Why Testimonials Matter in 2025
According to recent research, 92% of consumers read testimonials before buying, and quality customer testimonials are a powerful tool that can increase website conversions by up to 34%, while reducing acquisition costs. A customer testimonial can take many forms, such as written reviews, videos, or curated stories.
Testimonials act as vital social proof, with positive reviews helping to build credibility for businesses and breaking down trust barriers. Companies leverage testimonials and online reviews to build credibility and trust with potential customers. Recommendations from a friend or family member are among the most trusted forms of testimonials, significantly influencing purchasing decisions and encouraging new customers to trust the company. Testimonials influence potential buyers at critical moments in their decision journey.
Understanding Effective Testimonials

An effective testimonial goes beyond generic praise to share specific results and authentic experiences, creating compelling testimonials that resonate with potential customers. Focusing on the customer's perspective and journey—especially by sharing the customer's journey or direct quotes—enhances credibility and makes testimonials more relatable and trustworthy. The power of testimonials lies in social proof—when prospects see people like themselves benefiting from a product or service, their perceived risk decreases, and confidence grows. Testimonials are most effective when shared in the customer's own words, as this adds authenticity and credibility.
Choosing the right type of testimonial for your audience, such as quote testimonials, social media testimonials, or documentary series testimonials, can further increase engagement and trust.
Key Elements of High-Converting Testimonials
- Specific Results: Testimonials highlighting measurable outcomes like how a product or service helps customers save time or increase revenue build credibility.
- Authentic Voices: Genuine customer stories with personal details create emotional connections.
- Complete Narratives: Highly persuasive testimonials often tell a full story about problem-solving and benefits, or come from peer reviews, engaging viewers more deeply.
- Quote Testimonials: Short, impactful customer quotes can be used across marketing materials such as websites, videos, and sales pages to quickly build trust.
- Multiple Forms: Using multiple forms of testimonials—written reviews, video, and audio—increases engagement and credibility by appealing to different audience preferences.
Selecting testimonials from customers who closely match your target market ensures the feedback is more relevant and impactful for potential buyers.
Testimonial Formats and Their Impact
Video testimonials outperform written and social media testimonials by showcasing real people sharing their stories in a dynamic, engaging way. The power of video content lies in its ability to engage audiences through facial expressions and vocal tone, enhancing trust and emotional impact. However, testimonials can take many forms, including video, audio, written, and social media posts that can be shared on a social media platform to increase reach and engagement. Audio testimonials are a cost-effective and versatile option, ideal for mashups and promotional content. An interview testimonial, often structured in a question and answer format, provides in-depth insights and highlights customer experiences in a conversational style. Written interview and text interviews are also credible formats for sharing detailed customer stories and building trust. While these formats are effective, video remains the top format for boosting conversions.
10 Best Testimonial Examples
Each case below is a testimonial example demonstrating best practices for leveraging customer stories to build credibility and drive sales, including study testimonials that provide in-depth narratives of customer experiences and results.
These examples help build trust with prospective customers by showcasing real results and success stories.
BrainRobotics
Created by Levitate
- Video: BrainRobotics Brand Video (Watch)
- Purpose & Context: This brand video was designed to humanize BrainRobotics’ cutting-edge prosthetic technology by focusing on the emotional connection between innovation and human experience. Through authentic storytelling and interviews, the video showcases how the company’s work is redefining what’s possible for people with limb differences — merging empathy, science, and purpose.
- Style & Technique: The video combines live-action interviews, cinematic b-roll, and emotive music to create an intimate, storytelling-driven tone. Rather than focusing on the technical specs, it emphasizes personal narratives and close-up visuals that highlight human gestures and emotions. By featuring a real person in the testimonial, the video enhances authenticity and trust. The warm lighting, natural sound design, and thoughtful pacing make it feel real and deeply personal.
- Why It Works: It’s a perfect example of how to tell a tech story through emotion. By grounding advanced innovation in relatable human stories, BrainRobotics connects with viewers on a personal level—transforming a complex medical technology into a story about hope, progress, and empowerment. This approach builds trust, evokes empathy, and strengthens brand affinity beyond the product itself.
The HON Company
Created by Levitate
- Video: The HON Company | Manhattan School (Watch)
- Purpose & Context: This video was created to showcase how The HON Company supports modern learning environments through smart, functional furniture design. Filmed at Manhattan School, the piece highlights how adaptable classroom furniture enhances collaboration, comfort, and productivity for students and educators alike.
