Posting Video Testimonials to YouTube

YouTube gives your testimonials two very different stages: Shorts, the quick vertical videos people swipe through, and regular videos, where prospects search for real stories before they buy. Vocal Video has templates for both, and everything you need to post them, from the video file to an accurate caption file.

💡 Note: Posting to YouTube means downloading your video, which is included on Essential, Pro, Scale and Enterprise plans.

In this article:

A Short or a regular video?

  • Shorts are vertical, quick and built for discovery: YouTube shows them to people swiping through the Shorts feed. Upload a vertical video that's within YouTube's length limit for Shorts, and it's published as a Short.
  • Regular videos are horizontal and can run as long as the story needs. They're found through YouTube search and recommendations, and they're where a prospect goes to hear a customer's whole story.

You don't have to choose. One great response can become a 30-second Short and a two-minute customer story.

Make a Short

Start from the YouTube Shorts template in the Template Library: click Video Templates in the left menu, then the YouTube Shorts filter. It cuts a short, energetic video with no filler, opens on the strongest line, and is set up for Shorts in two ways:

  • No corner logo, because YouTube's own controls cover the top of a Short.
  • No soundtrack, so you can add music from YouTube's audio library when you post.

The YouTube Shorts template's page in the Template Library, with a vertical preview and its description, and an arrow pointing to the Customize button beside Use Template

The other vertical templates, Rapid Fire, Marquee, Newswire and Tilt, work for Shorts too. They include a soundtrack; to use YouTube audio instead, open Music in the editor's right sidebar and click Remove before you publish.

Make it yours. The ready-made templates are a starting point, and they're easy to customize. Click a template, then Customize to change its design (colors, fonts, caption style, music and logo), its length, and its editing style, which you describe in plain words in its Instructions. Turn on Use my colors to start from your brand colors. See Video Templates: the Complete Guide.

Captions that stay visible

YouTube lays its own controls, buttons and text over every Short. Vocal Video's vertical templates raise captions to about 40% of the way up the frame, into the clear space between, so keep them on.

A vertical testimonial on a phone, with the areas YouTube Shorts covers shaded (controls along the top, like, comment, share and remix buttons on the right, and the title and channel along the bottom) and Vocal Video's caption outlined in the clear space about 40% of the way up

Turning an existing video into a Short works just as it does for TikTok: choose 9:16 – Vertical from the format menu, then raise the captions. See Posting Video Testimonials to TikTok.

Make a regular video

For a full customer story, start from Long-form Story, made for YouTube and your website: the whole story in complete sentences, with a title card, question cards and a logo close, and captions there to help rather than to steal the show. Customer Story Spotlight is a tighter alternative that opens on the customer's strongest line.

The Long-form Story template's page in the Template Library, with a horizontal preview of a customer story and its description, For YouTube and a website

To turn an existing square or vertical video horizontal, open it in the editor, click the format menu above the video, and choose 16:9 – Horizontal. Duplicate the video first if you want to keep the original as it is.

The editor with the format menu open above a video, and an arrow pointing to 16:9 – Horizontal, labeled Youtube, Linkedin

Download and upload

  1. Publish your video, then click Download.
  2. Click Download Video File, then whichever of these you'll use:
    • Thumbnail, to set as the video's custom thumbnail. (YouTube may ask you to verify your account before you can upload one.)
    • Transcript, to help you write the video's description. A few sentences in your customer's own words help viewers, and YouTube search, understand what the video is about.
    • Captions (SRT), to upload as subtitles (see below).
  3. Upload the video in YouTube Studio or the YouTube app, and add your title, description and thumbnail.

A published video's Download window, with Download Video File and an arrow pointing to Captions (SRT) beside Thumbnail and Transcript

For more on downloading, see How to Download Your Videos and Raw Responses from Vocal Video.

Captions on YouTube

Keep Vocal Video's captions on. They're styled to match your brand and show for every viewer, including the many who watch with the sound off.

For regular videos, also upload the caption file. YouTube makes its own automatic captions for viewers who turn on CC, but speech recognition often misspells names, companies and product terms, which are exactly the words that matter in a testimonial. Vocal Video's caption file comes from your video's transcript, including any corrections you made, so uploading it gives YouTube an accurate version. In YouTube Studio, open the video's Subtitles page, choose to upload a file, and pick the one with timing.

Shorts don't need the file: on-screen captions do the job.

YouTube or your own website?

Post to YouTube to be found on YouTube. On your own website, embed the Vocal Video player instead of a YouTube video:

  • No ads before, during or after your customer's story.
  • Video SEO for your pages. Vocal Video embeds include structured data that helps search engines show your video with your page. See How Our Video SEO Features Can Boost Your Rankings.
  • Your brand, your player. Match the player to your site, or use a video card or gallery to show several testimonials at once. See How to Share and Embed Videos.

Post every new video automatically

To share each newly published video to YouTube without lifting a finger, set up a Zapier integration from Integrations in the left menu. See Automating Vocal Video with Zapier.

For more information see:

Still need help? Contact Support at support@vocalvideo.com