A well constructed customer testimonial video strategy could help you drive sales.
It's a well-known fact that customer testimonial videos can be huge sales drivers for B2B companies.
It all boils down to a phenomenon known as social proof.
This is when people adopt the actions of others because they believe that those actions are correct, or, as this article puts it, "reflective of the correct behavior."" 
Whether this social example of recommendation comes from a third-party review or word-of-mouth does not matter. The point is, social proof is incredibly effective.
How effective?
Peer recommendations are trusted by 92% of people, according to a study conducted by Nielsen. The same study goes on to say that 70% of people trust recommendations from someone they have never met.
That's because people are constantly bombarded with advertisements and company messaging. They don't really trust the statements of marketers anymore.
However, customer testimonial videos are a form of social proof that can be curated and released by a company to capture the trust of its buyers.
As long as it is released strategically, like any marketing plan.
So how can you ensure that you're developing a solid customer testimonial video strategy? And more so, how can you implement it properly?
Secure Quality Testimonials
The first and most obvious step in your customer testimonial video strategy is to collect quality testimonials from some of your most satisfied customers.
While this might seem like a simple matter, like most marketing ventures, it requires a strategy.
It's important that you don't just reach out randomly to customers in the hopes that some of them will bite and throw you a testimonial. You need to have a plan in place.
You should start by reaching out to some of your more recent customers. The product is still fresh and exciting for them, so they will likely have a lot to say.
Expand beyond your recent customers
But you should not limit your search to just recent customers.
It's important to secure testimonials from customers who are at varying stages of the buyer's journey.
While you'll want some newer faces, some of the best and most reliable testimonials come from your long-time customers. These are your customers who have seen consistent growth and results throughout their time with you.
As for acquiring the testimonials, there are strategic ways of doing so.
By using automatic email drip campaigns, you can reach out to new customers after a set period of time.
For example, you could automatically send emails to customers to check in with them six months after onboarding. Then that's when you could ask them about submitting a testimonial.
This should be more than enough time for them to have developed an opinion on the service. There should be enough experience to give a thorough accounting of what it's like to do business with you.
After sending the drip campaign, follow up with unresponsive customers after a set amount of time.
Give it a week or so before you reach back out and take the temperature of their satisfaction.
It's important to not be overly pushy while trying to acquire these testimonials. You'll want to avoid negatively impacting your relationship.
When seeking a testimonial, it is sometimes better to talk with your biggest and best customers on a one on one basis as opposed to automated correspondence. This personal connection serves only to strengthen the bond you have already established.
Once you have gotten a commitment from some of your customers, it's time for the filming of their testimonials to begin.
Set the stage for success when filming
When filming, make sure that you're asking questions and not just letting the customer freestyle.
The questions should be specific and product-based.
Specificity is incredibly important.
You want to avoid including generalizations in your testimonial videos as that weakens the review. Simply saying, "It's good,"" is not an appropriate testimonial response.
Instead, get particular information from your testifying customer. You want to fill the testimonial with data that will intrigue and excite the prospect who is watching it.
Another factor that adds to the overall quality of your testimonial video is production.
The more dynamic you can make the video, the easier time you'll have holding the attention of your prospects.
Throw in camera cuts, film from different angles, and throw in some images, graphs, and b-roll footage to illustrate the points that are being made. 
Doing all of this establishes the all-important emotional connection with prospects, which only adds to the promotion of social proof and makes your service that much more appealing to new buyers.
Create Case Studies
One of the most complete and effective forms of social proof can come from a customer case study when you include testimonial videos within the report.
A case study is a detailed analysis of a specific event or events that impacted the journey of a customer as they used your product or service.
By creating a case study for some of your more successful clients, you have the opportunity to dive deep into their success story.
Through the power of a case study, you can show your prospects exactly what went right for these specific customers in great detail.
Another huge positive is its ability to take prospects on a trip through the full buyer's journey. Similarly, a customer case study affords you the opportunity to show all of the minor details that make up a customer's results.
While customer case studies are wonderful tools by which we can educate prospects, they are still produced in-house and might be subject to the raised eyebrows of a suspicious market.
That's where your customer testimonial video strategy comes into play.
You can greatly enhance your customer case study by including a testimonial video of the customer that you're focusing on.
Oftentimes in these instances, prospects might not want to read through the entire case study. They will instead look for smaller easy to digest content like images or videos.
The testimonial video is a worthy inclusion in this regard as it can summarize the contents of the study by allowing the customer to use their own words.
