Customer testimonials are a great selling tool and have been used in marketing and selling circles for a very long time. Frankly, there’s no better way to communicate the value that you provide to your customers than through a testimonial from an existing satisfied customer. Your prospects are much more likely to take their word for it, than yours.

There are several types of customer testimonials and they include: The official customer endorsement letter, where your customer writes a brief albeit thorough letter on her company letterhead endorsing your product or service; The customer interview, where you interview your  customer and document her responses; The testimonial video, where you conduct an interview with your customer and capture it on video.

All of these forms are useful but, there’s no better way of communicating your unique value to your prospects than through a streaming customer video testimonial on your website. The power of video in this context cannot be overstated.

Gone are the days of Advertising Agencies, expensive video shoots, film crews and hired talent. All you really need is a reasonable and relatively inexpensive digital video camera (or video capture device i.e., a smart phone), the ability to transfer the video file to your computer, some editing software, the talent to use it and a willing customer or two.

There are 5 things that you need to keep in mind when creating customer video testimonials:

First, what is the goal of the video testimonial? Well, as with all of your marketing and selling activities, it should be to get more of the right customers to do business with you. Having customers is mandatory for any business. Having the ‘right’ customers is optional and is something that successful businesses learn to distinguish sooner or later. That being said, this should impact your choice of which customers you want to get a video testimonial from. Pick the ones that you would like to duplicate. Don’t choose the ones who cause you fits and sleepless nights. They probably won’t give you a good testimonial anyway.

Second, the idea is to have the people viewing the video testimonial to identify and associate with the person speaking on the video. Therefore, it’s important to consider where your prospects are in their lives and in their businesses at the time that they are viewing the video. Having the person on the video talk about what their situation was like when they were at that point is very important. Ask your existing customer to talk about the problem that you solved or the pain that you eliminated. Chances are the person viewing the video has a similar problem or pain.

Third, everyone is concerned about results and return on investment. Your prospects are no exception. Make sure that the person that you are interviewing on video talks about the results related to your product or service in as specific terms as possible. Some examples of these results include, increased sales revenues, reduced costs, increased income, reduced cycle times, etc. The more concretely she describes the results that you have achieved for her, the better.

Fourth, your interviewee should give a very clear and articulate expression of her satisfaction with the service that she has received from your company. One of the things that I like to include here is to have her talk about how long she has been your customer and how that relationship has continued to grow and improve over that time. This builds credibility and communicates the legitimacy of your business due to the longevity of your customer relationships. On the other hand, if you have customers who have had significant results in a short period of time, this is another great message that can be communicated through your video testimonial.

Fifth and finally, keep it real and don’t be phony! Nobody likes phony people. Actually, only phony people like phony people. In this socially conscious day and age phoniness will not be tolerated, especially as it relates to customer video testimonials. The more candid you can be and the more realistic the expression of your existing customer’s satisfaction on video, the better. Keep in mind that these testimonials are not an advertisement for your company. They are the next best thing to a first person referral, from one trusted friend to another.