With remote learning and connecting so high on everyone’s radar, the USC Outreach Team decided that developing more video outreach materials should be a team priority to increase our web presence.  Despite social distancing and Covid-19 concerns, USC staff and partners have been hard at work implementing projects and meeting goals to improve water quality both locally and in the Chesapeake Bay.  But with many outreach events being cancelled or postponed, our opportunities to connect with new landowners have been limited, and we determined that customer testimonial videos could be an excellent way to reach new potential interested landowners and potential sites.  We worked with our Soil and Water Conservation District (or Conservation District in Pennsylvania) partners to select our beginning customers and developed a series of 4 videos.

We premiered these videos on facebook over four consecutive evenings (our peak viewer time was 5:00) beginning on December 7th, and saw a tremendous jump in post engagement (925% increase), reach (235% increase) and video views (13,869% increase!) as compared to the previous month, and representing our all time highest engagement.

The response from our generally quiet audience supports continued development of video and like resources.  Our first four Customer Testimonials are below, followed by some video making guidance from our video development lead – Miranda.

USC Customer Testimonial Videos

Customer Testimonial Videos Tips and Lessons Learned

In addition to DIY steps we provided to help you in creating a customer testimonial videos, here are some helpful lessons we learned along the way that would be beneficial for you to keep in mind!
  • You always need to hold your phone horizontally when taking video in order to make a full screen video.
  • Checking the weather forecast can be important – you don’t want it to be gloomy, rainy, or even windy. You will find that the wind is almost impossible to escape. While you can try to hide from it in an area down low (such as creek bed), or in an area with trees, you’ll still pick-up wind if you’re not using a microphone. However, the microphone isn’t the be all end all solution – sometimes, if there is too much wind, you’re better off just rescheduling.
  • If you end up using any type of microphone it can pick up different frequencies, in our case we found that it picked up a frequency tick from electric fence. Luckily we were able to utilize an audio editing software also from CyberLink that help to remove some of the frequency noise. There is a free 30 day trial that can be downloaded, however in the future it could be an additional cost of approximately $100.
  • We purchased a 12.8 foot corded lavalier microphone, and it plus right into your cellphone. Only potential downfall here… the person you are interviewing can only stand so far away.
  • The more pictures and videos the better. Being able to show the work completed is as important as hearing about, so being able to tie that footage into what the customer is saying is crucial. There is no such thing as too much! Lean on your customers on partners and ask them to help chip in!
  • Breaking clips into smaller sections will be helpful when you go to merge the footage, clip it, and tie it together.
  • Learning new software takes time – a lot of it. You won’t be a master overnight, so you should anticipate making your first couple videos taking much longer than you think “it should.”
  • Video editing takes time, it’s not as easy as going out to get footage, bringing it back and slapping it together. To make a “finished” product, there is a lot of editing that has to take place.
In addition to these lessons learned, keeping these 5 rules in mind when creating your videos is a must!
1. Mention your funding sources!
When making your video don’t forget to list or name your funders, this is a great way for them to be recognized!
2. Include information on partnerships!
Projects often take multiple different partners, so don’t forget to acknowledge them. If they share the video, you just increased your audience reach! Also, tagging agencies, customers, or partners who participated in the project via whichever social media platform you’re utilizing will help you increase your audience!
3. Keep it brief!
While we thing that videos are support cool as they both show and tell a story, it’s important to keep it short – the longer they are, the more risk you run in losing your audience. We tried to stick between 3-5 minutes.
4. You’ve gotta be your own cheerleader!
Sometimes making these videos can be challenging, and it might seem cheesy but don’t forget you’re trying to sell the work you do and promote services you provide.
5. Don’t put words into your customer’s mouth.
Lastly… let the customer tell their own story, in their own words. You have the power to edit, but when you let them speak unscripted, sometimes that’s where their best statements come from. You don’t want it to feel forced or scripted, don’t forget the whole goal is to remain as genuine as possible.