How to collect video testimonials from a Customer or Client

Collecting video testimonials from clients and customers is a strategic move that can significantly enhance your online presence.

According to a Wyzowl study, 90% of marketers report that video marketing has delivered a strong return on investment (ROI). An impressive 91% of individuals have viewed an explainer video to better understand a product or service. Furthermore, 82% of these viewers have been persuaded to purchase after watching a video. 

That’s mainly because video testimonials build trust and credibility, providing valuable social proof that can sway potential customers in a positive direction.

However, requesting these testimonials can be quite demanding since it requires significant effort from the customer or client. 

To make this process smoother, our goal is to simplify the task for them. We'll outline a step-by-step approach so you can collect video testimonials to help you efficiently get video testimonials from your clients. Doing so won't burden them or consume too much time, and it will also streamline the collection process for you. Now, let's jump right into it!

Understanding the Importance of Video Testimonials

• Impact on Consumer Trust and Decision-Making 

Video testimonials are pivotal in fostering consumer trust by showcasing authentic experiences from real customers. Gone are the days when customers would get convinced by paid actors reading out a script on a heavily produced ad. 

Authenticity can significantly influence purchasing decisions, as potential buyers often trust peer recommendations over traditional advertising.

• Improving SEO Rankings and Increasing Website Traffic  

Incorporating video content enhances SEO performance, as search engines favor sites with multimedia, leading to longer user engagement and better rankings. Optimized video descriptions can drive more traffic, attracting potential customers to explore offerings.

Studies demonstrate that video testimonials can markedly increase conversion rates. Wyzowl reports that landing pages with video can boost conversions by up to 80%. Case studies, such as IKEA's 15% sales increase from video testimonials, reinforce the effectiveness of this strategy in driving revenue growth.

How to get video testimonials from customers?

Preparing to Collect Customer Video Testimonials

Identify Ideal Customers

Strike the rod when the iron is hot! This means you must approach those clients/customers first, those who freshly indulged with your business and were satisfied/happy with what they got! 

Next, your most loyal and long-term customers, ideally with whom you have a codependence, should be on the top of your list. 

You can also conduct customer feedback, surveys, and reviews to identify individuals who consistently express satisfaction with your product or service. These are your ideal customers. 

Finally, aim to include a variety of customer demographics and use cases to broaden the appeal of testimonials and resonate with different target audiences.

Set Clear Objectives

What do you want to get out of these video customer testimonials? Do you want to use them just as marketing material or want to extract more out of them? Here are some objectives you can potentially have:

• Addressing Pain Points: Identify key challenges or concerns your potential customers face and ensure testimonials highlight how your product solves these issues.
• Highlighting Features: Focus on specific features that differentiate your product from competitors, helping to guide customer narratives toward aspects that align with your marketing strategy.
• Encouraging Engagement: Use testimonials to foster engagement by illustrating relatable stories that connect with your audience emotionally.

Create a List of Questions

Providing customers with a structured list of questions can help elicit detailed and impactful testimonials. The right questions can structure and streamline your conversations well and extract valuable or helpful information and content from your customers/clients. 

You can create a list of opening questions, customer experience-based questions, product feature-specific questions, etc. 

Approaching Customers for Testimonials

You can reach out to your customers through many mediums, like mail, voice calls, personal meetings, video calls, text, etc. All these options are obvious, but we suggest you make your request as personal as possible.

What medium to use for reaching out?

Depending on the relationship you have with them, we suggest calls over emails and texts. You're the one doing the asking here, so it's important to be respectful and thankful for their help!

Of course, emails are the most appropriate and professional way to approach your client/customer. But if you have even a little bit of a personal relationship with them, you can call them up and make this request.

Calls add that personal touch and show you're interested in hearing about their experience. But hey, if they're crazy busy, shooting them an email works too!

Best Practices for Outreach

• Personalize Your Message: Whether via email, phone, or social media, personalize your outreach. Use the customer’s name and reference specific interactions or experiences to establish a connection.
• Be Clear and Concise: Communicate why you’re reaching out, the importance of their testimonial, and how it can help others. Keep your message brief to respect their time.
• Choose the Right Channel: Depending on your relationship with the customer, choose the most appropriate communication channel. Emails work well for formal requests, while social media might suit more casual interactions.
• Timing is Key: Reach out shortly after a positive experience, such as a successful purchase or service interaction, when the customer is still engaged with your brand.

Incentives and Appreciation

“Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome,” - Charlie Munger.

Consider collecting testimonials as an exchange, where you’re asking for something after the business transaction is over. So, what are you offering in return?

