by Phil Chow

Every sale is a golden opportunity to collect testimonials for your website, but especially to collect video testimonials. Why video testimonials?

Needless to say customers look at testimonials to decide who to do business with. Customers especially believe in video testimonials over audio and text testimonials because they can see the person in video testimonials.

That’s why it’s worth asking every customer for a video testimonial, even if few will agree to one (see my earlier post on how to maximize your chances of getting a customer testimonial, video or otherwise).

This post is about how to create customer video testimonials when you do get a customer who agrees to a video testimonial. You’ll see that creating video testimonials is easy to do!
 

Create Your YouTube Account

You’ll first need to have a YouTube account to host your video testimonials. It’s free to host videos on YouTube.

First, go to YouTube.com and create your YouTube Account or sign in if you already have one. If you’re creating your account for the first time, just follow the prompts to set your account up.

If you have already have a Google account, you can sign in with your Google credentials on YouTube (Google owns YouTube).

Next, set up your YouTube channel, which is where you can upload, manage, edit, post and publish your videos. Here’s how to set up your Youtube channel once you have your YouTube account (opens in a new window).
 

Ways to Shoot Customer Video Testimonials

Now you’re ready to shoot your customer video testimonials. I recommend two ways to do this:

1. Use a Web Cam

First is by using a web cam on your desktop or laptop to record a webcam video onto YouTube. Here’s how to record a YouTube video using a webcam (opens in a new window).

To shoot the video, your customer just sits in front of your desktop or laptop’s webcam to record a customer video testimonial.

2. Use a mobile device

The second way is to use a mobile device.   The device could be a tablet, digital camera or recorder that connects to the Internet or what everybody has these days—-your smartphone.
 

Youtube Capture App

Whatever mobile device you use, it should be able to connect to YouTube. Most newer tablets, smartphones and even some camera or recorders already come with a YouTube Capture App.

If your device does not have this app, you can download the YouTube Capture App from iTunes or from Google Play if you have an Android device.

How you can tell if your device can connect to YouTube is to shoot a practice video? After shooting, you should see the YouTube icon appear on your video or in your video menu > YouTube. Just click or tap on the icon to begin uploading or your video to your YouTube channel or edit it right from your mobile device.
 

Shooting with a Smartphone, Tablet or Digital Camera or Recorder

Smartphones are probably the easiest way to shoot customer video testimonials. If you ever have shot any videos on a smartphone, shooting a customer video testimonial is the same process.

Tablets are the next best way to shoot a customer video testimonial. Shooting a customer video testimonial on a tablet is also the same process as shooting one on a smartphone.

A digital camera or recorder can also be used, but I recommend only if it can connect to the Internet and Youtube; otherwise, you’ll have the extra step (and hassle) of transferring your shot video from your camera or recorder to an Internet connected device and then uploading it to YouTube.

Here’s more detail on how to record a YouTube video using a webcam or mobile device (opens in a new window) with text and video instruction on how to do this.
 

Shooting Your Customer Video Testimonial Tips

In shooting your customer video testimonial, you want the testimonial to come across as authentic, not staged.

To do this, ask your customer only two questions to answer in their testimonial:

1. How did you feel about your experience with us? and
2. How likely would you recommend our company to a friend?

and let them give their testimonial in their own words so that they come across as natural and believable.

Also, direct your customer to look into your smartphone camera lens as they give their testimonial. That way, they’ll come across as if they’re directly talking to someone watching the video.

Another trick is get your customer to imagine your smartphone as a person that they are talking to.
 

Time and Background Considerations

Give your customers up to 30 seconds to give their testimonial (TV commercials usually are edited into 30 second increments, with 30 seconds being the shortest). They will more than likely say everything they want to say way before their 30 seconds is up.

If they’re still talking as 30 second approaches, give them an advance warning, like counting down the last 5 seconds with your fingers, so that they can finish their testimonial naturally within 30 seconds. If they do happen to go over 30 seconds, it’s no problem.

If your customer is nervous, you might consider have him or her do at least one pretend recording before the real one.

When shooting, have the customer in front of a simple background. A white or neutral, non busy,  background is best. The customer can sit or stand, whichever they prefer.

Shoot at a level to capture the customer from shoulder and above. You do not necessarily need a microphone to shoot your customer video testimonials because you will be shooting close to your customer, so the sound quality should be more than adequate.
 

Shooting Mechanics

For the mechanics of shooting, for a smartphone or tablet, hold the device horizontally with two hands and lock your arms to steady the device or use a tripod and start shooting as per the YouTube Video below:

Uploading Your Customer Video Testimonials

Once you’ve shot your testimonial, you can upload it to YouTube. Here’s how to upload your video to YouTube (opens in a new window).  The YouTube capture app on your device makes this easy to do.
 

Editing Your Customer Video Testimonials

Your will likely not have to edit your shot customer video testimonial. However, if you want to, you can edit it right after shooting by using the YouTube Capture App before uploading your video.
 

The YouTube Creator Studio

I prefer to upload a customer video testimonial to YouTube and then, if I want to edit it, edit it in my YouTube Channel Creator Studio.   It’s easier to edit it there from a laptop keyboard than from a mobile device’s touchscreen.

With your Youtube Creator Studio,  you can manage, add titles, add background music and link to your company website and more. The following gives you an overview of the edits you can do to your customer video testimonials (opens in a new window) once you’ve uploaded them to the Creator Studio.
 

Sharing Your Customer Video Testimonials

When you’ve published your customer video testimonials to YouTube, people will be able to see them on YouTube. So, it’s a good idea to direct potential customers to your YouTube channel.

You can also share, email and embed your customer testimonial videos, too, for potential customers to see.  To share or email, just go to your YouTube videos, click on the sharing icon and choose share or email. To embed your video on your website, click on embed and copy and paste the code to your website.

You can use your customer video testimonials in this way to market your business to potential customers.
 

Final Thoughts

There you have it! You now know how to plan, shoot, upload, edit, publish and share your customer video testimonials to others.

With this knowledge, you can create customer video testimonials in no time. Your customer testimonial videos will sway customers to do business with you over your competitors who have few customer video testimonials, if any at all. So why not take advantage asking customers for video testimonials after every sale and start reaping the benefits of video testimonials for your business today.
 

Resources

YouTube Help Channel (Opens in a new window).

What are your thoughts on this post? If you have any comments or questions, please write below. We welcome and appreciate your opinion!