Testimonial videos
10 Testimonial Video Examples That Actually Sell (and Why They Work)
Most testimonial videos fail in the same way. A happy customer says nice things about a business for two minutes, and nobody watching believes a word of it.
The ones that work do something different. They tell a short story, with a before and an after, through someone the viewer recognises as being like them. Here are ten that do it well, grouped by what each one does best. Five come from well-known brands. Five are films we made for our own clients, most of them filmed in a few hours, so for those we can tell you what went into them.
Every example ends with a “steal this”: the one thing worth copying for your own.
1. Insignis x Right Way Credit Union: the results testimonial
4 minutes · cash savings platform · told by a credit union chief executive · made by us
We filmed this for Insignis, a cash savings platform. Karen Wallace, Chief Executive of Right Way Credit Union, explains what managing their money looked like before: funds sitting with the same banks, new accounts slow to open, good returns missed. Then she tells you the result: an extra £100,000 earned on investments for her members.
That line opens the film and comes back near the end. And the person saying it is a credit union chief executive, which is exactly who Insignis wants to win next. She finishes by saying she’d recommend it to any of her peer credit unions. No sales team can say that.
Steal this: open with the result, then go back and tell the story. Read the full Insignis story.
2. Zendesk x Openly: the long-term customer testimonial
1 minute 43 · customer service software · told by a vice president of customer experience · 2024
Tim Kyse runs customer experience at Openly, a US home insurance company, and he’s been a Zendesk customer for 12 years. That’s the first thing that lands. Nobody stays with a supplier for 12 years as a favour.
Then he gets specific about what it’s for. He hates waiting 30 minutes on the phone to an airline, so Openly’s goal is that anyone who calls or chats waits 15 to 20 seconds, every time. You don’t need to understand the software to understand that.
Steal this: if a customer has been with you for years, get them to say how many. It answers “will this last?” before anyone asks.
3. Still Spirit: the expert testimonial
1 minute 4 · whisky cask warehousing · told by a veteran cask trader · made by us
A whisky investor buying a cask wants to know one thing: is it safe where it’s stored? So we didn’t film a first-time buyer. We filmed a trader who’s bought and sold thousands of casks, standing in the Still Spirit warehouse, saying the process is “second to none”.
He spends the first half explaining what to look out for when buying a cask: clear title, a delivery order, a trusted seller. By the time he praises the warehouse, you already trust his judgement.
Steal this: when your buyers are nervous, find the customer with the most experience, and film them where the work happens.
4. Census x Crossbeam: the before-and-after testimonial
2 minutes 5 · data software · told by a member of Crossbeam’s team · filmed over a video call · 2022
Crossbeam had built its own way of getting data into its sales tools, stitched together through Zapier after a hackathon. Every change took ages, and because Zapier charges per zap, “that got real expensive real fast”. Census turned the hack into a proper product. A year in, he reckons it’s saved them roughly “mid tens of thousands”.
The before is told in the words of the person who lived it (“a very very janky system”), and the number is an honest estimate, not a polished statistic. Both make it more believable, not less.
It’s also recorded over a video call, with a basic microphone. Sometimes that’s all a testimonial needs: the right customer telling a clear story beats a beautiful shot of someone saying nothing. If we were making it, we’d still clean up the audio: viewers forgive rough pictures far more readily than thin, echoey sound.
Steal this: don’t tidy up your customer’s language or round their numbers. Their rough version sounds true.
5. Resilient Roots: the montage testimonial
4 minutes · bushcraft gatherings and online course · told by the people who came · made by us
Resilient Roots runs an online course and outdoor gatherings built around bushcraft skills and a way of living. We filmed at one of the gatherings and cut the people who came into one film. One thought they were tough until four nights of sleeping on the ground. One calls themselves an introvert and says they came out of themselves. One came as a participant the year before and came back as an instructor, leading archery.
Something like this is hard to sell in words, and every prospect has a different worry: will I fit in, will it be too hard, is it worth it? Each voice answers a different one, and hearing it from so many people shows the experience isn’t a one-off.
Steal this: if your customers come together at an event, film there. You get lots of voices in one go, in the place itself.
