Review Promotion: 4 Ways to Showcase Your Online Reviews

[Garrett Sussman]

Today's Blog Post:

Review Promotion: 4 Ways to Showcase Your Online Reviews






Special bonus this week as well. If you sign up for the Grade.us Newsletter and a Free Trial of our Marketer Plan in June, you'll receive free API access to our Review Stream WordPress Plugin (typically only available on the Agency plan)


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Who doesn?t love the ego-stroke of a positive online review?

When our business is humming along with happy customers, positive online reviews trickle in. They?re a source of validation, second only to increased revenue. Positive reviews are encouraging, but they?re also another tool in our marketing arsenal.

How we amplify those reviews to our audience can complement our customer acquisition strategy, because they maintain significant sway on our target customers. The ways in which we use our reviews on our own website are not created equal though.

As we examine some of our options, we?ll need to decide if we?re properly highlighting the authority of the review, the extent to which they provide SEO value, and whether it?s worth it to lead our potential clients off site.

Discussion: How do you or your clients promote online reviews?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Great points all Garrett! And nice bonus!

I'm partial to amplifying reviews via video or gif. Get multiple reviews in one small space on the site AND great for social sharing.

Here's a review gif I made with no screen grab, cut, paste or graphics program.
I did it all live and on the fly.

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I explain how I did it in this post: <a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/local-reviews/29105-review-gif-share-their-best-google-reviews-gif-jiffy.html">Review Gif - Share their Best Google Reviews in a Gif in a Jiffy!</a>

There are lots of ways to do this, including fancy animation. I've been researching lots of different software and video options for a review product I've been trying to come out with for a long time that's really cool. Just don't have the handwidth to pull it off right now.

 

[Garrett Sussman]

Thank you for the reply Linda!

Yes! The gif idea is brilliant. I love how you explain the process and how easy it is to execute. It adds a dynamic element to your site, and to your point, you don't have to be a technical expert to create it.

You make a great point about video testimonials. Videos are great because they add authenticity to the review.

Do you have any tips on how to prep a client when asking for a video testimonial? I can imagine that not everyone feels comfortable in front of the camera, and you don't want it to seem like they're reading lines or that any aspect is staged. Do you recommend managing the video testimonial process or having the client create it on their own and send it with your guidelines?

Does anyone else have tips for creating testimonial videos?

 

[Linda Buquet]

You make a great point about video testimonials. Videos are great because they add authenticity to the review.

Do you have any tips on how to prep a client when asking for a video testimonial?
I can imagine that not everyone feels comfortable in front of the camera...

Does anyone else have tips for creating testimonial videos?

Actually I was not talking live customer testimonial videos.

I was talking about amplifying EXISTING reviews by recording them to video.
Sort of a slideshow like above, but much fancier with animation and longer.

Here is one example:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YsGmt2LGsGE?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>​

(Weird, there was music in background, but now it's gone.)

That one is WAY too slow and draggy though. And not as high impact as what I have in mind. There are lots of other psychological triggers that can be plugged in and put to use to make these much more dynamic and memorable.

 

[Garrett Sussman]

I understand now. Very nice video Linda. Thank you for sharing.

Using a video in that context is a great dynamic addition to any site as well. If businesses go that route, I'd recommend utilizing Youtube's (or wistia for that matter) annotations to allow for linking to the Websites/Online Reviews of the testimonials.

Which actually leads me to an interesting question, does anyone know if Youtube annotation links impact SEO for the page that they're embedded on? (I know Annotations help video rankings)