A Guide to Customer Testimonial Videos
Harness the Power of Authentic Customer Stories
What is a Video Testimonial?
A video testimonial is a dynamic way to showcase a former or existing satisfied customer’s experience with your product, service, or brand. Unlike written testimonials, video testimonials enhance credibility, improve engagement, and help potential buyers connect on a deeper, more emotional level with your satisfied customers.
The Importance of Customer Testimonials
In today’s market, customer testimonials are crucial for building trust and credibility. They serve as social proof that your product or service delivers on its promises, helping potential buyers imagine themselves as satisfied customers. Research shows that 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, making video testimonials a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal.
Why Video Testimonials Are More Effective
Video testimonials are not just a step up from written ones; they are a leap forward. They allow prospects to put a face to a name, see the passion of your customers, and feel a connection that written words alone cannot achieve. This emotional bond is vital in a world where trust is scarce and consumers are bombarded with choices.
Best Practices for Video Testimonials
Creating effective video testimonials involves more than just recording a happy customer. They should:
- Speak to Your Target Audience: Ensure the customer in the video resonates with your target prospects.
- Be In-Depth and Detailed: Specifics matter in building authenticity and demonstrating real-world effectiveness.
- Focus on Customers as Heroes: The story should be about the customer’s journey, not just your product features.
- Maintain Credibility: Authentic enthusiasm is key; avoid scripted or fake testimonials.
- Overcome Objections: A satisfied customer’s story can be more persuasive than any sales pitch.
Length and Diversity of Testimonials
The ideal length of a video testimonial can vary. While shorter videos (90-120 seconds) are common, more detailed testimonials can run longer, especially when they are used at the bottom of the marketing funnel. It’s also important to feature a diverse range of customers to represent different industries and customer personas.
Strategy and Planning
A successful video testimonial campaign requires a clear strategy. Determine what you want to accomplish, who your audience is, and how the videos will be used. This planning ensures that your testimonials are targeted, relevant, and effective.
Using Customer Testimonials
Testimonials can be strategically placed on your website, used in marketing campaigns, and incorporated into sales efforts. They are particularly effective on landing pages, social media, and in ad campaigns, where they can significantly boost engagement and conversion rates.
The Hero’s Journey in Testimonials
Embrace the narrative arc of the Hero’s Journey in your testimonials. This approach allows your audience to engage with the story of your successful customers, seeing your brand as the guide that helped them overcome challenges and achieve their goals.
Selecting the Right Customers for Testimonials
Choose customers who represent the segments of your audience you want to appeal to and whose stories align with your marketing objectives. The diversity of your customer base should be reflected in your testimonials to ensure relevance and effectiveness.
Final Thoughts
Video testimonials are a high-value asset in your marketing and sales toolkit. They build trust, overcome objections, and create a deep connection with your audience. By following these guidelines, you can harness the power of authentic customer stories to elevate your brand and drive growth.
Ready to Elevate Your Brand with Authentic Customer Stories?
Discover the transformative power of video testimonials with Reach Video. Our expertise in crafting compelling, genuine customer narratives can significantly boost your brand's trust and credibility. Don't miss out on the opportunity to connect deeply with your audience through the persuasive power of real experiences.
See how Our Customer Testimonial Video Service works and take the first step in turning prospects into loyal customers.
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How to Win with Video in 2024
Create a Video Marketing Strategy for Your Business
Introduction
You know you need to make videos for your business, but the real challenge lies in deciding what videos to make and what to do with them once they're created. In 2024, the right strategy is more crucial than ever. With digital channels like YouTube, Facebook and TikTok dominating the online landscape, the way people consume video content has evolved rapidly. These platforms have become integral to how we connect, learn and make purchasing decisions.
The need for video in your marketing strategy is undeniable. As we navigate through 2024, these digital channels continue to be at the forefront of consumer engagement. The sheer volume of content being consumed through these platforms is staggering, and brands that aren't keeping pace are finding themselves at a significant disadvantage. Without a proper strategy, staying relevant and visible in this fast-paced digital world is increasingly challenging.
A well-defined video strategy, or your systematic plan to use branded video to drive more business, is essential. It's not just about creating and distributing content; it's about crafting a narrative that resonates with your audience, aligns with your business goals, and leverages the right platforms for maximum impact. Our Video Strategy Roadmap is your guide to navigating the complexities of digital media, using it to build lasting connections and turning viewers into loyal customers.
Understanding Your Audience
Knowing your audience is the cornerstone of any effective video marketing strategy. It's essential to delve deep into who your ideal customers are – their backgrounds, goals, challenges and preferences. This understanding will shape the type of content you create, ensuring it resonates with the people you want to reach. Consider developing detailed customer personas to guide your video content creation, making it more targeted and relevant.
