Part three: The art of choosing great music for customer testimonials

This series is a collaboration with Cincopa, a powerful video hosting solution.

Even when a company has a lot to be proud of, self-promotion can sometimes turn into hollow bragging. Presenting potential customers with yet another piece of content penned by your own company’s editorial team highlighting your amazing solution and service can in some cases have a negative effect. ‘Why are they the only ones talking about how great they are?’, readers may think.

When active customers celebrate your solution or product, on the other hand; that kind of objective vouching for you and your company is invaluable. Customer testimonials are incredibly important, especially for B2B companies.

With fierce competition even within narrow, niche categories, platforms that show they’re being used by established brands will draw immediate attention. And, if you go as far as sending your prospect a short video in which a high-profile customer fawns over you and your platform? That’s the kind of content B2B sales reps refer to as their go-to-weapon when dealing with mature leads.

Truth is, the proper, engaging yet subtle, soundtrack to accompany the testimonial can have a make-or-break effect.

As we’ll show in a minute, the right audio tracks will be those that reflect the nature of your company and the service you’ll provide your customers with. Opting for a bombastic, dominant, and upbeat soundtrack might not be the move for specific B2B companies.

This is the third out of four articles in a blog series where we’ll explore soundtracks for B2B videos: best practices and explicit tips. We’ll showcase companies that are doing it right and highlight different approaches for each video category.

The first two installments of this series focused on B2B marketers’ heavy hitters - explainer videos and promos. If you haven’t already, check them out!

Now, let’s jump right into our second B2B video category: customer testimonials.

Condensing years of support into a 2-minute video

If you have a lot to be proud of as a company, it’s okay to promote yourself. What’s even better, however, is letting others talk about how great you are. This common understanding is the incentive behind customer testimonials.

Typically found in the resources section, customer testimonials (or customer stories as they are sometimes referred to) have long been a fixture of B2B companies’ websites. Traditionally text-based, many B2B companies began leveraging video to showcase just how satisfied their customers were with their service or platform.

The tone of such videos varies considerably, depending on the type of company in question. Data-driven, highly-technical solutions will typically be a bit more cut and dry than those promoting a solution such as, say, monday.com provides.

The soundtrack chosen for customer testimonials should fit and complement the customer’s tone and the information being conveyed. Healthcare-related software users will often mention how the platform they selected ultimately helps save lives. The ideal soundtrack for such a video should be emotional (without being sappy). Conversely, customers lauding a platform that enables them to smash sales quotes should be accompanied by an upbeat, fast-paced audio track.

Who’s cracked the code of culture videos?

Zendesk has written the book on customer success in the age of the internet. Justifiably, they are the go-to platform for those looking to provide high-quality support at scale. This has led the company to amass a very wide array of customers.

In a series dubbed ‘Zendesk Customer Story’, the company highlights specific customers, each from a very different background and market. The video showcases a technical support manager working for ZYXEL, a networking device manufacturer. Zendesk prides itself on simplifying and even adding a level of fun to customer support; a world too often associated with inefficiency and dullness.

The soundtrack they selected simply works in that regard. The funky, light, touches accentuate the messages of the person being interviewed, emphasizing how Zendesk enables customer support to advance into the 2020s.

Looking for a funky soundtrack like this one? Explore Cocktail Grooves or Summertime in Epidemic Sound’s library.

Keep your eyes peeled for the next article in this blog series: How to Pick the Best Audio for Company Culture Videos.