There are many ways to incentivize or reward your customers for reviews and testimonials. Consider providing incentives, such as discounts, freebies, or gift cards, in exchange for their testimonial. This not only encourages participation but also expresses gratitude for their effort.

Moreover, regardless of whether you offer incentives, always thank customers for their time and contribution. A sincere thank-you note or follow-up message can strengthen your relationship and encourage future engagement.

Simplifying the Process

• Streamline the Testimonial Process: Make it as easy as possible for customers to provide testimonials by offering clear instructions on what to do.
• Provide Support: Offer assistance, whether it’s helping them with recording or guiding them through the questions. Consider scheduling a quick call or providing a simple video recording tool.
• Use User-Friendly Platforms: Suggest intuitive platforms for submission, allowing them to upload their videos easily. Clear, easy-to-follow steps will minimize frustration and increase participation rates.

How do you ask your client/customer for the testimonial?

When requesting a video testimonial from a client/customer, firstly, show them that you value the relationship you have with them. Maybe you can tell them how great it is/was working with them!

Then, consider outlining the purpose behind the conversation, which is asking them for a video testimonial and how their unique perspective can benefit others and showcase the value of your product or service.

Ensure they understand it's voluntary and there's no pressure. You can say something along the lines of:
"Hi [Customer's Name], I hope you're doing well! I wanted to reach out because we truly value your experience with [Product/Service]. We believe your insights could be incredibly helpful to others considering [Product/Service]. Would you be comfortable sharing your thoughts in a short video testimonial? We completely understand if this isn't possible, but your perspective would be invaluable. Thank you for considering this request."

After making your request, be clear about the instructions and other details of the testimonial you want from them, which we will discuss in the next section.

Lastly, there’s no one-fits-all method or formula for this since we are dealing with human beings, and different people may react differently! But for anyone who’s confused and doesn't know where to start, treat this as a starting point and keep improvising as you progress!

We have an entire article on how to ask for testimonials, which you can read here.

If you decide to reach out by mail, please feel free to go through our email templates to ask for a client for a testimonial here.

Now that we know the flow of conversation, it’s time to decide which route you’re going for so you can be clear about it when you instruct your clients.

Technical Guidelines for Recording

Equipment and Setup

• Use Quality Recording Devices: Encourage customers to use a good-quality camera or smartphone with a high-resolution capability. Most modern smartphones have excellent cameras that can record videos effectively.
• Check Audio Quality: Remind them to ensure that the audio is clear. Using an external microphone can improve sound quality significantly. If they are using their phone, recommend using the voice memo feature to test audio clarity beforehand.

Location and Background

• Choose the Right Location: Suggest that customers pick a quiet area free from interruptions. A controlled environment helps maintain focus on the message without distractions.
• Focus on Lighting: Advise them to record in well-lit spaces. Natural light is ideal, so positioning themselves facing a window is often best. If recording indoors in low light, consider using additional soft lighting to enhance visibility.
• Minimize Background Noise: Recommend locations that are quiet, away from traffic, appliances, or people talking. This ensures the testimonial is clear and easy to understand.

Directing the Testimonial

• Provide Clear Guidance: Give customers an outline or script with key points to cover, helping them stay focused on the main message.
• Ask Open-ended Questions: Encourage customers to share their experiences by asking open-ended questions that prompt detailed responses rather than simple yes or no answers.
• Engagement Techniques: Suggest they speak naturally and passionately about their experience, which will engage viewers. Remind them it’s okay to pause and gather their thoughts.
• Practice Runs: Encourage a brief practice run to make them comfortable with the recording process. This can help reduce nerves and improve the overall delivery of the testimonial.

Strategies for recording video testimonials 

Method 1: Shooting the Testimonial in person

So you can either call your client/customer to your office or studio or send video support to your client/customer’s office, home, or wherever they are comfortable. Depending on the quality of the video you want, you can hire a video crew or simply shoot with a phone. Phone-shot videos, in most cases, work just fine as long as the audio is clear. For better-quality videos, you can also carry extra lights or maybe a microphone for recording the audio. However, that, in most cases, is not necessary. Just ensure that you’re recording in a quiet, well-lit, and noise-free environment.

Phone-shot videos look more authentic and personal! Please note that not everyone is comfortable speaking in front of the camera, and that’s why we have to make it as effortless for the client/customer as possible.

Pros

• You will be in control and can record to your satisfaction.
• You can suggest ideas for the content!
• You can make your client/customer feel more comfortable
• Looks more professional (if you produce it well!)

Cons

• It could be quite a tedious job.
• It involves traveling and is time-consuming.