Setting Clear Goals
Define what you want to achieve with your video content. Are you looking to increase brand awareness, drive sales, or educate your audience about your products or services? Your goals should align with your overall marketing strategy and be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART). This clarity will help in crafting content that directly contributes to your business objectives.
The benefits of video marketing are significant, including increased ROI, boosted website traffic, enhanced engagement, improved email click-through rates and a higher chance of ranking on the first page of search engines like Google.
Crafting Your Message
Your video's message should be clear, concise, and compelling. It should reflect your brand's values and speak directly to your audience's needs and desires. Whether you're telling a brand story, explaining a product, or sharing customer testimonials, the message should be consistent across all your videos and aligned with your overall brand narrative.
Choosing the Right Distribution Platforms
Different platforms cater to different audiences and content types. YouTube might be ideal for longer, more detailed content, while Instagram or TikTok could be better for shorter, more visually engaging videos. Consider where your target audience spends their time and how they prefer to consume video content. This will influence not only where you post your videos but also the style and length of your content.
Video Content Optimisation
Optimising your video for both search engines and social media platforms is crucial. This includes using the right keywords, creating engaging thumbnails, and ensuring your videos are mobile-friendly. Also, consider the viewing habits on each platform – for instance, adding captions for viewers who watch without sound on social media.
Measuring Success
Track and analyse your video's performance using key metrics like view count, engagement rate, watch time, and conversion rate. This data will help you understand what works and what doesn't, allowing you to refine your strategy over time. Pay attention to viewer feedback and comments for qualitative insights.
Types of Videos to Consider
Depending on your goals and audience, different types of videos may be more effective. Educational videos can help explain complex products or services, while behind-the-scenes content can humanise your brand and build trust. Product demos, customer testimonials and thought leadership videos can also be powerful tools in your video marketing arsenal.
Conclusion
Video marketing in 2024 is about much more than just creating content; it's about creating the right content for the right audience and delivering it through the most effective channels. By understanding your audience, setting clear goals, crafting a compelling message, optimising your content, measuring success and choosing the right types of videos, you can create a video marketing strategy that not only reaches but engages and converts your target audience.
Ready to navigate the world of video with confidence? We can help you create a strategic video roadmap that not only guides your video content but also integrates seamlessly with your broader marketing and communication efforts.
Book your free, no obligation call now → reachvideo.co.uk/book/
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Measuring Video ROI
The Ultimate Guide for Marketers
https://youtu.be/5nkP_q9CvrI
In today's digital landscape, video content has become an integral part of every marketer's toolkit. However, to truly understand the impact and success of your video marketing efforts, you need concrete evidence in the form of Return on Investment (ROI). Measuring the ROI of video content allows you to gauge its effectiveness, make data-driven decisions, and optimise your strategy for tangible results. In this article, we’ll explore various methods and tools for accurately measuring the ROI of video content, providing you with the key insights you need to drive success.
Define Clear Objectives and Goals:
Before embarking on any video marketing initiative, it’s essential to define clear objectives that are aligned with your overall marketing goals. By having a well-defined purpose for each video, you can ensure that every penny invested serves that specific purpose.
Are you aiming to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, generate leads, or boost conversions for example?
When you are clear on the objectives, you'll be able to search for precise indicators that tell you how successful you have been at achieving those objectives.
Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
Both a benefit and a challenge in video marketing are the high amount of varying metrics that can be gathered around your content. With online video content, you can measure everything from views, watch time, Engagement Metrics, such as likes, comments, and shares, click-through-rate and even audience demographics such as age, gender, location, or interests.
It is important, therefore to identify the 'metrics that matter' for each video. To put it simply, if your goal for the content was to increase brand awareness within a particular market demographic, then the metrics should be focused on ensuring that the ‘right eyeballs’ viewed your content. Conversely, if your goal was to convert more website visitors into paying customers, you should pay attention to click-throughs and the monetary value you sold.
By monitoring these KPIs, you can evaluate the performance of your videos throughout the customer journey and gain valuable insights into their effectiveness.
Leverage Analytics Platforms:
Analytics platforms dedicated to video content provide invaluable data insights that can simplify and enhance your ROI measurement efforts. Platforms like YouTube Analytics, Wistia, or Vimeo offer robust analytics tools to track views, watch time, audience demographics, and engagement patterns. Leveraging these platforms allows you to dive deeper into user behaviour, identify trends, and optimise your video strategy accordingly.
