Why you need Customer Testimonials (Social Proof)
The idea of Social Proof, developed by Robert Cialdini as one of his principles of persuasion, says that people are likely to do things if they see other people doing them as well. It's like when you board an elevator and find your co-passengers intently meddling with their phones- you'll automatically open up your cell phone and start scrolling, too.
We validate our actions by mimicking those of others in the same situation as ourselves- it's why we feel pressed to start clapping for a rather dull speaker once we hear a couple others applauding.
Similarly while considering a new enterprise product, 71% of B2B buyers look at customer reviews during consideration (G2). Such customer content, like case studies, allows the delivery of personalized information digitally. Thus, this channel is one of the best lead nurturing initiatives, standing at around 40% (DemandGen).
Why Customer Testimonials Work
- Credibility + Trust
A good testimonial acts as unbiased social proof and validates potential customers in choosing your company. Hearing positive feedback from your existing customers, in their own words, also builds trust in your product's offerings and improves your credibility in their network.
- Brand Memorability
A testimonial that features real customers telling genuine stories about the functional and emotional value your product/service adds will resonate with the experiences of your target audience. People remember such emotionally significant experiences and the impression testimonials leave on them. They talk about it and recall the brand when facing similar issues- thus increasing brand memorability.
- Improving brand reach
Content generated from engaging testimonials can improve your visibility online. When you feature stories from important and credible individuals, you expose your brand to their networks and gain traction from new and diverse audiences. Thus you get to move beyond the same, limited audience in your in-house promotions.
Building Effective Testimonials: A Step By Step Playbook
Step 1: Identifying the Right Subjects
Who do you choose to interview?
Amrit Vatsa, the co-founder of CoreVoice, heavily emphasizes on establishing the best trust and credibility in your brand. “You want to put together a group that has legitimacy and can speak for you”. Testimonials from high-level individuals do this for you- they are recognized and their words hold authority.
“You can compliment a well known personality or a leader, say a CXO, with a actual PoC who can give on ground answers” - Amrit
Anshuman Agrawal, the Head of Strategy at CoreVoice focuses on how senior leadership in organizations can see your value in a comprehensive way from a higher vantage point. He says “While they will not dwell on everyday details, these senior people will be able to talk about the value that you bring to their organization at a higher level and how it helps them improve their organizational level strategy. And that’ll be more impactful.”
You can still get a powerful story from senior leaders even when they aren’t fully involved in the daily grind. “The key is groundwork,” says Amrit "Often, if you're doing a great job, you are being spoken about inside the company. More people are aware about what you do. You will be surprised how aware most leadership teams are- they take feedback from their team.”. This way, when you ask for a testimonial, senior leadership is already well-positioned to speak highly of your work.
Talking about people who must also feature in a video testimonial, Anshuman, refers to your ‘champions’. He says, “These are folks in the organization that genuinely like you, your work and the value that you bring to their organization”. Your subject’s work experience with you and their legitimacy and credibility will also matter here. Knowing your target group well enough to understand these nuances within their organization is essential.
Interviewing Multiple Stakeholders?
You need to account for the fact that each person in the organization will have had a different experience working with you. By interviewing multiple stakeholders, you get various perspectives that form a comprehensive picture of how your organization met the client’s varied needs.
Moreover, each stakeholder, be it the end-user or decision-maker in the organization, will experience different benefits or have diverse pain points addressed by the same product. Bringing out these positive experiences will make your testimonials effective. With multiple stakeholders vouching for you, you are better positioned to build trust among your potential buyers.
Contacting your Subjects: emails and setting expectations
Reach out to your subjects with a formal email asking for their support towards making a testimonial. In further discussions, set expectations on what kind of testimonials you seek. Specifically, in this case, for a video testimonial, be clear about what kind of information you are looking for, the process from end to end, the timelines, etc.
"You've got to be respectful of people's time", Piyush Adwani, a Growth Marketer at Corevoice says. "If you are interviewing multiple people within the organization, it makes sense to drop them a notice even if their explicit permission is not essential; it is only polite."
While automated email requests are effective in reaching a large number of people, they favor personal contact with specific, detailed emails to your targeted customers.
Step 2: Crafting your narrative: Drafting the Right Questions
Understanding the response we want from interviewees
The first step towards crafting a structured narrative is to know what you want your subjects to speak.
Depending on the depth and nature of work you've done for your client, first understand what you want to highlight from this particular testimonial. Our Marketing Manager Priya Poddar clarifies, "You can always discuss the established general positive impact you've made…..What truly matters is zeroing in on what was unique or particularly valuable about your work that it appealed to your client."
This is the context you must set before framing your questions, which also ensures expectations are aligned.
What kinds of questions do we ask?
At Corevoice, we follow a fantastic structured method for this. We try to structure out what we would like to hear from our subjects' testimonials and why it is important for us to hear that. Also important is knowing who you want to hear these answers from.
Indu, a Marketer and Writer at CoreVoice, chimes in, "Knowing who your subjects are is not the issue- you need to understand their psyche to form your questions; this is the real challenge- and it's exciting!" You must think about what they would be the most excited to share and their experience of your collaboration.
Make sure the questions you curate allow them to talk about their business, the situation they were in, why they picked you and the impact you could create for them. Also, focus on moving beyond simply the functional value addition of working with you. "Talking about the intellectual and emotional journey of your collaboration and the resulting value add is just as important as the functional elements- people should know how your clients felt working with your team", according to Indu. She further adds, "to go beyond, you can also focus on the learning journey- the impact you had and what you taught each other."
