“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”

Ever heard it? It’s a quote from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. While it’s meaning is up for interpretation, I hear it like this: people who talk the most about their accomplishments are usually the ones who have the greatest insecurities.

But when it comes to business, talking about yourself and sharing your accomplishments is a necessary evil. A little bragging is far less taboo in business because successful people want to work with other people who can demonstrate proven success.

Which leads me into this week’s topic: Video testimonials.

Customer testimonials are as old as marketing itself, and they’re still one of the most powerful techniques—if not the most powerful—in convincing someone to spend their money with you. Visit virtually any company’s website today, and you’re likely to find a litany of quotes saying, in one way or another, what a great job the company does and how terrific the team is to work with.

But here’s the secret. The vast majority of printed testimonials sound canned, unoriginal and regurgitated, because they are. We know from experience.

The standard procedure goes something like this:

  • Step 1: The marketer asks the client for permission to use a public testimonial.
  • Step 2: The client agrees, but asks the marketer to write the quote on his or her behalf.
  • Steps 3, 4, 5 and 6: The marketer writes the quote, sends it to the client for review, obtains approval, and then puts it into print or uploads it online.

The end result (although valuable and certainly worth the effort) has less impact and credibility than a real face-to-face third-party endorsement—no matter how authentic a testimonial in writing may be.

People see video testimonials from a different perspective.

The inspiration for this blog comes from video interviews we conducted with some of our clients last week. We sat down with three different people from three different companies and asked each of them to talk on camera about their relationship with the agency. No scripts, just genuine responses.

Their videotaped comments (which we’ll have up on our website shortly!) are far more powerful than anything either we or they could convey in written form. The difference is that video testimonials don’t show how great the agency is, they show how great our clients are.

When you capture the personalities and leadership traits of the truly outstanding people you work with on video, you’ve moved beyond the “talking about yourself” stage to demonstrating your capabilities.

Video testimonials don’t show how great the agency is, they show how great our clients are.

That’s why video testimonials are a far more powerful marketing tool than written comments. Videos are taped versions of actual referrals. And as every marketer knows, nothing is more important in the sales process than a referral from a satisfied customer.

Have any questions about how to make the perfect authentic video testimonial for your company? Contact us today! We’d be glad to hear from you.