Implement UTM Parameters and Conversion Tracking:
To accurately attribute conversions to your video content, consider implementing UTM parameters and conversion tracking. UTM parameters are special pieces of text added to your website's URL. They help you keep track of where your website visitors are coming from and which marketing campaigns they are associated with. This allows you to monitor the performance of your marketing efforts, such as click-through rates and the effectiveness of different channels and strategies. By using UTM parameters, analytics platforms can capture this data and provide valuable insights into the success of your video content. By linking conversions to specific videos, you can gain a clearer understanding of how your videos are influencing customer actions and ultimately determine your video's return on investment.
Conduct A/B Testing:
A/B testing is a powerful technique for measuring the impact of different variables within your video content. Create slightly differing versions of a video to test elements like video length, thumbnails, calls to action, or even the video's narrative approach. By comparing the performance of the different versions, you can identify what resonates best with your audience and optimise your videos for maximum ROI.
Gather Audience Feedback:
Direct feedback from your audience is invaluable for measuring the success of your video content. Conduct surveys, collect qualitative feedback, or monitor social media comments to gauge the impact of your videos on brand perception, purchase intent, or customer satisfaction. This qualitative data provides valuable insights that complement quantitative metrics, helping you refine your video content strategy based on audience preferences and needs.
Conclusion:
Measuring the ROI of video content is paramount for marketers looking to demonstrate the value and success of their video marketing efforts. By defining clear goals, tracking relevant KPIs, leveraging analytics platforms, implementing conversion tracking, conducting A/B testing, and gathering audience feedback, you can accurately measure and optimise the ROI of your video content. The data-driven insights gained through these methods and tools will empower you to make informed decisions, drive tangible results, and elevate the impact of your video marketing campaigns.
If you need any help with accurately measuring the ROI of your video content or any other aspect of video content production then please get in touch. It's what we’re here for.
Maximise Your Video Investment
Overcome Cost Concerns
https://youtu.be/EMSkSTRPMng
As a marketing professional, you understand the importance of video in today's landscape. Consumers expect video content when making decisions about working with a company or purchasing a product. However, concerns about the cost of producing video content often linger, causing hesitation in fully embracing this powerful medium. While producing videos can be more expensive compared to other forms of content, it's essential to evaluate the return on investment (ROI) rather than focusing solely on initial costs. Quality video content can serve as valuable business assets for years, providing a positive ROI when executed correctly. In this article, I’ll explore practical strategies to help you overcome cost concerns and maximise your video investment.
Options for Any Budget:
Regardless of your budget, there are options available to create effective video content. If you're on a tight budget, you can still produce compelling videos using your smartphone or webcam along with free editing software. For those with a slightly larger budget, consider hiring freelancers for filming or editing, or partnering with a video production company for end-to-end project execution. It's important to note that creating video content is becoming more affordable every day, even for professional-quality content. The key is to find the sweet spot that works for your business, keeping in mind that video is the most effective marketing tool for driving revenue.
Be Realistic and Clever with Your Budget:
When considering your budget, it's crucial to be realistic about what you can afford and find clever ways to maximise its impact. If your budget is limited, simplify your videos for now and focus on core elements that align with your goals. You can also consider a half-and-half approach, where you shoot content internally and outsource the editing or leverage specialised skills and high-end technology through outsourcing. However, it's important to remember that not all video content should be DIY. While viewers may forgive lower production quality in live videos, pre-recorded content is expected to be more polished. Statistics show that consumers have a negative perception of brands that publish poor-quality videos.
Advantages of Professional Production:
Professional video production offers numerous advantages that contribute to its value. Professionals have the expertise to effectively use video production equipment and understand the necessary steps and processes to achieve the desired results. They can also repurpose and reuse video content across various platforms, maximising its mileage. Video, when used as part of an effective strategy, engages viewers directly and has a high potential for conversion. The expertise and experience of professionals contribute to videos that bring in more revenue than they cost.
Determine Goals and Create a Content Plan:
Before allocating your budget, clearly define your goals and align them with your video content strategy. Whether it's increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or driving sales, knowing your objectives will help you allocate resources effectively. Create a content plan that outlines the types of videos, their frequency, and the platforms you will use. This plan will guide your budget allocation decisions and ensure consistency and purpose in your video production.
Prioritise and Measure Results:
Not all video content carries equal weight. Prioritise the types of videos that will have the most impact on your goals. For example, if lead generation is a priority, focus on creating explainer videos or product demos. Additionally, measure the results of your video content through analytics. Track engagement, views, and conversions to identify the videos that are delivering the most impact. Adjust your budget allocation based on these insights, ensuring you optimise your video investment.
Conclusion:
Overcoming cost concerns in video marketing requires a strategic approach and a clear focus on maximising ROI. By being realistic with your budget, exploring options at various price points, and prioritising your goals, you can make the most of your video investment. Whether you choose to create content internally, outsource certain tasks, or invest in professional production, remember that video remains one of the most powerful marketing tools available. By allocating your budget effectively and measuring results, you can harness the impact of video content and achieve your marketing objectives.
