How companies in different industries are collecting user-generated video testimonials and what they are doing to put them to work in their marketing.
Back in the Fall of 2021, we Widewailers were gearing up for the launch of Invite Video and could only make assumptions and educated guesses about how our customers would react. But there are things you can’t predict when you launch a new product into the market that has little competition.
We knew that our customers would get video testimonials, but we didn’t know how often. Or how many. We had suggestions for how our customers could use their video reviews for both consumer and B2B video marketing campaigns - but weren’t sure if they would all "land".
During the six months that our customers have been using Invite Video, we’ve learned a lot. And we’ve been positively surprised and impressed by the volume of reviews our customers have received, the unique and successful review collection strategies, and the ways our customers used their videos.
We want to highlight the success of Invite Video for three of our customers– all from entirely different industries. Our customers are creative and are on the cutting edge of incorporating video in digital marketing.
The digitally native retailer, Sleefs, (our own) shared office space, Hula, and speech aid technology provider, AbleNet, are three of our many clients who demonstrate some of the best use cases for Invite Video.
The athleticwear and accessories e-commerce company has demonstrated the sheer power of Invite Video. In just over 90 days, Sleefs has generated 115 video testimonials for dozens of their unique products.
In each of these videos, customers enthusiastically show off their products. Some record a more formal and lengthy testimonial, others snap a quick video in the mirror of their new tights, and some even make TikToks or other video compilations and upload them as a testimonial.
What makes this business’ video testimonial success unique is the fact that it’s a digitally native brand. The customer experience takes place entirely online, with no in-person buying components.
Sleefs has proved that product reviews generate a huge amount of positive feedback. Even without a salesperson involved, an excited customer base will be excited to share videos, especially if you have Gen-Z buyers.
The technology-focused coworking campus, Hula, located in Burlington, VT, not only houses Widewail’s office but recently generated dozens of videos at a recent event using Invite Video.
The Hula team hosted a Video Testimonial happy hour during which they asked every attendee to leave a video review about why they love Hula, incentivizing reviewers to do so with a free drink.
The team set up three different Campaigns that prompted unique questions geared toward gathering specific feedback: “What do you love about Hula?”, “Where’s your favorite place to work in Hula?”, and “What’s your favorite perk offered with Hula membership?”
Flyers around the space featured three QR codes taking you to a unique page to record and answer one of those questions.
By the end of the event, videos (39 total!) flooded Hula’s repository and featured Hula tenants and members sharing why they love the co-working space and the community within it.
Collecting many testimonials in a single evening may lead to some duplicate content (for example, many videos from Hula’s event featured the bright, color-changing lights and mentioned the perk of free weekly massages), but the event offered insight to the Hula team about what they’re doing right and created a mountain of video assets for future marketing materials.
Incorporating video testimonial collection into an event program is a great way to get a large volume of submissions in a short amount of time. For more reflection on this evening and how to deploy Invite Video at your own event, read the 35th issue of Local Marketing Insider.
This organization is working to make speech aid devices more accessible to kids by means of their speech-language pathologists. Customer testimonials aren’t new for this company. Yet, previously, the testimonials were professionally created, a format that is often expensive and time-consuming.
With Widewail’s software, the users of AbleNet’s products do the work and film a video themselves. Much easier. And the result is a higher volume of content.
Prospects of this company, who are primarily speech-language pathologists (SLPs), need to determine whether or not to trust the product and its effectiveness. Trust marketing 101 for this company tells us that prospects need to hear from SLPs who have successfully used and are satisfied with AbleNet’s products.
In just one month, AbleNet has already gotten eleven customer video testimonials using Widewail’s Invite Video.
And they’ve already placed these videos at the front and center of the product’s homepage:
Each testimonial endorses AbleNet’s products and tells, in detail, how simple the funding process was and how their students are making progress already–a key metric for prospects looking to jump the trust gap.
Widewail loves to see our customers excited about sharing the feedback of their happy customers, a process that continues to build trust between businesses and their prospects.
Our customers of Invite Video have taught us that the scope of this product is endless. Not only is the volume of testimonials promising, but the use cases for these videos appear unlimited. The Hula video testimonial collection led us to wonder which other events could benefit from collecting video testimonials.
We’re thinking: Weddings, Concerts, Music Festivals, Conferences.
Happy attendees have never been able to share their voices and videos with event organizers so easily. Imagine a joyous video of your grandma at your wedding–a forever treasured memory. Friends together at a music festival singing along to Glass Animals’ new hit.
Generating video content from these events in one single repository wasn’t easy for organizers of these events. These leaders rely on marketing material and content to boost attendance and generate hype for future events. And remember - whether video or more traditional text reviews, increased volume will likely increase your Google star rating and Google Business Profile visibility.
What's Widewail?
Widewail is a reputation management software and services company based in Burlington, VT. We help hundreds of small local businesses and national brands like Lexus and BH Property Management generate and respond to reviews.
Learn more about our core products:
Engage: Review response managed services
Invite: Send automated SMS review requests to all your customers
Invite Video: Automated video testimonial generation
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