- Style & Technique: The video uses live-action storytelling with a mix of cinematic classroom footage, teacher and student interactions, and natural lighting to create a realistic and inspiring atmosphere. The pacing and composition emphasize movement and flexibility — key elements that mirror the brand’s design philosophy.
- Why It Works: It effectively brings HON’s value proposition to life by showing the impact of design in action. Instead of focusing solely on product features, the video demonstrates real-world use, capturing authentic moments that illustrate how furniture shapes learning experiences. The balance between brand storytelling and visual authenticity makes it both educational and emotionally engaging.
Pasadena Unified School District
Created by Levitate
- Video: Longfellow Magnet School | Pasadena Unified School District (Watch)
- Purpose & Context: This video was produced to highlight the unique learning environment at Longfellow Magnet School, part of the Pasadena Unified School District. Its goal is to attract new families and students by showcasing the school’s vibrant culture, diverse programs, and commitment to academic excellence and creativity.
- Style & Technique: The piece combines live-action footage with on-campus interviews, capturing teachers, students, and classroom activities in an authentic and uplifting way. The use of natural light, dynamic camera movement, and warm color grading gives it an inviting, community-driven tone. The editing rhythm reflects the school’s energy and inclusive spirit.
- Why It Works: It effectively tells a story of education through connection—showing not just what the school offers, but how it feels to be part of it. By blending heartfelt interviews with genuine classroom moments, the video inspires trust and pride in the community while positioning the school as a nurturing and forward-thinking place to learn.
Atlanta Cancer Care
Created by Levitate
- Video: Atlanta Cancer Care | Dr. Chowdhary Patient Story (Watch)
- Purpose & Context: This video was created to share a patient-centered story that reflects Atlanta Cancer Care’s compassionate approach to oncology. By focusing on Dr. Chowdhary and her commitment to personalized treatment, the piece aims to highlight the human connection behind medical expertise and reinforce trust in the clinic’s mission of delivering care with empathy and excellence.
- Style & Technique: The production blends interview-driven storytelling with emotive live-action footage captured inside the clinic and in personal settings. Soft lighting, gentle camera movement, and close-up compositions help convey warmth and sincerity. The music score and pacing are carefully designed to evoke empathy and highlight the emotional depth of the story without feeling overly dramatized.
- Why It Works: It strikes the perfect balance between professionalism and humanity — a key challenge in healthcare communication. By centering on Dr. Chowdhary’s voice and real patient interactions, the video fosters authenticity and credibility while reminding viewers that great care is about more than just medicine — it’s about connection, hope, and trust.
Check our portfolio for more testimonial examples
Latham – The Pool Company
- Video: Measure | Latham Pool Products (Watch)
- Purpose & Context: This video was created to introduce Measure, Latham’s innovative digital tool that simplifies and streamlines pool measurement for dealers and installers. The goal is to show how the app helps users save time during the pool measurement and installation process, reduces errors, and modernizes the installation process — positioning Latham as a forward-thinking leader in pool technology.
- Style & Technique: The piece uses a mix of live-action footage and 2D motion graphics to illustrate how Measure works in real-world scenarios. The visuals are clean, professional, and product-focused, with an emphasis on clarity and usability. Dynamic animations demonstrate the app interface, while live shots of installers on-site connect the technology to its practical benefits.
- Why It Works: It clearly communicates a complex process in an engaging, easy-to-understand way. By combining visual explanation with real-life context, the video appeals to both technical and non-technical audiences. It’s a strong example of how B2B product videos can educate, build trust, and drive adoption through storytelling and thoughtful design, while also highlighting how the tool helps save time for dealers and installers.
Slack
- Video: So Yeah, We Tried Slack… (Watch)
- Purpose & Context: This video was created to introduce Slack to the world through a real, unscripted story. Rather than relying on a standard product demo, Slack partnered with the production studio Sandwich Video — a team that initially refused to make the ad because they didn’t believe the product would work. Months later, they became genuine users and advocates. The video documents the client’s journey and perspective, emphasizing the importance of sharing the client's authentic experience and results to build credibility, and highlighting the transformation experienced by the client’s team, making it both a testimonial and a product introduction.
- Style & Technique: It uses documentary-style storytelling with humor and self-awareness. The tone is conversational and lightly ironic, blending behind-the-scenes footage, casual interviews, and real Slack use cases. Visually, it feels authentic and unscripted — quick cuts, candid moments, and playful narration keep the pacing lively and relatable.
