Marketing / Digital Marketing

8 Powerful Reasons Why Video Testimonials Help You Generate More Leads

PJ Taei

Updated: Jun 17, 2022 · 9 min read

Toolkit for download in this article

video testimonials

Lead generation is and will always be the centerpiece of your inbound marketing strategy. Regardless of what your long-term goals are or where you see yourself in five years time, you need to be able to guarantee the appropriate and sustainable level of growth to get there. This, of course, means that you need as many quality leads today as you can possibly get.

Businesses of all types use a variety of different lead generation techniques on a daily basis, from making an effort to boost their SEO (search engine optimization) rankings to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more. But there's one key opportunity that is easily more powerful than the rest - that also happens to be an opportunity that is often overlooked until it's far too late.

Video testimonials

A video testimonial is more than just a short video featuring one of your existing, satisfied customers. It's a persuasive, effective way that lets real people communicate just how valuable your products and services are using the most unbiased channels that they can. But more than that, it lets you create a true experience for your prospects in every sense of the term - one that actually makes converting something of a foregone conclusion more often than not.But in the event that you still need some convincing, there are eight powerful reasons why video testimonials will help you generate more leads that are certainly worth exploring.

1. Video Testimonials Significantly Impact a Customer's Purchasing Decisions

One of the major reasons why video testimonials can help you generate more leads has to do with the fact that, by and large, your customers don't just want to take your word for it that your products and services can do what you claim. They want to hear it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. These days, both B2B and B2C customers tend to do an incredible amount of research before making even the smallest purchase online. During this period, they want to see what real people have to say. This is part of the reason why review sites have become so important in nearly any industry - a series of good reviews can get someone down off the fence and can get them pointed in the direction of a sale. A series of bad reviews will likely cause them to stay far, far away.

But to get a real idea of just how important this is, consider the fact that one recent study revealed that 38% of people said that reading online reviews was a "very important" part of their pre-purchase process. Another 19% said that it was "extremely important." Based on this, it should come as absolutely no surprise that businesses with good client testimonials - be they video-based or otherwise - tend to enjoy customers who spend about 31% more on average. So not only will video testimonials help you generate more leads, but those leads will also spend more money than those obtained otherwise, as well.

2. They Can Have a Dramatic Impact on Your SEO Efforts

Another one of the reasons why video testimonials are so important in the modern era has to do with an equally critical concept that you should always be focused on: your click-through rate. Generally speaking, your click-through rate is an indicator of not just how many people are interested in products or services like yours, but how many people are engaging with your brand, specifically. Over the past few years, more companies have been focusing their attention on customer testimonials (and online reviews) in an attempt to boost these numbers as high as possible.On the review side of things, another study showed that a five-star rating on a review site had a tendency to boost click-through rates by roughly 28%. Going from a three-star rating to a five-star rating drove 25% more clicks. That means that more people are being driven right to your website than ever. Once they're there, you have an invaluable opportunity to hit them with as many positive video testimonials as you can to actually convert those leads you've just generated into cold, hard sales.

3. They'll Absolutely Impact Your Conversions, Too

video editing testimonials

Speaking of conversions, video testimonials are also a powerful tool to accomplish probably your most important goal of all: convincing people that now is the time to part ways with their hard-earned money on whatever it is that you're offering.

During one recent study conducted by Power Reviews, the team set out to determine the tangible impact that customer testimonials had on one of their clients. For the purposes of this particular study, all items on the client's website were categorized by high or low price points so that the conversion rates between those two categories could be adequately compared.

Low-priced items tended to enjoy high conversion rates in general - there's really no surprise there. But what's interesting is that the conversion rates of more expensive items were driven almost entirely by customer reviews and testimonials. In fact, those high ticket items tended to see a 380% increase in their conversion rate when they were paired with relevant testimonials. Those testimonials gave the lower priced items a 190% conversion rate increase, for the record.

So again, not only do video testimonials get people ready to make a sale to begin with, but they also get them ready to spend more money as well.

4. They're Far More Effective At Lead Generation Than Other Avenues

One of the biggest reasons why video testimonials can make an impact on your lead generation efforts has to do with the fact that it tends to be a bigger impact than other opportunities are capable of providing.