6. HubSpot x Kettlebell Kings: the small business testimonial
2 minutes 10 · marketing software · told by the founder of a fitness equipment brand · 2019
HubSpot has plenty of big-name customers, but this film features a kettlebell company from Texas. The founder admits HubSpot was expensive for where the business was at the start, then explains how it let them run roles they’d otherwise have had to hire for, and grow from a local brand into a global one.
Admitting the price is what makes the rest believable. Every small business owner watching has the same worry, and the film doesn’t pretend it isn’t there.
Steal this: let your customer say what nearly put them off. It makes everything after it believable.
7. Fraunhofer: the employee testimonial
2 minutes 47 · research institute · told by its own researchers · made by us
Not every testimonial is aimed at customers. This one is aimed at future hires. Fraunhofer’s researchers talk about why the work keeps them there: no two days the same, a not-for-profit purpose, and projects from wind farm lidar to quantum technology. One talks about getting to lead a new project.
A careers page can list the benefits. Only the people already doing the job can make a candidate picture themselves in it.
Steal this: film the people your next hire would sit next to. More on this in our guide to recruitment video production.
8. Econekt: the short testimonial
37 seconds · self-build construction · told by self-builders · made by us
Thirty-seven seconds, one point. These self-builders looked at other suppliers of insulated concrete formwork, and explain why they chose Econekt: the others sell you the materials and leave you to find someone who knows how to use them. Econekt has Colin and Fraser, and their years of experience.
It answers the single question every Econekt prospect is weighing up (why them and not another supplier?) and stops. It’s short enough for a social post or an ad, and naming Colin and Fraser reminds viewers they’re buying from people, not a catalogue.
Steal this: you don’t need two minutes. One question, answered well, is a testimonial.
9. Truckstop: the self-filmed testimonial
1 minute 44 · freight load board · filmed by a truck driver on his phone, in his cab · 2025
No crew on this one. Tyrone Drew filmed himself on his phone, in his cab. He’d driven trucks for 11 years when he started his own business, and for the first two weeks he sat there with no work, because brokers wouldn’t give loads to a business that new. Truckstop has a feature for exactly that problem. Two months in, he’s done more than 20 loads.
Phone-filmed testimonials can work, and this one has close to half a million views. It works because it looks like one driver talking to another, not like an advert. A polished film would lose some of that. For buyers who spend their day on their phones, a peer filming himself is more believable, not less.
Steal this: match the look to where your buyers watch. If they’re scrolling on their phones, a customer’s own phone video can earn its place next to your proper films.
10. Slack: the scripted testimonial
2 minutes 21 · team messaging · told by a video production company · 2014
The oldest on the list, and still the most famous, with nearly 1.5 million views. Slack asked a video company, Sandwich, to make them a video. Sandwich said no, because “products like that never work”. Months later they were using Slack and loved it, so they made this: a scripted, comic testimonial starring themselves.
It works because the customer was a sceptic, and because the customer makes videos for a living. That’s also why most businesses shouldn’t copy it. Put an ordinary customer in front of a script and they’ll sound like they’re reading one.
Steal this: the sceptic’s story, not the script. Unless your customer is a performer, let them talk in their own words.
What the best ones have in common
Strip away the budgets and the styles and the same four things show up again and again:
- A before. Karen’s money sitting with the same banks, Crossbeam’s Zapier hack, Tyrone stuck in his cab. Without a problem, there’s no story, just praise.
- A doubt. “Products like that never work.” HubSpot was “something expensive for where we were”. A peer admitting the doubt, and getting past it, is what moves the viewer.
- Something specific. £100,000 for members, 12 years as a customer, 15 to 20 seconds on hold. Specifics feel true. Adjectives don’t.
- The right speaker. A chief executive for chief executives, a trader for investors, past participants for people thinking of signing up.
None of that comes from a script. It comes from picking the right customer and asking the right questions. If asking is the bit that puts you off, here’s how to ask a customer for a video testimonial, with an email you can copy. We’ve shared the questions we use, plus how long a testimonial should be and what it costs, on our testimonial video production page.
If you’d like a film like the five of ours above, we make them from £1,500 + VAT, fixed. Your customer gives us about an hour, and you get the film in around two weeks.
