As the online market slowly gets more and more saturated, hearing honest, down-to-earth voices are becoming increasingly rare.
Competing for advertising space and brand awareness, companies often forget that today’s consumers are getting desensitized to brand messages. To cut through the clutter, some businesses are using honest, emotional stories from their customers that describe someone’s real experiences with their product without promotional or salesy language.
These are customer testimonials, and they often come in the form of videos.
Let’s go through some examples of how brands do this and take a look at some testimonial templates that you can use.
P.S. If you're looking to gather video testimonials yourself, you can actually do it for free with Bonjoro Testimonials.
What are video testimonials and why are they effective?
You’ve likely seen video testimonials in TV commercials more than a dozen times: every time you see a user talking about a product from their own perspective and describing how it helped them personally, that is a type of testimonial.
Source: HubSpot
There is something to be said about loyal customers spreading the word around and spending their precious time talking about your product. When you can tap into an honest story and share the experience of a user that really appreciates your service, it’s bound to have an impact.
The best user testimonials leverage emotion and real experiences instead of focusing on your product or its features.
Why does this approach work?
For starters, it’s nothing new that people prefer word-of-mouth recommendations over brand promotions. However, you might be surprised to hear that users believe even recommendations from the people they don’t know: in fact, 70% would trust such recommendations.
At the same time, users are skeptical when it comes to businesses and their claims. It seems that the road towards getting users’ trust isn’t through advertising messages but rather through recommendations and word-of-mouth.
Testimonial video examples
Now, let’s get to some of our favorite examples! These brands all used different approaches to elicit emotions and connect to their audience through their own users.
Here is how they did it.
1. Salesforce: Trailblazers
Salesforce has a whole series of testimonials that focus on people who used their platform to make real change and achieve great things.
In this video, we focus on Stephanie Herrera and her story about where she came from, how she got to where she is now (Director of Technology), and how Salesforce played an important role in helping her get there.
What’s interesting about this video is the fact that Salesforce isn’t even mentioned in the first minute or so. We focus on Stephanie and her background, starting on cotton fields in Texas and getting into the world of technology.
The video doesn’t show us Salesforce’s features or advantages but rather the effect that the platform can have on someone’s life. More importantly, it shows us the effect that it can have on a whole community: at the end of the video, we see that Stephanie plays an important role in her community, empowering and helping people.
The takeaway: You don’t even have to focus on your product – show us how it changed someone’s life or had an impact on the community!
2. American Express
This video takes a different approach to testimonials but it’s equally powerful as our previous example.
What American Express tries to do with this testimonial is give you palpable, rational reasons why businesses should accept their cards. Instead of relying on emotion or story, we hear explanations from actual people about how accepting American Express credit cards has affected their small business.
If you’re running a small business, hearing words like “little cost differences”, “higher spend”, “more value”, and “supporting our business” will likely make you feel like accepting Amex is the right move, especially coming directly from business owners.
The takeaway: Focus on results and real examples of how your product helped solve a problem or improve a business.
3. Felder Group
Felder Group is a company that makes woodworking machines but, in this testimonial, they show that woodworking is not only a craft – it’s a passion, something that brings joy to lots of people.
Notice that they didn’t choose a senior employee of a furniture production company as their voice in this video: they chose a retired man who likes to make furniture for his family members. He speaks honestly about the product and his craft.
This is a textbook example of a customer testimonial video that feels natural and genuine.
The takeaway: Choose your video participants carefully and try to do it without a script. There is a big chance that they’ll deliver the message much better in their own words than by memorizing or reading a script.
4. Amazon: Fulfillment by Amazon
You’ve probably heard about the FBA program from Amazon that helps sellers grow their business and sell their products through the platform. But, how significant are the results you can get from this partnership?
This video answers that exact question by focusing on small business owners that used FBA to improve their business. With the help of chyrons and articulated users, this video drives the point home and makes you want to instantly join the program.
The takeaway: Show numbers both through your customers’ stories and graphics. Explaining how your product helped someone grow their business by 800% in a few years can be a powerful method of sparking curiosity.
5. Sunrun: Horizon Solar Power
This video combines many of the techniques we already mentioned: it connects us to the customer, gives us a little background of who they are, and shows us how the product helped them achieve specific results.
However, the thing that jumps out from this video is that the family involved with it is the perfect match for the brand’s target audience. It’s a big family that lives in a big house and spends a lot of money on their power bills.
We’re going to assume that this is about as close to Sunrun’s core target audience as possible! The video also includes someone from the company to explain more about the technical side of the product, which is always a good idea. You don’t want your customers to get too deep into the features. What you need from them are an authentic story and their results.
Key takeaway: Dig deep into your customer base and try to find those users whose story will resonate the most with your target audience.