- Why It Works: It flips traditional marketing on its head by turning skepticism into social proof, showcasing the client’s genuine user transformation and candid moments that make the story believable and engaging.
HubSpot
- Video: Handled Scaled from 0 to 121 Locations in 18 Months with the HubSpot CRM Platform (Watch)
- Purpose & Context: This customer success story highlights how Handled, a moving and home services company, achieved rapid growth by leveraging the HubSpot CRM platform. The goal of the video is to demonstrate HubSpot’s scalability and real-world impact, showing how a startup can use the platform to centralize operations, improve customer communication, and expand quickly without losing efficiency. The video centers on the customer's experience and journey with the HubSpot CRM platform, emphasizing the customer's perspective throughout.
- Style & Technique: The video blends testimonial-style interviews with live-action footage of the Handled team at work, complemented by motion graphics and on-screen metrics that visualize key results. Its production is clean, professional, and emotionally grounded — balancing data-driven storytelling with a human touch that reflects HubSpot’s approachable brand identity.
- Why It Works: It’s a strong example of B2B storytelling done right: measurable results meet authentic narrative. By putting the customer's experience and journey at the center, HubSpot builds credibility and emotional connection simultaneously. The combination of real voices, tangible outcomes, and sleek visuals reinforces the message that the HubSpot CRM doesn’t just organize data — it powers real growth stories.
Make-A-Wish & Southwest Airlines
- Video: Southwest Airlines Helps Wishes Take Flight (Watch)
- Purpose & Context: This testimonial video captures the partnership between Make-A-Wish America and Southwest Airlines, showing how the airline helps make children’s wishes come true through their culture of care and generosity. The story follows Cole, a young wish recipient, as he and his family experience an unforgettable send-off thanks to Southwest employees — celebrating the power of empathy and community in corporate culture. The testimonial features the perspective of a family member, emphasizing the impact of the experience on the entire family.
- Style & Technique: The video combines documentary-style storytelling with real-life footage from the airport, creating an authentic and emotional narrative. It uses voiceover narration, staff and family interactions, and uplifting music to evoke warmth and sincerity. The unpolished, heartfelt moments — smiles, hugs, handmade signs — amplify its authenticity and emotional impact.
- Why It Works: It’s a perfect example of brand storytelling through compassion. Rather than focusing on the company itself, the video centers on human kindness and shared joy, allowing the brand’s values to shine naturally. Endorsements from a friend or family member can be especially powerful in testimonial storytelling, and here, the family member’s perspective enhances the authenticity and emotional resonance. Southwest’s identity as “the airline with heart” comes through not by claim, but by action — making the message deeply memorable and emotionally resonant.
Glassdoor
- Video: Glassdoor Client Testimonial: AppDynamics (Watch)
- Purpose & Context: This testimonial video showcases how AppDynamics leveraged Glassdoor to improve recruiting efficiency, reduce hiring costs, and strengthen its employer brand. By featuring Luan Lam, a senior director and Head of Talent Acquisition, the video provides credibility and transparency, aligning perfectly with Glassdoor’s mission of openness and trust in the workplace.
- Style & Technique: The video uses a straightforward interview format combined with b-roll of the AppDynamics office to maintain professionalism and clarity. Subtle on-screen graphics highlight key metrics — 20 engineers hired in 12 months with a $700 cost-per-hire — providing measurable proof of success. The tone is confident yet humble, supported by clean visuals and concise editing that keep the focus on results.
- Why It Works: It’s a textbook example of data-driven storytelling in B2B marketing. The mix of quantitative results and authentic testimonial builds trust quickly, showing potential clients how Glassdoor delivers real ROI. By letting a satisfied customer share their experience rather than relying on self-promotion, the video reinforces credibility, transparency, and the brand’s core message: better hires start with honest insights.
Chewy
- Video: Chewy Customer Testimonials (Watch)
- Purpose & Context: This testimonial video highlights how Chewy.com has become a trusted go-to for pet owners by combining convenience, affordability, and heartfelt service. Instead of the brand speaking for itself, Chewy lets real customers share how the platform makes caring for their pets easier — from fast delivery to wide product selection and great prices. The video showcases positive feedback from real customers, reinforcing trust and satisfaction. The goal is to build trust and loyalty by showcasing authentic user satisfaction.
