The Most Powerful Marketing Tool [Part One]

Over the last 20 years I have been using different types of video marketing to help grow businesses and create brands like Sonicare, Clarisonic, OxiClean and GoPro. The videos, regardless of how they were deployed, were trying to have a specific impact on viewer behavior. That behavior might be to purchase a product, visit a website, attend a “live” or online seminar, drive the viewer to brick and mortar retail stores, go to Amazon or other online stores or simply for lead generation. I’ve found that the single most powerful tool to do this successfully, that I’ve used over and over again, is finding and creating authentic video testimonials. Testimonials are not a new concept — they have worked effectively for generations in every type of advertising vehicle ever used. Amazon uses this concept with their product reviews, which are effective, but not as good as using video. I call a concept like this timeless marketing because it works regardless of the marketing channel being used.

Let’s take a look at why this seemingly obvious marketing tool is often overlooked or not done correctly. In this two-part video marketing series I am going to share with you first, why testimonials work so well and second, how to find and create authentic video testimonials that will help sell your product or service more effectively.

3 Reasons Why Testimonials Work So Well

1 – Testimonials are great for overcoming objections

People will see a product or service you are offering and their first reaction will be something like this, “….that won’t work for me because….” and then a series of excuses will follow: “I’m too young”, “I’m too old”, “it takes too much time” “It’s too hard”, “It’s too easy”, ”It’s too expensive” and so on. Overcoming these objections are a normal part of the sales process and testimonials are a quick and easy way to do that. You are the product owner or manufacturer — people are going to be skeptical about what you say or claim about your product or service. If they hear it coming from third party testimonials that people that they can closely relate to, it will help overcome their objections.

Let me give you a couple of examples. When we were selling the Juiceman Juice Extractors, one objection we heard over and over was that people thought it might be to hard to clean and that is why they did not purchase. We videotaped people that had already purchased the product talking about their experiences using the machine, how simple, fast and easy to clean it was and the payoff was delicious — healthy juices. Another example was with the Sonicare toothbrush. People complained that it was to expensive for them to purchase. When it was introduced the cost was $150, which was expensive. We interviewed and videotaped some Sonicare users. The all talked about the price point as being expensive, but that the product was the best investment they had ever made as it actually saved them money by having better dental check-ups. They key here is that we were talking to actual purchasers of both of the products and hearing first hand their experiences using them — authentic testimonials.

2 – Testimonials are great for Establishing Credibility

Why should a consumer believe the claims you are making for your product or service? Good authentic testimonials come from certain targeted people who have the ability to influence others who have bought or tried your product and have great things to say about it. This will help establish the credibility needed to breakdown the barriers to purchase. The key here is to establish trust in your product and in your company. You can do this by “tapping into” trust that has already been established by “influencers” already using your product. For example, with the George Foreman Grill we claimed that we could cook your food quickly, but that the “food tasted great.” Why should people have believed us? They didn’t have to! One of our customers was the head chef at Taveren on The Green in New York. He loved using the grill and raved about how great the food turned out, especially fish. He even started using it at work. Of course we asked him if we could videotape him using the grill and place that footage in our advertising. People didn’t have to trust us because there was a respected professional who was substantiating our claims for us. We were even more fortunate when the the New York Times decided to run a story featuring the Chef and the George Foreman Grill. I go into more detail about how we did this in my upcoming book, “Building Billion Dollar Brands.” Another example was again with the Sonicare toothbrush. One of the claims we were making was that it could help reverse gum disease. Our best testimonials to support this were the many dental professionals who were using the product and seeing great results in both themselves and their patients.

3 – Testimonials work well because of Social Proof

This is actually based on a psychological concept that has been studied extensively. It says that in certain situations, in the absence of any other guidance people, will look to what other people are doing as a way to guide their own behavior. P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman on Earth and one of the best marketers ever, has a famous quote which sums up social proof: “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.” That’s a really simple insight into human behavior. Amazon does this with product reviews — if you are looking at similar products on Amazon and one has many good reviews and the other doesn’t which are you going to buy? I have promoted live health and nutrition seminars where people would come to a meeting room and listen to a presenter for 90 minutes. At the end of the lecture they were supposed to get up and go to the back of the room to purchase the product, but often times people just sat in their chairs and asked questions. We started having members of our staff sit in the audience and when the lecture was over they simply stood up and went back to their regular seats at the registration table. People would see this and feel that it was okay to stand and follow them back. Conversions increased by as much as 30 percent with this simple strategy. Use this concept in all of your marketing, including your website which should be filled with videos of happy customers who have purchased your products. If you start creating and deploying authentic video testimonials your sales and conversions will go up.

In my next blog post we will explore how to find and create the testimonials you need to propel your business or brand to greater success.