Everyone on the Web has watched a video at some point. YouTube started the craze by offering free video sharing, mainly aimed at consumers. Seeing its power, the business world co-opted video for their own use.
Now IBM uses video to describe how their new servers work. Google uses video to help businesses improve their search rankings. Realtors give video tours of houses for sale. Ecommerce sites use video for product demos. News websites use videos to show and tell. YouTube is full of videos, from funny pets to movie trailers – and, of course, business products.
Does your business use video in your marketing? If not, it may be time to start.
Let’s look at the use of video in marketing and customer service. Some places where it would best help your business serve customers. And how to add video into your marketing strategy for next year.
How Popular is It? Current Statistics for Video
People love to watch videos. Sixty percent prefer watching a video over reading text, according to Forbes. In March 2013 alone, people watched over 39 billion videos online.
No surprise that video has grown to one of the most successful marketing methods on the Web. It’s so popular that video has even become the #1 search property – video results appear in over 63% of all Google search results.
Video also improves your chances of higher search results (
chances of a first-page Google result go up more than 50x!). It passes across social media daily. Posting on YouTube starts discussions leading back to your website. Video even improves email marketing effectiveness.
Essentially,
video is invaluable as a marketing tool. It’s a path to better marketing and higher sales. Depending, of course, on what you feature IN the video.
Where Video Helps: Showing Products and People
What kind of content should a video have? Creativity helps, but so does knowing what your customers want to hear. When it comes to business video online, here are a few ideas for content:
- Showcase the history behind your products or services. Show a product’s manufacturing location, how it’s made, and where it’s sold. Or provide a short background on your company’s history to give it context and demonstrate its standing in your industry.
- Share how your product or service helps customers. Not only do viewers envision a happy customer, they can put themselves in that customer’s shoes.
- Put a face to your services. If you provide a professional service (legal, accounting, or healthcare, for example), demonstrate its process. Show some of your employees and have them talk about the services they provide.
Video is at its most effective when providing:
- Product / service showcases
- Company profiles
- Customer service / how-to guidance
- Announcements for new products or events
Two good things about this: One, every business has information in one or more of these categories.
Two, video can provide a boost to any marketing material you currently have in these categories. Or even act as a replacement.
Why would anyone replace written content with video? One simple fact: Customers who watch a product video and like it are
85% more likely to buy.
Current Video Technology: Easier to Make than a Website, Able to Track Viewership
Doesn’t it take a lot of time and effort (not to mention money) to make professional videos?
That used to be the case, but not anymore. Current video technology allows for faster creation, at affordable price points. Plus, video brings an added bonus we didn’t have until recently: Analytics.
Video Analytics means you can track who’s watching your videos. How long they watch, where they stop, where they came from, and more.
Think of the sales improvements you could make with this kind of customer information.
Add to that software which builds the videos into a specially branded player, displaying your information? And you have video production much more efficient and higher-ROI than it was only a few years ago.
Online production companies like Vidwrx provide these tools. You have the option of building a video yourself on their platform, or ordering video production from local partners.
(Disclosure: PlanetMagpie is a Vidwrx partner.)
Using the cloud, finishing the video and placing it on your website is as easy as uploading files. Then you share the video with your audience, get real feedback on who likes it, and enjoy a
4-7x boost on viewer engagement.
How to Add Video to Your Marketing
Here’s a guide to springboard you into video marketing:
- Examine your current marketing:
- Do you use social media? A video is 3 times more likely to be shared on Twitter than any other content.
- Are your customers mobile? Mobile video users watch videos throughout the day. Every day of the week.
- Consider where videos might tell your story more effectively than text:
- Showcasing your operations
- Demonstrating your product’s superiority over the competition
- Helping customers use your product
- Answering questions about how your services operate
- Try an introductory video to see if customers enjoy it:
- Introduce a product, person or event
- Show viewers around one of your locations
- Then monitor the video’s analytics to find out who liked the video, and who’d want to watch more
Video has become so affordable to produce and share that it’s an easy choice for marketing communications. It’s not advertising – it’s much more, because of its ability to engage your audience. Over and over again.
Video Production is available from
PlanetMagpie's Digital Marketing Services.