What if you could make customer video reviews more effective than they already are?

What if there was a way to get amazing results – more traffic, high quality leads and sales from the reviews you’re already getting from your customers?

Is it actually possible to squeeze that much value and results out of the reviews customers leave on behalf of your business?

As it turns out, it is.

Researchers Vanessa Bohns and Mahdi Roganizad found that face-to-face requests are better than personal requests made via email alone. In fact, face-to-face requests were 34 times more effective than written requests. That’s a dramatic difference.

It’s a powerful way for business owners to attract and convert new customers.

Google agrees. The search giant has introduced video to their local search listings. Local guides, individuals who are committed to contributing to Google Maps, have been recruited by Google to join their program. Google rewards these local guides with perks and offers in exchange for regular reviews.

Right now it’s available to local guides and it’s only available on Android devices. Google has plans to quickly expand their program to the rest of their users as their program takes hold.

This is great news for business owners and entrepreneurs.

Google wants you to have more positive reviews

Google Maps has more than 1 billion users, and they’re all being encouraged to post video reviews. This is huge for business owners because it means customers can:

  • Share video reviews and testimonials
  • Provide prospective customers with a tour of the business
  • Drive more traffic, leads and sales to your business

Here’s how it works:

  1. Local guides find a place on Google Maps
  2. They scroll down then select “Add a photo”
  3. Users then tap “Camera” and hold the shutter button for ~10 seconds
  4. You can also select an existing video on your phone.

Users are limited to 30 seconds per video, and can add as many videos as they choose, for any business.

Turn positive reviews into cold hard cash

As we’ve seen, video is far more effective than images and text alone. That’s because images and text are largely impersonal. Customers are missing some much needed information.
The non-verbal cues we use to assess trustworthiness – our tone of voice, emotional health, body language and gesture clusters – these details are largely absent from the vast majority of digital communication. Video helps to bridge that gap, dramatically improving the results from individual reviews alone.

This has some obvious downsides.

Business owners who get it wrong – who have a momentary lapse in product or service quality – may find themselves on camera at the center of a negative review.

Other providers like Yelp allowed customers to record and post video reviews, but so far it hasn’t received mainstream support. Google aims to change that and business owners are encouraged to take advantage of these new features.

Here’s how business owners can turn these video reviews into cold, hard cash.

  1. Keep videos organic. The expectation here is that these videos will be amateur quality videos made from actual customers. Professionally produced videos may actually decrease customer trust in your reviews.
  2. Provide an irresistible offer. Create an irresistible offer – buy one get ones, new customer discounts, free entrees – anything to get customers talking.
  3. Advertise your irresistible offers. Display these offers prominently and frequently. Get customers talking about the value and quality you provide.
  4. Ask customers to redeem your irresistible offers. Send them to a custom-made landing page to convert and upsell customers. Give them a compelling reason to visit, buy and share, and they will.
  5. Get employees to ask for feedback. Get customer-facing employees to request reviews from very happy customers. Give unhappy customers the chance to air their grievances with an internal-only review process.

Video is important, but there’s another more important factor.

Mobile.

50 percent of all video content is now viewed on mobile. 92 percent of mobile video viewers share videos with others.

Video and mobile presents a huge opportunity.

Google Map’s update makes it possible for business owners to receive more video reviews. With video, your customer reviews could be 34 times more effective. It’s a powerful way for business owners to attract and convert new customers.

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