Hubspot found that 78% of people watch online videos every week, while 54% watch videos every day. In addition, Google’s research shows that 6 out of 10 people would rather watch online videos than television. These two statistics not only show the hunger for online video content, but also the potential for video reviews and testimonials.
Verified video reviews have the power to combine all the benefits of video with the authenticity of user-generated content. That’s why so many HelpfulCrowd users are already using them in their marketing strategy.
If you still need convincing, here are eight reasons to encourage your customers to start sharing video reviews.
Video reviews trigger an emotional reaction
While text reviews and star ratings are useful, there’s nothing quite like a video review when it comes to evoking an emotional trigger or reaction. Copy can often be rather sterile and many visitors to your store may not even bother to read endless reams of text.
When a customer is thankful, happy or relieved because of your product, potential customers will feel it too. This, in turn, compels the viewer to learn more about your brand and raises the chances that they’ll become a customer in future.
Customers don’t just want to know that you can solve their problem, they want to be sure that you can solve their problem better than anyone else. A video review is a great way to actually show this.
Videos are desirable
Four times as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. That’s great news for any brand committed to harvesting video reviews from their customers. Video reviews are a great way to explain more about your products and their features too, and are ideal as an alternative or an accompaniment to salesy commercials and technical feature explainers.
Videos are shareable
The whole point of user-generated content is to drive shares and spread the word about your brand or products. People share video content around twelve times more than text and images combined. That alone shows you the potential impact of using video reviews in your marketing strategy.
Having your customer video reviews and testimonials shared across social media is a powerful way of getting your brand in front of a new audience. It’s also a great way to reinforce social proof – a concept we are passionate about here at HelpfulCrowd.
Video reviews have a higher retention rate
A commonly cited statistic says that video has a 95% retention rate, while people only remember 12% of textual information.
But why are video reviews more memorable?
As already discussed, video has the power to activate emotional centers in the brain, something that has been shown to increase information retention. Storytelling has a similar effect on the brain. Stories of people overcoming problems are particularly irresistible, and that’s exactly what a great customer review video provides.
Being memorable is half the battle. If your brand or product stays in the mind of a prospect, the chances of them returning to your store and making a purchase are raised significantly.
Videos increase on-page SEO
Google’s algorithms are increasingly prioritizing websites with video content. It’s not something you want to ignore; 93 percent of online experiences start with a search engine, so you want to do everything you can to appear on that first page.
But how do video reviews help your store’s SEO performance?
Firstly, a video review can increase your click-through rates. Including video on your page drives a 157 percent increase in organic traffic from SERPs. Secondly, video reviews can lower your bounce rates. People spend over twice as long on a page with a video than without.
Video reviews actually convert
Let’s face it, the ultimate goal of all online marketers is to convert potential customers into paying ones, and video reviews are great at converting. Some of the world’s biggest brands (with the biggest marketing budgets) are still spending time generating user-generated content including reviews. Why? Because they outperform many of their tactical counterparts when it comes to conversion rates.
Displaying video review content across your site, on product pages and on social media channels drives social shares, brings more traffic to your site, builds trust with your audience, and converts customers. Here at HelpfulCrowd, we make it easy for our users to share their video and photo review content using widgets and side bars, displayable on product pages and those all important touch points.
Customer trust video reviews
Building trust with your audience lies at the heart of all your marketing efforts, and video reviews do a great job of boosting your reputation. After all, if your audience trusts the reviews that they see, they’re more likely to buy your product. What’s more, people trust reviews from strangers as much or more than they trust friends or family members. A video review looks more authentic (compared to copy and star ratings) as your audience can actually see and hear the reviewer. It’s all about social proof. HelpfulCrowd allows you to display a verified badge, adding further peace of mind for your store visitors.
Video reviews create brand advocates
Customers that have had a positive experience with your company act as brand advocates when they share their positive feedback. This is the case for all kinds of reviews, but especially so for video reviews. Video reviews allow your reputation to be amplified in the best possible way, by someone else!
Customers and word of mouth marketing can really be your greatest brand champions.
Get started with video reviews
HelpfulCrowd has been designed and optimized to help you gather customer video reviews and display them in the most effective places on your website.
Our platform makes it easy for your customers to upload video and photo content along with their review. You’ll then be able to repurpose this content throughout your site and across your social media channels, reaping all the rewards listed in this very article!