Ready to maximise your video investment and take your marketing to new heights? Contact us today to discuss your video production needs. Our team of professionals is ready to help you create high-quality, engaging video content that drives results. Don't let cost concerns hold you back – let us show you how to make the most of your budget and achieve your marketing goals.
How to use video content throughout the 'customer journey'
Attract, nurture, sell to and retain your perfect customer with strategic video content.
https://youtu.be/vqid6uFHgLA
If you plan to add video content to your marketing mix, then it’s important to understand and plot out the customer journey. This is the "journey" that your prospective customer will go on as they first become aware of and then eventually buy from you.
This information will help you understand what motivates and resonates with your audience, as well as pinpoint gaps or problems in your sales funnel. You can then begin to create videos for your business that serve a specific purpose and produce tangible results such as more enquiries, more sales or longer client retention.
An Overview of the customer journey
Look at any business and you can broadly say that its customers will go through four key stages on the journey from first hearing about it to becoming a loyal brand ambassador who’s keen to tell other people about their purchase.
These phases are:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversion
- Advocacy
I’ll be talking about these stages in more detail below and I'll reveal what type of video content works well for each phase.
Should you use video content during every stage of the customer journey?
Video marketing can be effective at any stage in the customer journey. However, it’s important that you create videos that serve a purpose within your business and resonate with your customers.
The truth is that videos are everywhere, thanks in no small part to the cameras on our smartphones. But so much of the video content out there is average, adding to the noise of social media instead of cutting through it.
A video that’s created for video’s sake, without having something genuine to say to a targeted audience, will do nothing for your business.
For this reason, your video content needs to be supported by a carefully planned video marketing strategy.
The answers to these questions will inform your content requirements:
- What do you need your video content to achieve?
- Where along your ideal customer’s journey could you use video content most effectively?
- What areas of your marketing and customer engagement funnel need improvement and where are the gaps that could potentially be filled by effective online video content?
For example, if you need more ‘cold’ audiences to be aware of your business and what you sell, then your video content would focus on building brand awareness.
But if people are dropping off after visiting your website or making an initial enquiry, you will want video content that reflects their brand awareness but breaks down the barriers to buying instead.
Assess Your Needs
Use our free Marketing Needs Analysis tool to get you thinking about where your business is at right now.
Rate your current marketing levels of engagement and effectiveness at different stages along the customer journey and receive a visual representation to quickly identify the key areas to focus on within an effective video marketing strategy.
To perform a Marketing Needs Analysis for your business, simply click here.
Awareness - Stage one of the customer journey (Brand positioning)
Every journey has to start somewhere. The Awareness stage of the customer journey is when someone hears about your business for the first time.
During this stage, they begin to build up a sense that you may offer a product or service that they need.
This Awareness phase usually starts with some kind of emotional trigger or realisation in the potential customer. It could be that they’re facing a problem or that there’s something that they aspire to in order to enrich their lives in some way.
How should you use video content during the Awareness stage?
Your biggest goal for any videos in this stage is getting eyeballs on them. This will usually mean posting content on the platforms that you know your customers use.
You’ll need to catch your audience’s attention, especially if they’re scrolling down a social media timeline the first time they see your video - think dynamic movement and creating interest rather than static shots and in-depth interviews.
People buy with emotion and then justify their purchase with logic, so Awareness videos are about encouraging people to connect emotionally with your company. You must do this before asking them to buy.
Overview and company culture videos work well here.
Tell the story of your business and why you do what you do. Show potential customers that you have the answers they need and that you understand them. Give an overview of your products and services. This is your chance to introduce your brand.
You should also include a call to action. This could be asking viewers to download a free guide, enter a competition or sign up to a webinar. Again, the action will depend on your overall marketing strategy.
Tracking Awareness-stage videos
Videos aimed at raising brand awareness aren’t always as easy to track as videos used in other stages of the sales pipeline in terms of who watched and later became a customer.
They’re still worth creating though because they initiate that all-important connection and begin positioning your brand in the viewer’s mind as trustworthy and authoritative.
Consideration - Stage two of the customer journey (Social engagement)
During stage two of the customer journey, the buyer knows that they have a need for what you offer.
They start to collect information, weighing up their options and comparing the different choices to decide which product, service or business would best meet their needs.
How could you use video content during the Consideration stage?
The main goals of marketing videos aimed at the Consideration stage are social engagement, education and relationship building.
You want people to come on a journey with your business and strengthen the emotional connection they felt during the Awareness stage. It’s also crucial to build trust and show that you’re a safe bet for anyone making a purchase.
