Over the last 15 years the founding team at Vocal Video has observed video emerge from a new trend, to being understood as one of the powerful and enduring forms of content that organizations could invest in. As the medium has become more democratized, and the internet grew to support it, companies across the board strived to use video in their everyday marketing.
But while research on the efficacy of video in general abounded, we found few studies that spoke to the specific impact of video testimonials on large (1,000+ employees) and enterprise businesses (5,000+ employees). So in May of 2020 we surveyed over 450 marketing professionals across industries to more scientifically understand the current landscape of how organizations produce video testimonials, how these videos are used, what kind of ROI is realized, and how much they cost in terms of time and money.
Want to see live examples of how Vocal Video customers like Google, Comscore, and Martha Stoumen Wines are using video testimonials in their marketing? Check it out here.
Time & Money
How long does it take large and enterprise organizations to produce testimonial videos?
Larger companies can mean much longer production times for testimonial videos, and the lag between conceptualization of a testimonial video and the finished result can take not just weeks, but months.
33% of enterprise organizations spend over 6 months to create testimonial videos. Click to tweet.
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Part of the lag can undoubtedly be attributed to how many people are involved in the production of each testimonial video.
67% of enterprise organizations reported that over 7 people work on the production of video testimonials, and 22% task over 12 people for each video.
Larger organizations appear to be majorly constrained by the bandwidth of internal and external teams when it comes to creating the optimum number of video testimonials, with
89% of enterprise organizations reporting that they would produce over 50% more testimonials videos if they took less time.
75% of large organizations would produce over 50% more testimonial videos, and 17% would produce at least 200% if they took less time.
Vast majority of large and enterprise companies would produce at least 50% more testimonial videos given more time.
How much do testimonial videos cost?
67% of enterprise and large organizations would ideally produce at least 50% more testimonial videos into their marketing plans if they were less expensive.
And while about 16% of large and enterprise companies claim to be able to create testimonial videos for less than $1,000 the results show that most projects are much more.
Over 50% of large and enterprise organizations spend more than $15,000 per testimonial video. Click to tweet.
If the company has multiple products and use cases, the total overall spend earmarked for testimonial videos can spin out of control.
Video testimonial creation process
If you spend any time on LinkedIn, you might start to think that everyone is asking their customers to record themselves on their own device, but that process currently only accounts for a small fraction of video testimonials.
In 2020, 44% of enterprise organizations still send a videographer to their customer's location to film video testimonials. Click to tweet.
Large organizations have historically relied on live events as a way to cut out some of the expense and coordination of filming video testimonials. We expect to see this tactic change in line with the fundamental shift away from live events going on right now.
Enterprise organizations take the lead in how many testimonial videos they are able to produce each year, while large enterprises trail by about 10%.
86% of enterprise organizations produced 5 or more testimonial videos last year, and 14% created more than 15.
74% of large companies produce 5 or more testimonial videos each year.
It appears that larger marketing organizations are being tasked with producing an ever-increasing number of testimonial videos.
29% of enterprise organizations plan to produce 15+ testimonial videos next year, nearly double the number of marketers that planned to produce 15+ last year (14%). Click to tweet.
The research shows that it can be expensive and time consuming for large organizations to produce testimonial videos. So the all important question for every marketing team to ask themselves before they embark on this project is:
What’s the ROI of testimonial videos for large and enterprise organizations?
Here’s what the data shows:
78% of enterprise organizations realize an ROI of 100% or more from their investment in testimonial videos.
62% of large organizations also report strong returns of 100% or more.
Enterprise organizations see significant gains in conversion by incorporating testimonials videos into their marketing campaigns.
89% of enterprise organizations see much higher (~25%) and dramatically higher (over 50%) conversion rates when testimonial videos are used in marketing campaigns.
Large organizations don’t see as dramatic of conversion outcomes with testimonial videos as enterprise orgs, but still report impressive gains with 92% seeing a lift in conversion, and 54% of those falling in the 10+% improvements.
You can read more about our overall findings and respondents here:
Research: The Impact of Video Testimonials on Marketing
Research: The Impact of Video Testimonials on SMB Marketing
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