Getting your audience to convert is tough..

Let alone creating engaging content that is meaningful to your prospect.

What about getting them to take action? Yep, it’s no easy feat.

Luckily, like me, you have probably discovered that customer testimonials work really well when attempting to move your audience to take action…. in theory.

When it comes time to actually create a testimonial that gets results, it may be a little more challenging than you first realised. Am I right?

Fortunately for you, we have tried and failed many times so you don’t have to anymore.

After creating hundreds of customer testimonial videos we found a formula for creating the perfect story structure that just works every time and here’s why;

Storytelling creates an emotional connection with your audience. It commands attention and the emotional connection enables the viewer to retain the information far longer than any other form of communication would allow.

In turn, this builds trust and trust is what it takes for your audience to take an action when asked.

Here is the structure that we have created to help you plan and produce high-quality effective stories in your testimonials.

Creating Your Story With 5 Steps

Step 1: Desire

The first step in creating the perfect customer testimonial story is drawing out the subject’s desires. Get them talking about themselves!

What are their goals are in life? Where they are heading and what do they want to achieve? This is important because it sets the stage for the rest of the video. It qualifies and frames up your ideal customer.

In this section, you need to use the subject’s desires to create your ‘buyer persona’. These desires and goals will align with the desires and goals of your ideal customer or client.

When the prospect is watching, it grabs their attention because they too desire to reach these outcomes. It sparks curiosity in the viewer and they want to find out how to get those desires for themselves.

Ask questions that will establish the foundation of desire and attract your target audience.

After you have their attention, it’s time to hook them in so they stick around and keep on watching. Have you ever been watching something and lose interest and click away halfway through?

That is what we are trying to avoid by marrying the first and second step together. They work symbiotically to capture and hold the attention of the viewer.

Step 2: Conflict

You have just framed up your ideal customer by showing them what they want their life to be like. Now it’s time to hook them in and show them why their life is not the way they want it.

In this section, begin to introduce the hurdles that are in between the subject and arriving at their desires.

This holds attention as the viewer realises that the problems they are seeing the subject face, are very similar to their own. Naturally, the viewer needs to keep watching to find out how they can overcome these challenges and reach their desires.

It may not seem like it but this is the first place where trust is built. Trust is built in the viewer when you tell them exactly what the problems they are facing are. This shows the audience that you understand their situation and it validates the next 2 steps in the process.

Step 3: Journey

The Journey is all about the action that the subject starts to take in order to seek out a solution. It is important that in this section you hold off on what the solution to their problem is (your company, product or service) and focus on the path that they took to get there.

In this section, you can get the subject to talk about alternative solutions that they have tried that didn’t work. This is where you need to bring across the effort they had to go through to find a solution.

This stage is where most of your target audience will be stuck in. Trying to find a solution to the problem that you have previously described to them.

By now, the viewer will begin to develop a sense of familiarity with the subject. When common ground is established and trust begins to grow, the result is that the walls of the unfamiliar begin to break down and a sense of familiarity begins to form.

Just like when you watch a vlog, and after an episode, you feel like if you met the person in the street you have already known them for a while. In reality, they are still a complete stranger but you have developed trust and broken down the walls of the unknown.

This is a key principle in creating stories. You need to break that barrier and earn to trust to be able to ask for an action.

Step 4: Solution

Your time to shine is here. This is where the subject talks about how they solved their problem by using your service or product.
It is important to capture their relief and satisfaction at this stage. It creates an emotional memory in the viewer that will be a factor in the decision to take action.

The audience who have been qualified through each step up until this point have built trust and established a connection of familiarity. They have put themselves in the shoes of the subject.

This means the emotion the subject brings across will create a sense of longing in the viewer. The thought of being as relieved as the person they are observing creates an emotional memory.

The next time they think about that problem they have, what is the first thing that will come to their mind? The thought of knowing exactly how to solve it.

Step 5: Results

Step 5 is where you put the nail in the coffin. This step validates the solution.

The subject needs to talk about the difference your business has made in their life. How much closer to their desires are they now that they have solved that problem? Showing not only the solution but what the solution means to your customer is essential in ensuring the success of your story.

What This Means

The viewer is moved by the fact that their problem can be solved and their life can become easier. This information was given in a way that they are able to relate, build trust and become familiar with your business.

It effectively will raise the conversion rate on a call to action relating to the testimonial. Whether this is done in the testimonial or after it proves to be successful in achieving its purpose.

As you may have noticed there is a lot more depth to a simple “customer testimonial” than first thought

In fact, by the end of forming this testimonial, it looks so different to your average testimonial that’s why we call it by another name. Due to the detail and the amount of work that goes into creating a story like this, we couldn’t justify labeling it under the banner of testimonial.

We prefer to call it a customer case study.

We have created a free resource pack that includes a ‘cheat sheet’ that has a summary of the above. Use this to help you plan and write out customer testimonials. Click the link below and follow the instructions to get access.

Want to hear a good story?

This is how one of our clients used their case study video to win more clients.

Here is one that we created for a client of ours. See if you can tell when the story transitions between each stage. Notice how closely it follows the above structure.

This is Vince From CartonCloud.

A software start up company based in Australia. They used this case study video on their landing page and saw a massive increase. Their conversion rate jumped up 250%.

We love seeing more and more businesses begin to use video as a strategy to grow.

We never pitch a video to a client if we don’t think it will add immense value to their company. We are so convinced that using case study videos can grow your business.

Social proof is so powerful and when you couple it with story in the form of video, it becomes the most effective type of video that you can create for your business.

Case Study Videos work for almost every business in almost every industry. As long as there are people consuming content, there are Case Study Videos to be created.

The Bizvideo team have crafted over 1300 unique stories in the form of video and have been in the industry for over 8 years.

We are led by our founders, Corne and Andre Lategan. Corne has a Bachelor in Film and Television, and Andre a Bachelor in Business Marketing and has been running the business since its inception in 2010.

The creative department is run by Andre and he looks after the team. Andre has many years of experience behind the camera and is extremely gifted in cinematography.

The pair of video geniuses have gone on to own and operate one of the most successful video production agencies in Australia.

Their core message in all the films they produce is storytelling. It is at the center of everything they do and create.

Whether its a case study video, a business overview video, a content video or a training video, the team is committed to using story to deliver results.

Here is a business overview video that we created for Buzzword.

This is Jodi, Co-Founder of Buzzword. They understood the importance of using video to build trust in an industry that is notoriously untrustworthy.

If you are thinking about using video as a tool for your business, we have put together some free resources that can get you one step closer to using videos.

Our resource pack contains our ‘9 Types’ guide, that gives you information on 9 different types of videos that you can create and use to grow your business.

It also includes our video marketing and distribution course as well as a resource on the importance of investing in video.