Your videos during this stage should focus on giving people the information they need in order to make a buying decision.
This could mean answering FAQs, creating explainer videos, product demonstrations, service walkthroughs or how-to guides.
Create video content that offers genuine value to your audience, even if they decide it isn’t the right time to make a purchase.
Ideally, viewers should think, “If I get this much value now, imagine how much more I’ll get when I’m a customer”.
You’ll probably want to use your primary social media channels for this stage.
While paid advertising is an option, it’s worth bearing in mind that it can rush people through the customer journey, skipping over that all-important emotional connection. An organic strategy will give you the time to build up trust.
Conversion - Stage three of the customer journey (Purchase)
This is the stage of the journey that, when successful, converts a lead into a paying customer.
But in order to achieve this milestone, you might have to help your potential customers overcome some final barriers that are holding them back from buying.
Do you know what these barriers are for your business?
Are people worried about the price, convenience, time commitment, ease of use, accessibility or level of service, for example?
The biggest challenge for businesses during this stage is recognising the barriers to buying and coming up with rational ways to address these concerns.
Get that right and you should see your sales rocket.
How can you use video content during the Conversion stage?
Client onboarding videos work well during this stage of the customer journey.
These videos are aimed at people who have already made an enquiry. They give further insight into what it’s like to be a customer or what you can expect once you’ve made a purchase.
This might include answering FAQs or showing how you support customers in common scenarios.
Many businesses use video to cover the kind of information that might be included in a sales call or face-to-face consultation.
This can save the sales team significant amounts of time, leap-frogging potential customers from an initial enquiry to the point of purchase.
Client case studies are also effective at this stage because they can cover the tangible outcomes and benefits of using a product or service rather than focusing on the emotional experience offered at the top of the sales funnel.
Tracking Conversion-stage videos
Your audience at this stage will typically have made an enquiry or signed up to your mailing list, meaning your videos might go directly to them via email.
Be sure to track the number of views and watch time. Is there a particular point in a video where the viewers drop off? This could be a sign that you need to adjust the sales conversation.
Advocacy/loyalty – Stage four of the customer journey (Delight & retain)
The moment of purchase is far from the end of the customer journey.
The final stage of Advocacy and Loyalty can continue indefinitely, turning a first-time buyer into a long-term fan of your brand.
Stats show that repeat customers are more profitable for a business than trying to convert new customers all the time. It’s said that average conversion rates for first-time customers sit somewhere between one and three per cent, whereas a repeat customer has a 60-70% chance of converting.
Not only do repeat customers convert more often, but they also spend more per order than a first-time buyer.
For this reason, it’s critical that you don’t let a customer go after their purchase.
You want them to be so pleased with their purchase that they’re happy to buy from you again and they’re happy to tell other people about their experience.
How can you use video content during the Conversion stage?
Try to identify different post-purchase touchpoints – these will depend on your business and what it is that the customer has bought.
You might want to send a personalised video message welcoming the customer to your business and thanking them for their purchase.
This works particularly well for companies that offer online programmes, courses or services because it assures the buyer that they’re in the right place and that you’re interested in them after they’ve parted with their money and not just before.
You could offer a welcome tour, an orientation video, content about what to do next, or videos about related products or services that can ‘level up’ their purchase.
Whatever format you choose, Advocacy-stage videos are all about preventing buyer’s remorse. Think about how you can improve the customer experience, build long-lasting customer relationships and encourage referrals.
Also, if someone remains on your mailing list after buying, think about how you can stay in touch with them. You might want to create videos targeted at past customers too.
The right content at the right time
As we’ve seen above, mapping the customer journey is an essential step towards providing your audiences with the right video content at the right time.
People have different concerns at different stages. Video can be a powerful tool to let your customers know that you’re there by their side, seeing and understanding them at every touchpoint.
Developing a strategy for using video in your marketing mix can be confusing if you haven’t worked extensively with video before.
If you want to make video a profitable part of your business, it’s important that you have a video marketing strategy that extends beyond your normal digital marketing or content marketing strategy and maximises the impact of the videos you get produced.
Don’t know exactly what you need?
Get in touch for some free advice and discover:
- What videos will have the greatest impact on your bottom line
- The best way to have your videos produced, based on your needs and budget
- The video marketing channels that will deliver the greatest reach and engagement for your brand
7 Video Production myths that are harming your business growth
Believing these 7 myths about video production are keeping you from growing.
Are you still on the fence about video production and whether video content would be a worthwhile addition to your business marketing?
Many businesses hold back because of one or more of the enduring myths about video production. In most cases, these myths hark back to when making video was far more expensive, time-consuming, and less widely used than it is today.
Stay with us as we do some myth busting!