Trust Radius, for example, recently conducted a survey of B2B marketers that took a closer look at testimonials and customer reviews versus other lead generation techniques. Interestingly, the study found that while materials like case studies were inherently of a "higher quality" and provided "more relevant content" than testimonials, most respondents said that the testimonials were "more authentic" and "unbiased."

In essence, because those video testimonials were more personal and easier to consume, people tended to feel like they were more reflective of a "real-world experience." They were more convincing by their very nature, which made them more likely to generate and convert leads at the exact same time.

5. They Impact Multiple Stages of the Buying Process

getting paid through video

Another reason why video testimonials are among the highest converting tools has to do with the way that they remain relevant across many different stages of the buying process. When you create something like a case study or white paper, you're really targeting one specific part of your sales funnel. That's a limitation, yes - but it's also necessary. These types of collateral need to be as valuable, relevant and specific as possible. You're not going to be able to get to that point if you're trying to appeal to everyone at all times.

Video testimonials, on the other hand, can. They're useful across all parts of the funnel and customers use them to do everything from comparing products to validating information that you're providing them to identifying the pros and cons of a purchase and more.

Regardless of when your customers happen to engage with your video testimonials, they are still very likely to be relevant to their particular position in your sales funnel. The same can't be said of other types of collateral that you may also be working on.

6. They Play to Emotions in the Best Possible Way

But one of the real qualities that helps to create a powerful video testimonial is also, thankfully, one of the most straightforward: emotion. The fact of the matter is that you can read about how useful or valuable something is all you want, but it will never have the same impact as if you watch someone get that same amount of enjoyment out of something with your own two eyes.

A video testimonial lets you see and hear first-hand what someone felt when they used a product or service, or how their lives are now better after that experience in some way than they were before it. You can see the look on someone's face and hear the inflection in their voice. You get an opportunity to pick up on subtle cues cluing you into how genuine someone is - cues that are nonexistent when you're just reading something on a page. This alone can help elevate video testimonials above even something like standard user reviews. Plus, it gives you a chance to play into the first rule of storytelling: if you have an opportunity to show someone something instead of telling them, it's one that you should absolutely try to capitalize on.

7. They Help Boost Other Aspects of Your Marketing Efforts, Too

But one of the important things to understand about all of this is that your video testimonials are not created in a vacuum. If you're going to the trouble of filming testimonials and are only having them live on your website, you're tapping into but a small fraction of their true potential in terms of proper lead generation.

Case in point: emails. Studies have shown that even using the word "video" in an email subject line can boost your open rates by a massive 19%. It can further improve your click-through rates by about 65% and even reduces unsubscribe rates, too.

Likewise, video testimonials can play a big role in your success on social media as well. High quality, relevant visual content like video testimonials has been proven to be shared up to 40 times more than other types of content.

So not only will video testimonials have an immediate, short-term impact on your ability to generate leads, but they can also have a long-term, much more broad impact on your larger marketing campaign as well. This alone goes a long way towards proving that they're one technique you do not want to overlook.

8. The Numbers Speak For Themselves

Finally, if you still aren't convinced that video testimonials are a perfect way to help you generate more leads than ever, take a look at any one of the following statistics:According to one recent study, a full 65% of your audience is more susceptible to visual learning than from receiving information via other means.Visitors to your website are 64% more likely to follow through with a conversion - that is, to take your desired action - after watching a video than they are before.People who have a tendency to shop online are 63% more likely to make a purchase if the product they're interested in has reviews and ratings.A full 90% of all Internet shoppers in the modern era say that their buying decisions are greatly influenced by online reviews.

Creating powerful video testimonials for your business, allows you to check all of these essential boxes, all at the same time. They play directly into your audience's proclivity for visual learning, they're content that people have already told you they want more of, and they tap directly into someone's emotions in a way that is difficult to ignore.

But regardless of the type of business you're trying to run - whether you're an online eCommerce retailer, or you’re running your own subscription VOD site- video testimonials make an impact in the best possible way. That impact isn't just how you get someone's attention. It's how you earn the right to keep that attention, creating the type of situation where you can then allow your products and your services to finally speak for themselves.

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