It is estimated that around 90% of online shoppers find retailer videos helpful. Add to that the fact that many advertisers are now moving their marketing budgets from TV to online video and, clearly, businesses have a compelling reason to give the web’s stickiest form of content the attention it deserves.
Unfortunately, measuring the effectiveness of video isn’t particularly easy. At times, it’s almost intangible. You create a beautifully-produced online video, place it on your website and watch as the number of visits and average time on site increases. But is the video playing a central role in that engagement? Or is it simply a combination of everything you’re doing with digital marketing?
We’ve got some good news: video absolutely works. What’s more, it can offer a tangible increase in sales. By simply embedding a product or brand video within your website, you’re doing an awful lot more than just giving visitors something to watch.
Here’s how video marketing can help businesses increase sales:
1. They tell stories
People like stories. In fact, they like them so much, they’re willing to hand over their hard earned wage to anyone capable of telling a good one.
Think about it – trips to the cinema and box sets are regularly invested in by consumers because they derive a huge amount of pleasure from watching them. And, while your latest video explainer probably can’t be compared to Breaking Bad, if it tells an engaging story, people are likely to make a positive buying decision once they’ve seen it.
2. They offer instant engagement
Video marketing works best when it’s delivered in short, sharp chunks. No one’s going to sit down and watch a thirty minute piece on your latest product line, but they will watch a thirty second preview of your big, forthcoming update to Product Z. And they’ll wait for its release in the same way they’ll wait for that big summer blockbuster – if you get it right.
Your customers are busy. The brevity offered by online video will enable them to make buying decisions much faster and offer that ‘quick win’ that other forms of marketing often struggle to deliver.
3. They offer a wealth of analytical data
In order for marketing practices to be successful and provide a decent return on investment, you need to understand how they perform. Video offers some of the best analytical information going.
Take YouTube. If you choose to host your videos on that platform, you can take advantage of statistics that show the sources of traffic, the number of views over time and the demographics of viewers.
You’ll quickly build a picture of your audience and how they interact with your video. That’ll enable you to refine the content until it hits the spot with the vast majority of people who stumble across it.
4. Video isn’t just about moving images
It’s easy to forget that video is a form of multimedia in its own right. Sure, it primarily features moving imagery and audio, but with web video you can go an awful lot further.
For example, take annotations, which appear regularly in video marketing. Think of them as interactive pop-ups within the video itself, that enable you to embed clickable links at pertinent points in order to further tempt the viewer to engage with your message and complete the buying journey.
If you pick your moment, a ‘Buy Now’ annotation that links through to the product in question can take advantage of the viewer when they gain that all-important emotional connection with your video.
Online video isn’t just video – it is far richer than that.
5. They’re eminently reusable
Repurposing content is a key tactic in digital marketing and is a great way to leverage more sales. Once you’ve produced a video, it can have a very long shelf life and continue to draw in leads and confirmed orders long after you wrap up shooting.
Continue to share your video on social media and write blog posts that further delve into its content. Think of your video as a call-to-action for such pieces and it almost becomes a ‘buy’ button in its own right.
Wrapping up
If you’re yet to dip your toes into the world of video marketing, it deserves further exploration. Like all forms of digital marketing, it doesn’t matter your industry, products or company persona – video will tell your story and stories, when told correctly, sell.