6. Zoom
We’ve all heard of Zoom – the video calling platform has played a major role since the beginning of the global pandemic and will likely continue to play that role for some time.
So, the focus of this video isn’t on introducing Zoom or talking about its specific features – it’s about introducing the client company and how its employees reacted to Zoom being implemented.
The video portrays the client – Box – as a young, hip company that finds using Zoom natural and productive. It tackles one of the most important questions that often arise when we’re talking about video meeting tools: are they as productive as real-life meetings?
The takeaway: If you run a B2B service, focus on the client company, show their spaces, employees, and explain how they personally find your service/product useful.
7. Fort Street Veterinarian
This adorable video guides us through one user’s scary experience with seeking professional help for her dog.
Throughout the video, we see cute B-rolls of Molly the dog playing around with her toys while her owner Geri tells us about veterinary mix-ups she went through before finding the Fort Street Veterinarian.
The B-rolls with Molly aren’t the key thing about this video (although they’re a big plus) but it’s the honesty and openness with which her owner talks about Fort Street Veterinarian’s competition. Geri talks about the competition directly and highlights the brand’s advantages in a very practical way.
Key takeaway: Don’t be afraid to let your customers speak about the competition. Just make sure their claims are genuine and they believe what they’re saying!
3 Testimonial video scripts
Now, here are three testimonial video scripts if you’d like to give your customers something to prepare before filming the testimonial. We don’t recommend scripting the entire statement as this can feel fake and forced but you can definitely give them something like a pointer.
Script #1: B2B clients
This is a perfect script if you’re running a B2B service where both your current and potential clients care deeply about reliability and trust.
Here at [CLIENT COMPANY NAME], we’re all about [QUALITY, SAFETY, SPEED,etc]. We need to make sure that our [CLIENTS, CUSTOMERS] get the best service possible, and to do that, using the right tools is a must.
When we heard about [YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE], we were instantly curious about how the tool can help us [PERFORM A PRIMARY ACTION, e.g. ORGANIZE TEAM] and [PERFORM SECONDARY ACTION, e.g. INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY] in the process.
The guys from the sales team were extremely helpful, they answered all of our questions and explained all the features to the point that it was clear how their product would be just perfect for what we wanted to do. We’ve been using [YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE] for [PERIOD] now and we’ve got some amazing results already.
We consider it a core part of our work process and we would recommend it to any team looking to [PERFORM PRIMARY ACTION]!
Script #2: Long-time eCommerce customer
You’ll find this testimonial video script useful if you’re running an eCommerce website, especially if you specialize in a particular niche. In this case, you want to make sure the client testimonial displays you as a reliable seller that respects its own deadlines and shipping process.
I’ve been into [YOUR E-COMMERCE NICHE, e.g. CYCLING, TECH, FASHION] since I was [NUMBER] years old. I just love [THE SPECIFICS ABOUT YOUR NICHE].
I first heard about [YOUR BRAND NAME] from a friend a few years ago and I was instantly curious to see their offer, just as I’m always curious to see anything new in [YOUR E-COMMERCE NICHE].
The first thing that jumped out at me was how varied and fresh their offer is. You have all the latest [MODELS, COLLECTIONS, etc], the products are neatly displayed, and you can browse through categories with ease.
My favorite thing about [YOUR BRAND] is how the order process is so intuitive and you can absolutely count on them to deliver everything in time. It’s the kind of reliable service that I’m starting to find more and more important when ordering stuff online.
I’d recommend [YOUR BRAND] to anyone who’s as passionate about [YOUR NICHE] as I am. They know the industry and, more importantly, they know how to do business online.
Script #3: Long-time B2C subscriber
These types of testimonials are suitable for businesses that run subscription-based business, which is significantly different from eCommerce. Subscription businesses usually have to rely on long-term relationships and consistently provide value.
I’ve been having issues with [A PROBLEM YOUR BUSINESS SOLVES] for years now, so when I heard about [YOUR BRAND] I thought I should give it a shot.
I went for the free trial at first, to check out if it can actually do anything for me. In just a few days I noticed how [YOUR BRAND] helped me [PERFORM PRIMARY ACTION, e.g. MANAGE TIME] much better and features like [FEATURE 1] and [FEATURE 2] came in really handy.
The one thing that I really like is the fact that their customer support is helpful and easily reachable. Whenever I had questions about the tool’s functions and settings they were there to guide me through the process and make everything a breeze.
I’d recommend [YOUR BRAND] to anyone who wants to [PERFORM PRIMARY ACTION] and have fun in the process!
Testimonial video examples: the final word
Using social proof and success stories to demonstrate value is nothing new. It’s a technique that brands have been using for quite some time, and for a good reason: it works!
If you want to create testimonial videos without splashing the cash on expensive production equipment, try Bonjoro Testimonials. It lets you collect, manage, and publish happy customer testimonials with ease!
