How to Set up a Vocal Video Collector

You can use Vocal Video to collect authentic video testimonials from customers, employees, and more — in just a few minutes. Here’s how to start collecting new videos.

Create your Video Collector

  1. Click Create > New Video Collector. Select a use case ie Marketing, Employer Brand, or Internal Comms. You can also pick a template or start from scratch.

The Create a Video Collector dialog, asking what the collector is for: Marketing, Employer Brand, Hiring & Screening, Internal Comms, Learning & Development, or Something Else, with links to pick a template or start from scratch.

2. Add your prompt - the more detail the better. We give you a lot of ideas for prompts that you can personalize for your use case.  You can of course write your own unique prompt, too.

The Create a Video Collector dialog for Marketing, listing sample AI prompts to click, such as collecting customer testimonial videos or client reviews, and a link to write your own prompt.

The Create a Video Collector dialog for Marketing, with a written prompt about collecting customer testimonial videos and a Create my Video Collector button.

  1. Then click "Create my Video Collector"

💡 Tip: you can also ask Vera, the AI assistant in Vocal Video, to set up a collector for you. Describe who you want to hear from and what about, for example "Set up a collector for new hires, with four questions about their first month," and she writes and builds it.

Customize Your Video Collector

The setup steps run across the top of the setup panel, and a live preview of your collector, as respondents will see it on a phone, sits on the right. Work through each section:

You can also customize your collector in additional ways: see Settings and Other.

And when you are happy with your collector, you can Record a Test Response.

Intro Page Settings

  • Collector Title: This is what shows up for your respondents in the Collector.
  • Spokesperson: Decide who you'd like to represent your brand and add a headshot.
  • Welcome Message: Make any edits you'd like. You can use variables to pull from the information you already have in your account.
  • Welcome Video (Optional): Upload or record a short welcome video (recommended length: under 10 seconds). You can select a specific thumbnail image from the video to display.
  • Incentives: Use our $100 gift drawing, turn off, or choose your own. More details here.
  • Contact Email: Helps build trust that the Collector is coming from your brand.

The collector setup wizard on the Intro step, with Collector Title, Spokesperson, Welcome Video, Welcome Message, Incentives and Contact Email, beside a live phone preview of the collector's welcome page.

When you are done with the Intro Page Settings, hit "Next" and move on to Branding.

(You can also track your progress, and jump to any step, using the steps along the top of the setup panel.)

Collector Branding

Your collector's colors, background and fonts come from your workspace's Brand Kit (in the left navigation), so every collector matches. When possible, we've pre-filled it with the logo and colors from your website. Changes you make here update the Brand Kit, and every collector that uses it.

From this page you can change:

  • Logo: choose whether your logo shows on this collector. When it's off, respondents see your company name instead.
  • Colors: the text color, the button and accent color, and the background color. Turn off the background gradient for a solid color.
  • Background image: upload your own, or pick one from the stock library.
  • Fonts: a heading font and a body font. Premium fonts are available on Pro and up.

The collector setup wizard on the Branding step, with company name, the Logo switch, text, button and background colors, background gradient and background image, beside a live phone preview.

Click "Next" to move on to adding the questions you want respondents to answer in your video collector.

Questions Page

This is where you can either write your own questions for respondents to answer, or you can use the pre-suggested questions.

The collector setup wizard on the Questions step, with two questions, Add and Reorder buttons, and the Accept audio responses switch, beside a phone preview of question 1.

If you need some ideas or help with your questions, we have helpful tips and tricks built right into the page, too:

The Crafting Your Questions tips: avoid yes/no questions, use prompts, ask people to introduce themselves, and keep to 1–3 questions.

  • Question settings: Click the settings icon (sliders) next to each question to:
    • Add custom tips
    • Use a teleprompter script
    • Set a maximum recording length (Pro and up)
    • Make the question Skippable, so respondents can move on without answering it. The first question is always required.
  • To let camera-shy respondents answer with audio only, switch on Accept audio responses in the collector's Settings.

The Edit Question dialog for a collector, with custom tips, a teleprompter script, maximum recording length, and the Skippable switch turned on.

