As I’ve written before, a customer glowing about your product or service is super powerful. It's something you can’t recreate yourself regardless of how eloquent and persuasive you are. Here are 4 steps to walk you through producing a great testimonial video.

1. Survey your customers.

The power in video is capturing emotion and passion and making the viewer feel something. So talk to your customers. Ask them what kind of impact your service or product has had on them. The more dramatic and life changing the better. It's important to understand what your customers value. Customers may have an experience or perspective that you weren't aware of or even considered. In the video above, these people’s lives were changed by a program that gave them a second chance at a high school diploma.

2. Pick the right people!

Even if you have a life-changing product or service, it doesn’t guarantee a great testimonial video. You have to have the right people. We all have friends/family who tell you without being asked about a new product or service they love. Marketing people refer to these folks as evangelists and these are the people you’re looking for. When I have a positive experience with a product or service, I quickly become an evangelist. When I first started using Rhapsody, I think I told everyone I knew about it for a year. Rhapsody would have loved interviewing me about their service.

3. Capture testimonials in the moment.

Time and distance tend to take a lot of the punch out of a story. In an ideal world, you want someone giving you a testimonial right after they have experience your product or service. In the example above, the students were actually interviewed on their graduation night. Imagine if I had interviewed them 3-4 months later. It wouldn’t be the same video.

4. Guide the testimonials.

Imagine the perfect customer testimonial. What would you want them to say? What would be the ideal sequence? Write it down and let the script serve as a guide for your interview questions. In the video example above, my ideal testimonial went something like this....

1. I couldn’t make it through high school the first time because of hardship.

2. I was reluctant and scared to try again but I knew it was important

3. The program and teachers helped me become successful

4. I now see a positive future for myself

So once you know what you're after, turn your storyline into specific questions. My questions were...

1. What happened the first time you went to high school?

2. Why was it important to give it a second shot?

3. What kind of impact did the teachers and program have on you?

4. What does your future look like now?

People and answers aren’t always going to line up perfectly but I’ve found that using these steps dramatically increases my odds of making a good testimonial video.