Myth #1: Quality video content and production is too expensive
This myth is probably the one we hear most often: Producing professional video content is just too expensive.
While this might have been the case in the past, it’s certainly not true anymore.
Yes, producing video can be more expensive than other types of media but it needs to be compared on the basis of the revenue returned rather than the initial costs. Quality video content can be used for many years and should more than return your costs in revenue.
Stats show that including a video on your landing page can increase your conversion rates by 80%. In email marketing, videos can boost open rates by 19% and click-through rates by 65%. Embedding videos on your website will also boost your Google ranking so that you’re more likely to show up on the first page of results.
There are options for any budget
If you’re on a super tight budget, you can still make an effective video yourself using your phone or webcam and free editing software.
If you have a little more to spend and you want to increase the quality and quantity of your video production, you could hire a freelancer to film or edit, or work with a video production company to hand off the whole project. This doesn’t need to break the bank.
Making video content is getting cheaper every day. Even for video production companies making professional-quality content, the cost is nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands that it used to take to create branded content.
There’s no sweet spot when it comes to the cost of your perfect video; it’s all down to what works for your business. But what everyone can agree on – and the stats speak for themselves – video is the most effective marketing tool to drive revenue.
Our advice:
Be realistic about what you can afford and look at clever ways to get the most out of your budget. If you want a video with many people involved, several days of filming and complicated post-production, this will inevitably cost more. If your budget is limited, you may need to simplify your videos for now.
Creating content internally is an affordable option – you can always outsource for specialist skills and high-end tech or try for a half-half approach where you shoot content internally and outsource the editing.
Just remember that not all video content should be DIY. While people may forgive poor production on a Facebook Live video, for example, they will expect something more polished from pre-recorded content. Stats show that 62% of consumers are more likely to have a negative perception of brands that publish poor-quality video.
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur”
Red Adair
The advantages of professionally produced video
Professional video production means working with individuals who know how to use video production equipment to the best effect. They also know which steps have to be done and in what order to achieve the results that you want.
Video Production Professionals also understand how to repackage and reuse your video content across various different platforms, extracting as much mileage as possible from every frame of footage. One video can pay for itself many times over.
Video remains one of the types of marketing media with the highest levels of engagement and conversion, as it is able to connect directly with viewers. Properly used as part of an effective strategy, video production will bring in more money than it costs.
Myth #2: Videos wouldn’t work for my business
Many businesses, particularly smaller brands, believe that video won’t work for them. However, in today’s digital age, EVERY business can benefit from video content.
Increased conversions, more dwell time on websites, higher SEO rankings, and, most importantly, great content for an audience in a format that they’re likely to enjoy are just a few of the positives.
If any of those outcomes sound like they would help your business, then video content is for you.
You may have to think creatively when it comes to the type of video you make, but with all the different video styles at your disposal, something is bound to resonate.
Before we move on, it’s worth looking at some of the biggest reasons that people believe videos won’t work for their business – do any of them strike a chord?
- I don’t have any video ideas/creativity’s not our thing
It can be challenging to come up with an idea that you know is worth executing, especially if you’re new to video marketing.
My first recommendation would be to write down every idea you have, even if you think it’s a no-go. The process of brainstorming will help you clarify your thoughts and might spark other ideas in the process.
Remember, you know your brand and your customers better than anyone and that’s invaluable. With your insights, you can be specific about the tone, messaging and purpose of your video.
Get online and find videos that you like. YouTube is a great resource and it’s always easier to get a clearer idea of costs if you know exactly what you want your video to be like.
Check out what your competitors are doing well and badly. Brainstorm with your team, your boss, your friends, and your family (anyone who knows your brand) and be open to their suggestions. They may come up with an angle that you haven’t considered.
Even if you’re struggling to come up with creative concepts, all of the above is information that you can include in a brief to a video production company to tap into their creativity.
Our advice:
Your first video will probably be the hardest to make, simply because it’s new territory. Give it a go though and you’ll find your customers like it and like you more.
And whether you’re making a video in–house or briefing an external creator, get involved in the video creation process to ensure that the video is on brand and you’re getting the biggest bang for your company bucks.
Working with a video production company can be a no-brainer if you struggle with creativity. Video professionals will be able to come up with a great concept and flesh out the ideas into a script and storyboard before bringing it to life in production.
- My business is too small for video
This is another reason that many businesses decide video wouldn’t work for them.
They believe video is only for big companies with big advertising budgets.
In the days of big-screen advertising, it’s true that only the wealthiest of brands could afford video. But advances in technology and the growth of the digital world mean that video marketing has opened up to every business.
Our advice:
It’s not your company size that limits your video creation but your intention and desire. All you need to do is start.