Tools to use:

• A good quality camera (Any DSLR, mirrorless camera, or even a good phone camera will work!)
• Tripod or Stabilizer
  This is to keep the camera steady and prevent shaky footage, especially if you're shooting handheld. Tripods or stabilizers like gimbals can help maintain stability!
• External microphone
  An external microphone, such as a Lavalier mic or shotgun mic, can greatly improve sound quality by reducing background noise. However, these microphones can be quite expensive. So consider renting them out! If you’re not too quality-conscious, you can also use a second phone (preferably an iPhone), keep it close to the speaker, and record the audio on that.
• Lighting Equipment
  Proper lighting can significantly enhance the video. Softbox lights or LED panels help create a well-lit, professional-looking video. If budget is an issue, you can simply go for a ring light or shoot at a location that is well-lit and does not require any external lighting.
• Backdrop (optional)
• Script or Guideline (optional)
• Teleprompter apps (optional)
• Storage (Cloud storage like Google Drive, WeTransfer, etc., or a memory card/SD card, hard disk, pen drive, etc.)

Method 2: Ask your client to record a video

Nowadays, everyone has smartphones and can easily record themselves! Selfie videos even though they aren’t professional look more personal and authentic. So, yes, you can ask your clients to record themselves. However, that increases effort on their end.

So, to ease their job, consider sharing a script or a questionnaire with them. You can also share sample testimonial videos for references with them so they don’t feel confused. Be very clear in your instructions about what you want from them, the length of their testimonial, if cuts are allowed, and other details.

Pros

• Clients/customers are usually more comfortable recording themselves, and conscious around other people, so the testimonial video may come out to be more natural. So they can record themselves in their comfort zone.
• You won’t have to schedule anything.

Cons

• There may be revisions, which could be very difficult to ask for!
• The lighting, audio, etc., may not be as good!

Tools to use:

• Good-quality camera (phone/professional)
• Video editing software (Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Wondershare Filmora, etc.)
• Cloud storage for sharing files
• Microphone (earphones with good-quality mic, Lavalier mic, etc.)
• Good lighting/Lighting Equipment (ring light, LED lights, softbox, etc.)
• Remote Collaboration Tools (platforms like Zoom or Skype for remote guidance or to provide real-time feedback during the recording process.)
• Instructional Video or Tutorial (Optional)
• Teleprompter app or a script (Optional)

Alternatively, you can also go for a professional service like Testimonial Donut. As a first step, they will create a mock testimonial video design for you. Then, you just need to select five clients/customers of yours and connect them with the company, and the company will take care of the rest from there.

By the end of the service, you will get your testimonials without any hassle and unnecessary back-and-forth with the clients/customers!

Method 3: Schedule a Video Call with them and record the video call

You can also consider scheduling a video call (like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Facetime, etc.) with your client/customer where you can record them directly. These are more engaging and helpful as they can also help you instruct them about the audio, lighting, speech, etc.

It can also be an impromptu testimonial video call where you prompt them questions, and they give you a candid answer based on that. That will make the testimonial more authentic and honest!

Alternatively, you can share the questionnaire with them beforehand so they can be more prepared. Afterward, you can edit the video, cut the pauses, silences, and any parts you want to remove, and get a nice testimonial edit.

Pros

• You will have more control over the testimonial
• It’s a convenient and less time-consuming answer
• You can guide it in your favorable direction with the questionnaire
• Looks more natural and honest!

Cons

• May look less professional
• Quality control may be a challenge, since video calls’ resolution may not be that great!
• Dependency on the Internet connection
• Will require a good edit!

Tools to use:

• Video call software with recording capabilities (Zoom, Google Meet, MS Teams, FaceTime, etc.)
• Video editing software (Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Wondershare Filmora, etc.)
• Good lighting
• High-quality phone camera or webcam
• Microphone

Editing and Producing the Testimonial

In 2024, editing and production have become important if you want to create content that sticks out and grabs users’ attention. The quality of your video has become paramount, and particular types of edits and cuts, especially in short-form (< 1 min) videos, matter a lot!

