There are plenty of examples of viral videos in marketing (Old Spice or Geico’s “Hump Day” come to mind), but there are many ways a small business create compelling video as well. This post will outline just a few of the reasons why you should use video in your online marketing and what types of content is best for social videos.
Why Video?
Customers click-through on your emails because of video. Multiple case studies show a large increase in click-throughs for emails that include video versus those that don’t. This means that your customers and prospective customers who read your emails are coming to your site, because of video.
Viewers spend much more time on your site because of video. Cars.com saw an increase from 30 seconds to almost 6 minutes of the average time spent on their site after they revamped their video strategy.
Video gets the decision-maker to take action. 65% of executives have visited a vendor’s website after watching a video. That doesn’t even include the increasing acceptance of watching work-related videos at your desk.
What Should My Video Be About?
Explain — Share what your business does, how your product works, or give a tour of your store. Get a lot of impact in a short amount of time by having a short video describing what you do, and why you’re passionate about it.
Example: Hannah White Photography
Testimonials or Reviews — Do you have a success story of helping out one of your customers? Spend 5 minutes getting that customer’s story on video and putting it on your website. Having honest reviews and testimonials from happy customers give potential customers more reasons to stick around your site and look deeper.
Examples: Dwolla
Behind the Scenes — Already covered on Brand Driven Digital, many companies large and small are using video to provide a look at some of the behind the scenes action taking place on a daily basis. Whether you use Vine, Instagram, or good ol’ YouTube for this, it’s sure to provide a great way for your potential customers to see who you are and get to know you better.
Examples: Wistia
Tutorials — Customers want to know how a product might work before they buy it. Have a video of your product in action. After they buy your product, provide videos showing them different ways of using the product, the various features, and just overall tips to give your customer a better experience with your product.
Examples: Adobe
Quick Recap
Video is a great way to be more “sticky” with your audience. Video gets your customers to your website, gets them to stay on your website longer, and gets the attention of those who can pull the trigger on purchase decisions. Any downfalls? Video does take a bit of planning to figure out the best way to get started. We’ll be writing a follow-up post on the best ways of distributing your video content across the social web. Until then, we hope this post gets you thinking about how video can help you stay more top-of-mind to your customers.
Questions? Comments? Do you use video in your marketing? Share some of your experiences working with video in the comments below!