- Videos only work short-term
Many businesses see videos as having a short lifespan in marketing terms. While a news update video might only be current for a few days, most other videos have value for much longer.
A good brand identity video, for example, can last for years. In fact, a lot of videos — especially those strategically posted on social media — will continuously build momentum.
Our advice:
Talk to a video production company about the best way to create evergreen video content or how to create different video types from one shoot. You could, for instance, pull short testimonials out of a larger case study or brand video.
Myth #3: Professional video content is too time-consuming
Most of us are time-poor these days, so you may be worried that creating videos is too time-consuming to be worthwhile.
In the past, video production often did take a long time because there simply weren’t any of the sophisticated apps and tools that are available today. Things are different now, especially in the hands of an experienced video professional.
And let’s not forget that you can get a surprising amount of mileage out of each video you create. Allocate the time and resources now and it will keep paying you back in dividends.
A single piece of video can be repurposed into multiple pieces of content for the web, social media, blogs, editorial, for live events or internal coms, for HR and recruitment, or for customer service and sales reports.
Our advice:
With so many tools available, an experienced company can help you to speed up the video production process.
Editing tends to be the biggest time-suck, so if your budget is limited and you’re only going to outsource one thing to save time then make it this.
Depending on the complexity of your requirements, most videos can now be completed within a few days to a couple of weeks.
That being said, a video takes as long to produce as it has to. A complex video, such as an important commercial, may take a few weeks to plan and shoot. A short explainer video or product video, on the other hand, may be able to be completed within a day.
Video production doesn’t have to take a long time to produce as a general rule. Hiring actors, writing scripts, and researching locations are tasks that will often take a long time. Even these tasks can be streamlined by a professional video production company.
Myth #4: To be successful with video you need a lot of views
There’s an enduring myth that the number of views is the best way to rate the success of a video.
While a high number of views is great, and it can let you know how many people are watching your video, one thing this metric doesn’t tell you is the number of people that are interested in the product or service that the video is promoting.
More sophisticated marketing methods and apps should be used to determine what the viewer does AFTER watching the video.
Do most of them simply click out and do something else? Do some of them do an internet search about the product or service? How many actually visit the website of the product or service being promoted by the video?
The answers to these questions can be much more effective at rating the success of a promotional video.
Our advice:
You may believe that a video has to go viral to be deemed ‘successful’, but the reality is that very few videos achieve viral fame.
The most important thing is that your video content appeals to your brand’s target audience; you can confirm this by tracking the metrics that matter.
If a video goes viral, that’s great, but it shouldn’t be your benchmark for success.
Viral videos usually happen by chance – they capture a mood and get shared by the right people at the right time. There’s no magic formula.
Our advice is to make something that your audience will enjoy; the engagement will be worthwhile in terms of customers and sales, even if you don’t generate traffic in the millions.
Myth #5: For video content, the shorter the better
This enduring myth feeds – and is fed by – most of the other myths on this list. Brands often believe that shorter videos will be easier to produce in-house, cost less and, therefore, offer better value.
These days though, shorter isn’t necessarily better.
As consumers, we’re used to online streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, bringing us long-form content on demand. It’s the norm to watch longer videos on mobile devices, as a result.
Both Instagram and Facebook offer long-form content platforms (IGTV and Facebook Watch respectively) – the latter reports that videos over 90 seconds in duration receive nearly 79% more shares and roughly 74% more views than shorter videos.
The reality today is that long-form video has its place and is well received when it’s targeted to the right audience for the right reasons.
On other occasions, short, snappy videos may be more appropriate.
Our advice:
A video should be as long as it needs to be to serve its purpose.
While a testimonial video or product promo might be less than 30 seconds long, a video telling your brand story or providing a product walkthrough would probably need to be longer.
Your decisions should be based on your goals and the way in which you want to use video to connect with your customers.
Myth #6: Using video to promote a business means making a commercial
You may be holding back from using video in your business because you believe that the best/only profitable approach is to create a commercial.
Although this might have been true in the past, it’s certainly not true anymore.
Thanks to on-demand video services or the ability to record our favourite programmes on cable/satellite, most of us are used to skipping through the adverts. Even on YouTube, where you are required to watch ads to a certain extent, approximately 65% of people hit the ‘Skip ad’ option as soon as it appears (a figure that rises to 84% of smartphone viewers).
Therefore, it makes sense to look beyond traditional commercials or digital ads to other types of video.
For example, you could make a virtual tour video that shows off your office space or a how-to video that teaches your customers how to use your product. You could film behind-the-scenes videos or record some face-to-face testimonials.
Our advice:
There is a huge variety of video options for you to use to grow your business. You no longer have to use one video to do it all.
