How BookLife Saw 20% Growth from Scaling Video Testimonials

BookLife, Publishers Weekly's resource for self-published authors, needed a way to turn author stories into marketing content without booking a single Zoom call. Marketing Consultant Michael Sjostedt replaced their slow record-and-edit process for asynchronous video collection. Read on to learn how this lean operation scaled video collection and boosted growth for a product by 20% and saw a 350% jump in YouTube followers.

We produced more video content in the last 6 months than we have in the last 10 years, and that is all thanks to Vocal Video.

The Challenge: Zoom calls, phone recordings, and an editing backlog

Before Vocal Video, every testimonial meant coordinating a live recording and turning it into a palatable video with an onerous manual process.

"Before Vocal Video we used to use Zoom or have people record things on their phone. And there was a lot more editing involved on our end."

For a team where video production largely falls to one or two people, that overhead capped how much content BookLife could realistically create.

The Solution: Send a video collector, let authors record on their own time

BookLife uses Vocal Video to collect testimonials from the self-published authors it serves and from its own editorial team.

"BookLife uses Vocal Video to capture testimonials from self-published authors. We ask them to share benefits of BookLife products like reviews or the BookLife Prize. And we also ask authors to share the story behind their book or what it's like to be a self-published author. So, it's made our lives much, much easier and the BookLife editors also use Vocal Video to talk about the BookLife Prize or Editor's Picks, favorite books, etc. We love Vocal Video."

The workflow efficiency unlocked how many videos BookLife could create:

"With Vocal Video we're able to send them a collector, some questions, question prompts, and people can just self-service their Q&A and it makes the editing on our end much, much easier. So we are pumping out more videos than ever."

Those clips now feed BookLife's paid social campaigns for the BookLife Prize and BookLife Reviews, plus content for BookLife Biz and BookLife First Look.

The Results

Orders are up, and the tracking proves it.

"We have seen a definite bump in orders for several products. For the BookLife Prize, we've seen 20% growth, and our tag that we use for our social campaigns shows up in the checkout cart. So, it's working. People really, really respond to the videos."

Social engagement compounded.

"We're using it a lot on social and more people are sharing and engaging with our video content, so we're seeing our followers go up, with YouTube in particular, we have seen a really big bump in our followers."

Our Youtube followers jumped 350% in the last month because we've been producing so many new videos.

We use Vocal Video for several of our editorial products with BookLife Biz, BookLife First Look, and a lot of testimonials for BookLife Prize and BookLife Reviews. It's really, really noticeable."

One tool instead of a production chain

Sjostedt describes Vocal Video as collapsing what used to be four or five separate steps:

Vocal Video is really a one-stop tool.

"It allows you to collect video very easily. You don't have to schedule meetings, you don't have to schedule Zooms to record, you don't then have to download that file to edit it, bring it into another system. You can send the collector out, the recipient will record it themselves, you get notified that the video is ready to edit. It's very easy to edit."

That extends to repurposing a single collection into many assets:

"A full video is really easy to splice together other videos into sizzle reels, you can take multiple interviews and put them into one video. It's great to create 5 or 6 second clips. It's very easy to add images, other videos that you upload."

Recommendation

"I have been recommending Vocal Video to many people, especially if you're self-employed, if you are on a small team, if your organization wants to get more into video content, but they're really hung up with all the nuances in the process of recording Zooms, etc. Vocal Video makes it so easy for even just one person to manage and produce a lot of video content."

I recommend getting a trial for Vocal Video to test it out yourself, because you'll be surprised at really how easy and powerful it is to use.

Ready to scale your video program with the team you already have? Start collecting authentic customer videos today.

Lauren Locke-Paddon

Customer success, marketing, and pushing Vocal Video to its limits.