Citing her pride in the practices at Corevovice, Priya says, "Keeping your questions simple and open is paramount." she continues "When we reach out to clients for testimonials, we want them to sound as natural and authentic as possible." Do not forward complicated questions that could manipulate the subject into answering a particular way
What elements are needed to make the testimonial relatable to potential clients? This depends on how you want to position your brand. For instance, Pracheta Nayak, a Video Storyteller at CoreVoice says, "One of our clients, a Software Outsourcing company, wanted to position themselves a very specific way- having the best engineers. So, we ran with that and tailored our questions accordingly."
Customizing questions for each interviewee
Asking all your subjects the same tailored questions is not guaranteed to give you varied, specific answers. For this, you must spend time customizing your questions for each interviewee.
What's important here? "The real task," according to Piyush, "is in knowing your subjects and their roles and experiences well enough…", he continues "...this is a hard task"
What results is a set of interviews that provide insights into each individual's rich and diverse experiences with you. More importantly, you can focus on asking each individual those specific questions- saving time and reaping more detailed responses.
Step 3: Conducting a Successful Video Testimonial Interview
Why video testimonials work
As opposed to purely text-based articles, Videos help boost information retention and have staying power. They also engage viewers by conveying customer emotions and experiences. Showing real faces makes the testimonials more trustworthy and concrete. In fact, 77% of people who have watched a brand's testimonial video say it has played a part in convincing them to buy their product or service. (Wyzowl)
Preparing for the video interview
Being prepared is key. Conduct thorough background research on both the company and the subjects you will be interviewing. At CoreVoice, we make sure to not only learn about the subject's role in their organization but also understand the unique experiences that help define them. In Pracheta’s words "You build a rapport with them, and they feel heard,....valued; they'll respond better to you"
We keep our comprehensive guide of prepared questions ready and have and understand what we want to achieve out of them. Having this clarity allows you to direct the flow of your interview naturally.
Guiding the subjects
Make your subjects feel comfortable. A great way to do this would be to have an informal chat while you set up. A couple of CVlians chime in on their go-to methods:
Piyush: "Crack a couple of jokes, have some light-hearted banter, talk about recent news or even their personal experiences, if they seem willing. Let them know that you know them."
Pracheta: "When I set up the frame, I discuss it with the subjects so they can get comfortable with how they appear on camera. They feel a sense of agency and get more comfortable."
Interviews are a two-way street; look your subjects in the eye, maintain positive body language and don't be afraid to use humor in appropriate situations. The best outcome from this entire exercise is achieved when you both “forget you’re on camera…. interviews are best when they cease to be an interview and just end up being a conversation”- Anshuman. This will transform your interviews from a formal Q&A to a friendly and engaging conversation.
“More importantly,” says Anshuman, “let the conversation flow. Don’t strictly segue from question to question only” When you rigidly stick to your script, you risk missing out on many insights from questioning your subjects on the topic they seem excited about. Only use your script to guide and ensure the key pointers are covered.
Probing for key points
Be genuinely curious about what your subjects have to say. However, when you find their responses still vague, even to specific questions, you ask them 'probing' questions- clarifying follow-ups- to extract further details. Indu clarifies further in our conversation: "I mentioned probing questions here; now a good probing question on that would be to ask me what that is, explain its relevance, provide an example of it, etc."
How do we ensure your subjects' testimonials reflect the position the brand wants to take? For instance, at CoreVoice, we pride ourselves on being a story-led marketing 'non-agency'. But how do we get our clients to highlight this aspect when they respond to our tailored questions?
We recommend refining your language to include said pointers in your conversations. Before the interview, re-emphasize the pointers they need to focus on by cueing them in before the interview. We'd say, for example, "As a story-led non-agency, we'd like….." This ensures that your clients organically incorporate this core into their responses without parroting you.
Always end every interview on a light note. Engage with your subjects as a friend; understand their perspectives and take their feedback. Offer your gratitude and reassurance that their opinions matter and are respected. This will foster and maintain a positive relationship between both parties.
Best practices to follow in a video testimonial
We've gathered the top tips offered by our videographers and editors to ensure a quality finished product:
- Account for the platform: The testimonial shot will be used in several places. So make sure you shoot with the target platform in mind
- Background matters: Reflecting your subject's parent company in your background elements adds to the testimonial's credibility and gravity.
- Prioritize good lighting: Invest in quality lighting equipment and work with a team skilled in making the right lighting choices to add character to your frame and the subject.
- Invest in Quality Audio: Use a good microphone and sound equipment to capture clear audio. Use AI tools to edit for better sound quality if necessary.
Next Steps: Using your testimonials to drive conversions
The most important part of crafting testimonials lies in how we use them. All the potential channels to distribute these testimonials need to be optimized. For instance, you must decide which platforms to post your testimonials on, be, LinkedIn, your website, etc- and alter the videos accordingly. This can include shooting in portrait/landscape mode, adjusting the aspect ratios, having different long and short-form iterations of the same content, etc.
For instance, Piyush recounts his experience: "If we've to post on Instagram reels, we make sure the video looks good in 9:16; if on LinkedIn, we like shorter videos in portrait mode to ensure we take full advantage of what each platform best promotes."
In a complex space like B2B marketing, associating your product's core value proposition with actual customers experiencing the value addition can help drive product sales. In fact, a study by the Spiegel Research Center, Northwestern University found that displaying customer stories like testimonials and reviews can increase a company's conversion rates by as much as 270% (Source: Spiegel Center)
This also applies to the distribution of such testimonials during your product demos and also during the sales enablement process. As a result, each piece of content distributed will move closer to realizing its intended benefit on the platform it's on.
At CoreVoice, we’ve spent years mastering the art of capturing compelling testimonials. Our experience with numerous clients across diverse industries has sharpened our approach to uncover the most impactful stories. Follow this guide and you can do the same. Turn your happiest customers into your strongest advocates.
Ready to elevate your testimonials game? Download our tailored testimonials template here!
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