Click "Next" when you are ready to move on. You are almost done!

Attribution Page Settings

You are almost done! On this page you set up the attribution settings so you know who responded to your collector. You can ask respondents for their job title and company name too, if you want. This is also where you can add a custom video release form if you have a Pro plan.

The collector setup wizard on the Attribution step, with headline, message, job title and company switches, and Pro options for a custom video release and custom form fields, beside a phone preview of the contact form.

Click "Next" when you are done to move on to the last step!

Thank-you Page Settings

This is where you thank your respondents for taking the time to respond to your video collector. You can customize your headline and message. If you have a Pro plan you can put in a custom call-to-action too.

The collector setup wizard on the Thank-you step, with headline, message and a Pro custom call-to-action, beside a phone preview of the thank-you page.

Hit "Next" to reach the Share step, and you are done! Your video collector is ready to be sent out. You can send it via email, get a link to share or a QR code. You can record a test response too, to make sure everything is just the way you want it.

The collector setup wizard on the Share step, with options to send a video request, upload an email list, automate requests with an integration, get a link or QR code, or record a test response.

Settings

From the Settings page (on the left hand side of the page), you can manage (or localize) your video collector. Switch on or off:

  • Accept audio responses
  • Enable background blur
  • Show "How it Works" info
  • Show Help & FAQ links
  • Show step numbers
  • Force horizontal video on phones

On this page you can also find:

  • The public link for your video collector
  • Autogenerate draft videos (on by default): every new response arrives as a draft video, built with the collector's Video template. Click Change to pick a different template. See Video Templates.
  • Email templates to invite and remind respondents. You can customize these as well
  • Customize Text, to change any of your collector's wording, and Translate, to translate it into another language with AI (uses AI credits)
  • Kiosk Mode settings (Pro and up)
  • Open Graph Image and Description (Pro and up)

Last but not least you can chose to rename, duplicate, deactivate or delete your collector from this page as well.

A collector's Settings page: response and display switches, the public link, Autogenerate draft videos with its Standard Cut template, email templates, and Customize or Translate Text.

Favoriting, Managing Notifications and More

Use the icons in the upper left corner (next to your profile pic and date) to favorite this collector (star), manage notifications (bell) or perform other actions like rename, duplicate, deactivate or delete this collector (three dots).

A collector's header in the left sidebar, with star, notifications and more-actions icons above Setup, Requests, Responses, Integrations and Settings.

How many screens does my respondent see? (Can I make it a single page?)

The respondent experience is a short, guided sequence of separate screens rather than a single page. This structure is intentional — it walks people through recording, and gives us a place to capture their name so you know who each video is from. It cannot be combined into one page from beginning to end.

At a minimum, a respondent moves through four screens:

  1. Welcome screen — your intro/title (and optional welcome video)

The respondent's welcome screen on a phone: logo, collector title, spokesperson, welcome message and a Let's Go button.

  1. Recording question — where they record their video

The respondent's recording screen on a phone: the question, recording tips and an Open Video Recorder button.

  1. Contact info — their name (required) and any other details you ask for

The respondent's contact info screen on a phone: name (required), email, the video release agreement and a Done button.

  1. Thank-you screen

The respondent's thank-you screen on a phone: All done!, a thank-you message and the spokesperson.

You can't remove the welcome, contact, or thank-you screens, but you can make the flow as quick and frictionless as possible:

  • Use a single question. Every additional question adds a screen, so one question keeps you at the four-screen minimum. (If you add more questions, you can mark the later ones "skippable" so they're optional — but the first question is always required.)
  • Pre-fill their contact info. If you already know who you're inviting, use a personalized link (or add their details as URL parameters) so their name and email arrive pre-filled. The contact screen becomes a quick confirm-and-continue instead of a form to type out.
  • Trim the welcome screen. In the collector's Settings, turn off extras like "How it Works" and the Help/FAQ links, skip the spokesperson, and keep the welcome message short (or blank) so the first screen stays minimal.

That gives you the leanest possible experience: a brief welcome, one recording, a pre-filled confirm, and a thank-you.

For more information see:

How to Request Videos

Tips for Improving Response Rates

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

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