Once again we were filming in Gravesend at the weekend. This time covering the Vaisakhi Celebrations on behalf of Gurvinder Sandher, MBE Deputy Lieutenant of Kent. Against the backdrop of the amazing Siri Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara, it was difficult to get a bad shot!

Gravesham Borough Council's Riverside Festival is an event that brings the community together for a day of celebration and entertainment. As the exclusive video production partner to the event, we worked with the council to capture the festival's diverse activities and lively atmosphere, creating an exciting film that promotes the festival puts Gravesend on the map. The success of capturing the festival's essence relies on hiring the right crew and delegating a section of the festival to each person. We put together a team of three videographers, each covering a specific area. We briefed each team member on the style of shooting we are looking to capture, and the type of energy we want to bring to the final edit. We strategically assign roles and responsibilities, ensuring comprehensive coverage without overwhelming any team member. This approach maximises our ability to capture every special moment authentically. In the edit, we aim to create an exciting video that leaves the viewer feeling like they were there themselves. By sifting through hours of footage and using just the very best clips, we are able to create an uplifting image of the festival, showing it as an incredible event. Gravesham Borough Council uses the highlights video of the festival to promote future events on their social media platforms. They create engaging posts and share the video across their official Facebook and YouTube channels. The video can showcase the vibrant atmosphere, diverse activities, and joyful moments from the festival, showing local residents what a great place they live in. The video will also be used to share with internal stakeholders and show the success of the event. These videos are always a highlight during council meetings. By leveraging the highlights video, Gravesham Borough Council can effectively promote the Riverside Festival, attract more attendees, and strengthen community engagement and support for this annual event.

Having a third party endorse your business is far more powerful than simply talking about it yourself, and the science behind why this works goes far beyond the obvious. The obvious answer that you'll often see it that it's better to have someone else talk about your product or service, because that way it's more credible. Anyone could talk about themselves and there is very little to validate that one's own comments are actually truthful, but if someone else is doing the talking, then the same message becomes a lot more powerful. Humans are social beings. We inately seek to fit in and be part of a crowd. It goes back millions of years to when our ancestors stuck together to seek safety in numbers. Natural selection meant only those who were living in groups would tend to survive and procreate, and so we have evolved with this piece of survival instinct within us - whether we like it or not. What has this got to do with video testimonials? Well, because we have been inately programmed to follow the crowd, we seek for social proof or validation in others with everything that we do in life. There are plenty of examples of this in every day life. Notice how when you are crossing a busy road, often the masses of pedestrians will start to walk if just one or two people have dared to go for it before the light goes green. On an aircraft when one or two people unbuckle their seatbelts and you suddenly hear everyone in the cabin doing the same, even though the seatbelt signs are still on and often the plane is still moving. Another example is fashion - when certain clothing items become fashionable, and suddenly everyone loves the same thing. Testimonial videos can create the same feeling and chain reaction about your business. By having testimonial videos in your marketing mix, you are providing social proof, or validation, that your products or services are working for other people. For a prospect who is trying to make a decision on which supplier to go with, this will subconciously sway their decision towards working with your company - they will want to be part of the crowd of successful people that have gone before them - and that's why testimonial videos are one of the most powerful types of videos. If you'd like to learn more about how we create testimoinal videos for our clients, please do reach out to us. We're currently working with clients all over the world using our remote testimonial video service, and it's proving to be a super useful too for businesses, helping them nurture their sales pipeline and convert leads.

We run through our four-step process to remote testimonial videos, giving you a taste of what it's like to work with us, and how we we deliver high quality testimonial videos with ease, no matter where in the world your clients might be.

When the time came last year to develop a remote recording service, we took everything we knew about filming and applied it to recording using webcams. We ensure the subject is facing the right way so we get the best light possible, and ensure that the sound is also the best it can be with the available equipment. Perhaps the most important skill that we apply though is actually nothing to do with the way the video looks or sounds, but has the power to take a testimonial video from being just a nice-to-have, to a powerful sales tool. We are of course talking about story. Story has the power to influence people using emotion (which will get the audience's attention in the first place) and using the natural human desire to find out what happens next, we can use story to keep that audience engaged and watching the video until the end. When we are planning a testimonial video we develop a set of questions that will give us what we need from the subject. The actual process of building a powerful story however starts much earlier on. Speaking to our client we find out who their ideal client is and who is the audience that will be watching this video and what story can we tell to make a video they are going to want to watch. We find out the pain points of their audience, what keeps them awake at night and what do they look up to. By doing this vital research you then have all the information you need to start thinking about your interview and how you can extract a story that will create a connection with the audience. The end results is a video that speaks directly to the ideal client, about their problems and then shows a practical solution to those problems, all the while providing social proof that the product or service being sold really does work. If you are planning on using testimonial videos to improve your marketing results, have a chat with us and we will be more than happy to suggest the best option for you.

In order to influence your target audience, and truly make a difference to your business or organisation, you first have to generate interest in your product or service. This is where a video marketing strategy can really help your business, delivering the right videos to the right person at the right time.

Video marketing means planning your video properly so that before you even turn the camera on you have a clear strategy for what you are going to say and why. Then, once the video is made, you should know exactly which platform it's going to be published in, what the call to action should be, mapping out your prospects' journey to eventually take action.