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Social Proof
Turns Plain Text Reviews Into Visually Impactful, Shareable Graphics
January 27, 2020
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5 min read
Why is video such a powerful marketing tool? In short, because it creates an emotional response. Imagine your reaction to a written review of Glastonbury or Burning Man vs. your reaction to seeing video of people enjoying the event. Bit of a difference, isn’t there?
Now imagine what video can do for your review campaigns.
The answer might seem like an obvious one but actually, a strong video review isn’t a piece to camera where consumers share their opinion on a product or service.
Of course, it can be. But we’ve found our clients’ customers are far more creative when it comes to video feedback. What we’re seeing is an explosion of content-rich, quality footage that doesn’t just share opinion, but also shares experience.Video reviews show your target market exactly how your brand fits into their lives. They demonstrate the value and enjoyment your products bring to people just like them. And they do it all in a content format that’s known to boost engagement and drive conversion rates. Which is why giving customers the option of leaving a video is esstial to making the most of collecting reviews.
Take this video review for Farmison & Co. Written feedback on the product can suggest quality and flavour, but it wouldn’t excite the senses in the same way the ‘sizzle’ does here.
Looking to buy a gift for the kids (secretly for yourself)? You can read reviews left by other parents, but nothing’s quite as convincing as seeing a video review of another kid with similar interests enjoy the product to it's full potential.
Video reviews are also a great way to show a product's adaptability. We saw a fantastic example of this in feedback left for our client, Snoozer. Snoozer makes luxury dog beds and accessories, but as the happy customer in this video review clearly demonstrates, their versatile products suit pooches and piglets alike.
Both written and video reviews have a major influence on your brand reputation. They provide valuable social proof and conversion driving trust signals. But where video reviews take the upper hand (in addition to their exceptionally high engagement rate) is that there’s no questioning their authenticity.
Text can easily be seen as faked or manipulated. Overly produced videos are generally dismissed as sponsored advertising lacking true credibility. But bitesize snippets clearly created by the end user? Well, it’s hard to doubt an experience unfolding before your very eyes.
Video reviews are in the moment and offer a glimpse into the realities of a product or service. That said, we don’t see them as a replacement for written reviews, but more of a compliment to them.
When used together, text and video reviews are a powerful combination – one we know will play a major part in marketing as companies bounce back from the current climate. Take tour operators for example. What better way to sell a tourist experience than by using authentic footage of that experience alongside a glowing written recommendation?
Having recently launched video reviews as standard with all our review collection business solutions. we are thrilled with the response from our clients’ customers and are constantly looking at ways to improve our video review service.
Our free SMS review invitations are a great way to drive a video review campaign, since they perform 3x more effectively than email requests. They also offer a seamless experience for the customer – everything they need to do to leave a video review can be done directly from their smartphone.
A successful video review campaign should be effortless on the part of the consumer. And we’re working to make the whole process just as easy, if not more so, than leaving detailed written feedback.
We’re also developing our Social Proof feature to include video functionality, allowing clients to easily share engaging video reviews across all their social channels in just a few short clicks.