- Style & Technique: The video uses a montage of real customer testimonials, paired with b-roll of pets and Chewy products to create an upbeat, emotional tone. The storytelling is short, conversational, and genuine, supported by warm visuals and friendly background music. This approachable and human style aligns perfectly with Chewy’s brand — caring, reliable, and customer-first.
- Why It Works: It’s a great example of customer advocacy in action. By featuring real voices and positive feedback instead of scripted lines, the video feels personal and credible. The focus on everyday pet owners helps Chewy reinforce its brand promise — making pet care joyful, easy, and affordable. The mix of emotional connection and practical benefits creates a testimonial that both resonates and converts.
What Makes These Testimonials Work

These examples follow proven frameworks adaptable to any business. A customer testimonial can take many forms, including written reviews, videos, podcast interviews, curated testimonial pages, and quote testimonials:
- Identify the Problem: Testimonials clearly state the customer’s challenge.
- Describe the Solution: Customers explain how the product or service addressed their needs.
- Quantify Results: Measurable outcomes like cost savings or time reductions are emphasized.
- Add Authenticity: Personal stories, customer images, company details, and quote testimonials boost credibility.
- Leverage Customer Recommendations: Customer recommendations are a powerful form of social proof that influence future customers and encourage them to trust your business. Encourage your customers to leave feedback on your website, social media, and other platforms to maximize the impact of your testimonials.
- Highlight Similar Benefits: Emphasizing similar benefits experienced by multiple customers builds trust and demonstrates the consistency and reliability of your services.
- Sharing testimonials helps persuade future customers by showcasing real success stories and the positive impact your business has had on others.
Comparing Testimonial Formats
Video testimonials have the highest authenticity impact and conversion rates because they allow viewers to see and hear real customers sharing their experiences. Although video production can be more resource-intensive, the emotional connection it creates often justifies the investment.
There are many types of testimonials, including:
- Quote testimonials
- Influencer testimonials
- Social testimonials
Influencer testimonials, especially from a well known brand or industry leader, can further enhance trust and credibility. Social testimonials, often shared as social media posts, help reach broad audiences through organic sharing and are excellent for engaging new prospects in real-time.
Testimonials can be presented in various formats, such as:
- Blog post testimonials
- Audio testimonials
- Documentary series
This highlights the diversity of testimonial types and other forms. They can be featured on:
- Your own website
- Other websites
- Review sites
- Third-party platforms like Trustpilot or G2
Displaying testimonials across these channels increases credibility and provides multiple touchpoints for potential customers to see authentic feedback.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Testimonials

Want to know if your testimonials are working? Track these key metrics to ensure your social proof drives real results:
- Conversion Rate: Compare sales or leads from pages with and without testimonials to measure impact.
- Engagement Metrics: Monitor likes, shares, comments, and reach on each social media platform like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
- Customer Acquisition Cost: Analyze how testimonials affect the cost of gaining new customers.
- View-Through Rates: Check how many visitors watch or read your testimonials, including views of written reviews and online reviews as well as video testimonials, especially on landing pages.
- Direct Feedback: Use surveys to ask customers if testimonials influenced their purchase decisions.
By regularly tracking these, you can optimize your testimonial strategy to boost credibility, increase conversions, and turn prospects into satisfied customers who may provide more testimonials.
Common Challenges and Solutions
Challenge 1: Generic or Vague Feedback
Solution: Ask specific questions about measurable results when requesting testimonials to generate compelling testimonials that resonate with potential customers and provide detailed, engaging stories.
Challenge 2: Low Response Rates
Solution: Time testimonial requests strategically, soon after positive experiences, and offer multiple formats like written, audio, or video to increase participation.
Challenge 3: Testimonials Not Matching Target Audience
Solution: Segment testimonials by customer type and use case, ensuring they are relevant to your target market, and display these targeted stories on landing pages or marketing materials.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best practices for filming a video testimonial?
For tips on creating authentic and engaging testimonial videos, including scripting and production advice, visit our Video Production Guide.
How can I encourage customers to provide testimonials?
Learn effective strategies to request testimonials and boost response rates in our Testimonial Request Tips.
Where should I display testimonials on my website?
Discover optimal placement strategies to maximize testimonial impact in our Landing Page Optimization.
Can testimonials improve SEO and website rankings?
Yes, well-placed testimonials with relevant keywords can enhance SEO. Read more in our SEO Benefits of Testimonials or learn about video SEO services.