Best (free and paid) software for easy video editing:

• CapCut (freemium)
• Adobe Premiere Pro (paid)
• Wondershare Filmora (paid)
• Canva (freemium)
• Veed (freemium)
• Final Cut Pro (paid) (only available on Mac)
• Davinci Resolve (freemium)

Production Tips:

• Ensure optimal and cinematic lighting and ambiance 
• Use high-quality mics for good sound
• Have a script for questions ready (use Chat GPT, Perplexity, Claude, etc.)
• Shoot in a quiet and noise-free space
• Utilize a teleprompter if you’re reading a script

Editing Tips:

• Cut out any unnecessary part
• Ensure the video is interesting, with subtle effects and cuts
• Remove noise from audio using AI (Adobe Podcast, CapCut, etc.)
• Incorporate your logo and other branding elements
• Utilize sound effects and background score
• Use reference videos and try to match them 

Collect Video Testimonials with Testimonial Donut

Testimonial Donut is the easiest and most convenient way to collect and manage testimonials from your clients or customers. First of all, it’s free to use. Secondly, it’s got a streamlined and user-friendly dashboard that lets you collect testimonials in the form of videos, Google reviews, and text. 

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Further, you can create widgets using some or all of these testimonials and integrate them into your website by simply copying a code. You can also edit these widgets in terms of colors, font, and other stylistic elements to fit in with your branding. 

Testimonial Donut widgets are compatible with all website builders and web content management systems, including Webflow, WordPress, or whichever you use. 

To understand how you can use Testimonial Donut to collect customer or client video testimonials on your website, here’s a step-by-step guide for you:

• Login or sign up at https://app.testimonialdonut.com/

• Go to the Collectors’ page. 

• Click on the ‘+ Create video collector’ button. 

• Name the video collector and click on ‘Confirm Selection’

• On the Collectors page, you will find your Testimonial Collector. Click on the link icon right next to it. That will copy the link to the clipboard. 

• You can share this link with your customer or client. When they open that link, the customer will find the following page. 

• Click ‘Record a video testimonial,’ and the following window will open. Here, the customer/client can ‘record’ or ‘upload’ your testimonial. 

• Click on the ‘Submit’ button if you’re done recording the testimonial. Else, you can also click on ‘Retake’ to give it another try. 

Once the customer submits or uploads the video, it will appear on the ‘Testimonials’ page on your dashboard at https://app.testimonialdonut.com/testimonials.  

This is how easily you can collect video reviews that look authentic, without the load of production, editing, location specifics, high budgets, etc. 

How do you follow up after requesting the testimonial?

Once you've requested the client testimonial videos, follow-up actions are essential to keep the process on track and maintain a positive relationship with your clients/customers. Here are some guidelines for following up.

Thank You Message

Send a thank-you message immediately after making the request. It’s also good to express gratitude for their time and consideration. This reaffirms your appreciation for their effort. Let’s say you’re writing a follow-up mail; the first thing should be thanking them for agreeing to the request.

Confirmation and Gentle Reminder

If the customer/client hasn't responded a day or two after the initial request, send a gentle reminder to confirm if they've had the chance to consider your request. Politely remind them of the importance of their testimonial.

Let’s say the client/customer agreed that they will share a testimonial with you in “x” days. After that period, wait another day or so, and if you don’t receive the testimonial from them, just write or say something along the lines of “I haven’t received your testimonial video yet. Just wanted to gently remind you about it and check if you’re doing well or need any assistance with the video!”

Provide Assistance

Offer any necessary assistance or clarifications they might need. If they have questions or uncertainties, provide prompt and helpful responses to facilitate their recording process.

Flexible Deadlines

Be flexible with timelines. While it's good to set an expectation for when you'd ideally like the testimonial, consider their schedule and offer reasonable timeframes.

Check-In

Regularly check in with a polite follow-up message. It's crucial not to appear pushy but instead show continued interest in their willingness to participate.

Provide Samples or References

If they seem uncertain about the format or content, offer samples of other customer video reviews or guidelines to help them understand better what you're looking for.

Express Gratitude Again

Once they've submitted the testimonial, whether it meets all your criteria or not, express gratitude. Thank them for their effort and for sharing their thoughts.

Lastly, if you find any of this too much effort or work or don’t have the time or bandwidth to invest in this work, consider going for services like Testimonial Donut, where all this headache is taken care of by their team.

Final Thoughts

Hope we were able to provide you an in-depth guideline on how you can collect video testimonials from your clients/customers, along with additional tips for recording, production, editing, reachouts, and follow-ups. 

Here’s a quick roundup of everything we discussed. Firstly, it’s important to handpick the right customers/clients and reach out to them, making the reach out as personal as possible with a clear objective. Then, we discussed the technical guidelines around recording, production, and editing. 

We also discussed how authentic and self-recorded natural videos might appeal more than a heavily produced testimonial video, which has the risk of looking “too corporate” and not very relatable. 

Finally, we discussed how you can use Testimonial Donut to collect and manage authentic testimonials and customer reviews. These are best for small- and medium-sized businesses with little budgets.