A testimonial video can legitimize your case study, establishing prospect trust by showcasing the customer's seal of approval. In other words, including a testimonial video in your customer case study provides proof that you're not just making it all up.
Blog Articles
Businesses should make it a regular part of their overall marketing strategy to routinely blog about the effectiveness of their products.
This helps with overall exposure, search engine optimization, and serves as a valuable educational resource for prospects who are in the early learning stages of their buyer's journey.
Your customer testimonial video strategy should also utilize blog content. You can elevate the content by using testimonial videos to make for a more impactful and meaningful article.
You should start off by writing articles which focus on customers from specific backgrounds.
A perfect example of this would be accountants, lawyers, plumbers, and doctors. You can then create a series of articles which highlight how your product helps these specific industries.
One way to make these articles truly pop is to throw in a testimonial video from a customer that works in the specific areas you're highlighting.
If you're trying to talk about how effective your product or service is for a doctor, include testimonial videos from doctors within the body of the content.
This serves to make blog articles far more engaging, as you are injecting social proof into company messaging. The end result will be that prospects will trust your blog more, as it has peer approval built in.
While it is effective to include these videos throughout the copy of the article, another option is to have them off to the side. Choose the option that works best with your website's layout.
Website Placement
Every customer testimonial video that you film should have a place on your website. This a key part of your customer testimonial video strategy that many people forget.
The most obvious place for them would be a page specifically set aside for testimonials.
This page should not just be a free-for-all where you dump all of your testimonials into a pile and leave it up to your prospect to sort out.
Categorize your customer testimonial videos
Instead, you should divide them into categories based on what demographics you're looking to reach.
If you have different products or services, segment any testimonials for each of them into the appropriate category.
If your demographic includes various different B2B industries like plumbers, accountants, doctors, and the like, make sure you separate those out into their own sections as well.
Make it easy for your prospect to find the information that is relevant to their needs.
You should also include a link to your testimonials page on any marketing materials you send out via email. This will ensure that interested parties can easily find your testimonials.
But you shouldn't just keep your testimonials exclusively on their own page. Featured the videos on other pages all throughout your site.
For starters, feature a few of your more impressive testimonials on your home page. These should be more generalized testimonials that speak at length about what it's like to work with the company.
This helps you capture a prospect's attention instantly when they navigate onto the site.
When placing testimonials throughout your site, once again make sure you're doing so with a strategy in mind. Make all of your featured testimonials relevant to the pages that they will be appearing on.
For example, if you have specific products or categories, match those up with corresponding videos.
Another best practice to keep in mind would be placing your videos beside any calls to action on your page. This ensures that after a prospect watches the video, they can easily take action and convert.
Remember, a testimonial video can act as a trigger to a conversion. Take advantage of this by spreading them all throughout your site and reap the benefits.
Sales Emails
One of the best places to include testimonial videos is by embedding them within sales emails. You can easily use testimonial videos in drip campaigns as a way to urge prospects to move through the sales funnel.
Social proof is incredibly effective in sales situations.
Importantly, the testifying customer can serve as a form of back up to the sales representative. This is achieved by echoing the company's message and letting the prospect know how well the service ended up working for them.
You can arm your sales professionals with some of your best testimonials to send out to qualified prospects.
This can help urge a sales decision from a hesitant lead or heat up a cold lead through the power of social proof.
Customer testimonials can also be used to overcome prospect objections throughout the sales process.
The testimonial reinforces the value of a service or product.
When used correctly could be one of the most effective tools in the sales playbook.
Testimonials can also be used in other forms of email marketing.
You can include them in regular newsletters that are sent out to subscribers. Choose to highlight one customer testimonial per month or week, depending on the frequency of your newsletter.
Social Media
Testimonial videos are perfect for sharing along social media platforms.
They can also play a role in your social media advertising by appearing in boosted posts which can be highly targeted toward specific segments of the audience.
Make sure you're targeting specific content to specific prospects, choosing the testimonials that will resonate the most with that particular group.
This is very useful for marketing to a B2C audience, but social media is also the perfect tool for sharing testimonials with B2B audiences. Facebook's ad system allows you to base your targeting on specific industries or job titles.
In Conclusion
Creating the perfect video testimonial can be a challenge but it's only part of the equation.
You have to be able to roll out your videos in an effective and meaningful way.
Don't let all of your hard work go to waste. Implement a testimonial video strategy and use the power of social proof to create more conversions. 
