With video content, brands can preemptively answer popular customer questions and allow potential customers a sneak peek into day-to-day operations.
Here, Edgy Labs offers you an easy-to-follow guide to creating videos that will reach more prospects, generate more leads, and bolster sales.
You probably already know that video is now the king of all content types. The statistics speak for themselves.
After Google, YouTube is the second most-visited website on the web. Over 80% of Twitter users like to discover, watch, and engage with video content published on the platform. Every day, Snapchat users watch 10 billion videos. On average, videos on Facebook generate 8 billion views each day.
In 2017, about three-quarters of the global web traffic (74%) was accounted for by online video content.
74% of web traffic in #2017 came from online video contentClick To Tweet
Video content raises brand awareness, attracts more leads, and, when done well, encourages increased user engagement. This, in turn, improves visitor-to-customer conversion rates.
Marketing and business professionals have taken note of this: 69% of businesses surveyed by HighQ already use video marketing, and another 31% are planning to do the same.
Whether you have already implemented video content as a marketing tool or are still mulling it over, the steps below will help you realize significant video marketing ROI.
Before we get to the steps, keep this one thing in mind:
It’s not Just ‘Go Viral’ or Bust With Video Content
Of course, you should always try to attain a viral buzz. Just don’t make it your end goal. Why?
First, it’s very hard to achieve viral traffic naturally. Second, it usually doesn’t last for very long when it happens. Lastly, lots of traffic doesn’t always mean lots of new customers.
When viral traffic comes along naturally it’s undoubtedly exciting for your business. If you can build on it, that’s even better. However, basing your whole marketing strategy around one hour of virality is a mistake.
Only 15% of #onlineads go viral #econsultancyClick To Tweet
Going viral is every marketer’s dream, but there is a slim chance that you will achieve it. In fact, only about 15% of marketers experience viral success with their campaigns.
In short, virality is hard to create, manage, and it is even more difficult to predict. Like with many peaks and valleys in engagement, initial excitement over viral content often fades out as quickly as it has sparked.
The most important question regarding viral content for a marketer is: how many viewers of your viral ad will become customers?
Another reason to be apprehensive about virality is that a video, or any kind of content for that matter, might go viral for a different reason than you anticipated.
Nobody likes being the butt of the joke.
Two years ago, Mountain Dew’s Puppy Monkey Baby ad got a viral backlash because most people hated it for being weird and nonsensical. This is a good way to look your new video marketing campaign look and feel like a dud.
But now, let’s get back to our easy-to-follow video marketing steps. These are built around the visitor-to-customer conversion process, as you’ll see below:
1. BEFORE: Hook up With Customers
This is the most critical stage in the purchase process. ‘Before’ videos are videos that give prospective customers an introduction to the business. It’s here that you first interact with prospects–miss it and your whole marketing systems could break.
Videos from this phase have one purpose: communicating with potential future customers to build brand recognition. The ultimate objective is to build long-term customer loyalty by having content for each phase of visitor-to-customer conversion.
Here, the focus should be on videos that promote your brand and invite potential customers to learn more about the products/services you offer.
Read More: 7 Tips on How to Create High-quality, Engaging, Prime Video Content
Video content at this stage, aside from being high quality, engaging, and meaningful, will also have to make use of well-researched keywords and be SEO-optimized in order to reach your target audience.
“BEFORE video content” should impress visitors by visually highlighting the values of the brand and what it brings to the table without too much detail. Make it interesting, but don’t give away the farm just yet.
2. DURING: Cast Your “Video” Converting Nest
Now that your video content is driving traffic, the focus should be on producing high-value video content that speaks to the most popular questions new customers have about your product or service.
Videos should provide potential customers with all the information that help them make up their mind in the purchase decision-making process.
Try to answer questions that you get from 80% of your existing customers. It’s highly likely that potential customers also have these questions.
Read More: How to Make Your Content Stand Out
This is where your videos should go into detail about the range of your products/services, showcasing their value, and what clients who’ve tried them may have to say about them (like testimonial videos).
In this phase, videos can, and should, give prospects the urge to sign up, to commit, and to act. You can do this by referring them to a landing page designed to be highly engaging.
3. AFTER: Think Sustainability
Nothing is better than a returning customer. Except, of course, for a returning customer that brings referrals with him or her.
This stage comes after customers have already committed to purchasing your product or service at least one. Nevertheless, cultivating these customers even after a sale is crucial to your business’s long-term stability.
Taking the concept of sustainability and integrating it into your marketing strategy means building upon enthusiasm. As a possibly unforeseen benefit, your staff will enjoy working with satisfied, highly-engaged customers. This is all to ensure ongoing growth of the business.
Read More: How to Use Instagram Videos for Your Business
To put it simply, video content at this stage is produced and optimized with the intent of developing long-term customer loyalty.
Let your videos go beyond the pure commercial aspect, and show how your brand can bring a community together around the same interests and values.
A good way to do this is to film a “Meet the Staff” video, where you introduce your staff members and briefly explain why you value their skills. Your staff might argue that their on-screen skills are no good, but with a little encouragement, they might surprise you and them.
Videos should be produced to help build a lasting relationship with customers and give them the desire to come back regularly.