way of making it easier for customers to send files to you is to direct them to on-line services such as DropSend (http://www.dropsend.com) or drop.io (http://drop.io).
I’ve used drop.io many times to send and receive video files. I haven’t used DropSend before but it also looks easy enough.
These services are usually free to use, with paid options available if you want more storage space and features.
Great solutions Mickey thanks!
Had a similar idea a few years ago with my dating website – sent every new customer a free web cam.
Web cam cost much less then Kodak Zi8. about $7-$50 if you buy them in bulk.
But this idea is still valid for today with a web camera – send them a web camera – open up an account on Youtube that you will open specially for that – they will record the video directly to youtube and voila you have lots of testimonials.
Also important to tell people two more things (I’ve used this technique for a couple years now). Plan to spend a few minutes with each customer on the phone giving a few tips (stay close to the camera for audio quality, pan very slowly).
And talk to them about how to use ftp or something like dropbox.com for large file transfer. Or people will be shocked when they can’t email you a 300 mg file.
The little cameras do work amazingly well.
Dave
I will be Happy to provide you a ‘Glowing’ Testimonial. My address is … ;o)
How about sending the SD card back in the mail? [Provide a replacement, of course]
The Fewer the ‘hoops’ the More Likely they’ll Do it….just sayin’.
I am working on http://userlove.net (currently in private beta) that makes the process of capturing user video testimonials really easy.
You can see an example here: http://userlove.net/products/7
If you are interested in giving UserLove a try, please contact me at aymeric[at]wiselabs.net
Thanks.
Hi Aymeric,
Cool product and perhaps this is something that we can use. As Dave said in the video, the hardest part is getting people to actually record the testimonial. That’s why I think sending something in the mail, would get more results.
Perhaps we can use our webCARD product which links to your system? It’s basically a USB device which plugs into a PC or MAC and takes the user directly to a link (no typing, or even opening up a browser). In direct mail we get about a 40% – 60% (no joke!) response rate.
Would something like this work with your system? http://www.bigdawgspromo.com/webcard.html
Is your system ready for a live test?
Nice video and original approach to send a camera. Research shows indeed that customers are highly influenced by other customers video testimonials online.
We’re in 2012 now though, almost every computer or mobile device is equipped with a webcam, so I think it would make a lot of sense to source video testimonials out of your client base this way.
You could still provide an (online) gift certificate or something, to avoid that you’re sending around cameras but no one is using them.
Besides that, I’m also a strong believer in incentivising the user, but I think next to gifts, these days, social and gaming elements can play a major role in this.
Awesome. We were planning to do this with our camCARD which is a greeting card with a video camera built in. http://www.bigdawgspromo.com/camcard.html
Would something like this work better instead?
Hey Dave, nice video. Good tips and tricks! What I would also suggest for simple, effective customer video testimonials is our new program called Bravo. It is the easiest way to get video feedback from your customers instantly over the web, sent right to your inbox.