Video reviews: the most persuasive thing you don’t have

Written reviews work. Video reviews work considerably better, for a reason that is uncomfortable but straightforward: a written review could have been written by anybody, including you, and a video of a person in their kitchen could not.

What video reviews do that text cannot

• They prove a person. The fundamental credibility problem with written reviews is solved by default.
• They show the product in a real room. Real light, real scale, next to real furniture — none of which your photography can honestly show.
• They answer the unasked question. A reviewer holding the bag shows you how big it is more effectively than any measurement.
• They carry tone. “It’s good” written is flat. “It’s good” said by someone slightly surprised is persuasive.

Why almost no store has them

Not reluctance. Nobody asks.

Stores send review-request emails that link to a form with five stars and a text box. A customer willing to film thirty seconds is never offered the option, so they write two lines instead — and everyone concludes customers will not make video.

Getting the first ten

Ask the people who already told you

Go through support emails and social mentions for people who volunteered that they liked something. They have already done the hard part. A short, personal message asking for thirty seconds gets a much higher hit rate than a broadcast.

Ask at the right moment

A few days after delivery, once they have used it. Not on dispatch, which is too early to have an opinion, and not a month later, when the enthusiasm has faded into normality.

Make the ask tiny

“Thirty seconds on your phone, however it comes out” is a small favour. “Submit a video review” sounds like a project. Give them one question to answer — what nearly stopped you buying it, and were you right — and the video writes itself.

Say what happens next

People hesitate because they do not know where it will end up. Say plainly: on the product page, possibly on social, and we will take it down if you ask.

Getting permission properly

In writing, and specifically. A customer posting publicly has not licensed their video for your storefront, and the two things are frequently confused. A short explicit yes, kept on file, is the whole requirement and it costs nothing.

Using them well

Product page, near the reviews rather than near the marketing. Leave them rough — the wobble is the evidence, and a customer video edited to look like an advertisement stops working as a customer video.

And tag the product in them. A persuasive video with no way to buy from it is a missed opportunity in the place where intent is highest.