Is this the worst video testimonial you’ve seen?
February 3rd, 2010 by Ingrid Cliff
Testimonials are great for business. They sing your praises and help potential clients understand what it is like to do business with you. They are so powerful that the FTC in the USA implemented a whole raft of regulations and restrictions around how to use testimonials in marketing.
In the past few years video testimonials have been all the rage, which means popping your favourite clients in front of a camera and getting them to talk about their experience of working with you. Seeing “in the flesh” a real person talking in a positive way about your business is more powerful than written testimonials alone.
But … and this is a huge but … not every video testimonial that is filmed should be used. This is my favourite example of one of the worst testimonials I have seen – made even funnier because it is Ian Healy (ex-Australian cricketer and accomplished media commentator) talking about his web company. So what? Well the web company uploaded it to You Tube. OK, Ian may be taking the mickey out of the whole process and trying to be funny with his comments, but you judge for yourself (from about 31 seconds in), whether you would like your client telling the world that “you can’t measure anything they do”, “results … well who knows”, “the company is a little top heavy” and other gems.
If you are going to use video testimonials, you may want to talk with your clients before hand. Help them gather their thoughts and don’t be afraid to do a few “takes”.
Until next time
Ingrid Cliff
We put your business into words
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Marketing Tips for Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 4th, 2010 at 7:10 am
Yuck, Glad he isn’t plugging me. Cheers Kurt
February 4th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Wow…. I think he’s taking the mickey, but geez… I wouldn’t have put that up as a serious testimonial. I suspect part of his “can’t measure” and “don’t see results” is because Ian’s a non-techie. As a business person he should be measuring, and if he really can’t then I’d be having a serious chat to his tech people.
I wouldn’t use Bluewire after seeing that testimonial, it’s sending the wrong message. I want to see a testimonial that says “I didn’t know a thing and they educated me and showed me how they could improve my business – here’s our results”
Actually, I’d fire my tech person if they couldn’t measure and track results. This is an example of more than a bad testimonial, it’s promoting crappy business practices as well.
February 4th, 2010 at 10:34 am
It’s amazing how many web companies don’t provide any stats to their clients, let alone explain what they mean. It makes it really easy for the good ones to stand out – implement simple analytics on the old sites before they start to fix things and have a few weeks of data while the new site is under development. Then compare the results with the new site and regularly provide updates in a format that is easy to understand to the client. Unless you have good data to make decisions on then you are always flying blind.