The best approach is to consider the journey your customers go on from hearing about your business until after they’ve made a purchase, then create videos that speak to the crucial points in that journey.
You’ll want to think about how a video will be used. Will it appear on the Home page of your website? Do you want to share it on Facebook or send it via email to people on your mailing list?
The possibilities are endless and extend well beyond commercials.
Myth #7: Producing video content is all there is to video marketing
Do you remember the famous line from the Kevin Costner film, Field of Dreams, where a mysterious voice told him, “If you build it, he will come”?
Well, many businesses still believe that if they create a video, the audience will watch, as though the process begins and ends with video production.
What many seem to forget is making the content is just part of the process. A critical step in an effective video marketing strategy is deciding what you do with your video after you’ve created it.
- Which platforms will you distribute your video to?
- How will you optimise your video for these platforms and your intended audience?
- Which metrics will you use to track the effectiveness of your video in achieving the desired results?
These are all incredibly important questions. The answers to these will help form an effective video marketing strategy that you need to plan before you start filming.
Our advice:
Ideally, you should think about how you plan to distribute a video before it’s produced. This is because the platforms you use can have a direct bearing on the length, style, approach and format of your video.
If a video isn’t properly distributed, it won’t be able to achieve the best possible ROI. Much of video marketing lies in effectively utilising the video once it has been created and the best video production companies double as video marketing experts too.
Conclusions
As we’ve seen, many of the myths surrounding video production are undeserved. In reality, video has many benefits from growing brand awareness to skyrocketing conversions and email clickthrough rates.
You don’t need to spend an exorbitant amount of money on video production and there are options for every budget. In addition, you can use a video in multiple ways and share it through multiple channels, which is more diversified and far-reaching than ever before.
A professional video production company can help walk you through the process or manage it on your behalf. While this requires more of an investment than going it alone, the payoff is high-quality, engaging videos that are carefully targeted to your audience.
Professionally produced videos pay for themselves many times over.
10 common mistakes with corporate videos and how to avoid them
Simple fixes for your online video content to set you up for success.
Could you be making one or more common mistakes with your corporate videos?
More and more businesses are producing and sharing online video content. Unfortunately, that also means more businesses are making the same common mistakes that are preventing them from realising the full potential of video marketing.
The good news is, in most cases, there are simple fixes that can be made to set you up for success with video.
Here are 10 common mistakes with corporate video and how to avoid them:
1. Not having a clear strategy
If you’re a regular reader of the blog then you’ll know why a Video Strategy is essential in effective video production. Before creating content, you need to understand what it is that you want the video to do. What action you want your audience to take, how you want them to feel and what you want them to think?
Take the time to create a video strategy that considers your overall business goals and identifies your target audience. These first two critical steps will combine to inform your content and your methods for distribution. Then, by tracking the metrics that matter, you will build a deeper understanding of your audience and how you could use video even more effectively in the future.
2. Selling too hard
Video marketing is an entire waste of time if it doesn’t ultimately result in increased sales for your business. However, sometimes businesses go for the sale too soon. This can be a hard watch for the audience.
Yes, people are savvy enough to know that they’re being sold too but they don’t need to feel like they’re watching a corporate pitch.
Instead, concentrate on ways that you can offer helpful, genuinely valuable video content to your audience. People want to feel that you’re talking directly to them and that you have their needs at heart.
This is why storytelling is so important in video. Ideally, the customer should always feel like the hero of the piece, with your business at their side as a wise guide or mentor.
The two most popular video content types on YouTube are product reviews and how-to videos. This serves to illustrate that the most-watched videos are the ones that offer real value by helping and guiding their audience.
3. Not focusing on a single message
Think one video = one purpose.
In wanting to maximise the results from each new video, many companies make the mistake of creating a corporate video that’s too generic so that they can use it in as many ways as possible. They want their videos to raise brand awareness, sell products, boost social media following, recruit new staff, and more.
But this approach can really dilute the impact of the video. The audience can’t tell who it’s aimed at or what they need to do after watching, which is a surefire way to make people switch off.
Your audience wants to feel a connection. One of the strongest ways to achieve this is by having a single, clear message in each video that you produce.
4. No call to action
Following on from the previous point, every video should have a clear call to action that reflects the core message and purpose of the video.
A truth of human behaviour is that, when it comes to engaging with marketing, we like to be told what to do next. If your video doesn’t have a call to action (and a lot don’t), you risk viewers dropping off even if they’ve engaged with the content. Don’t give them that chance!
My advice is to keep your calls to action short, to the point and relevant to where the video sits in the customer journey. Some examples of simple but effective prompts include:
- Subscribe
- Make an appointment
- Call today
- Download now
- Join my list
- Sign up for a free trial
The call to action should tell people what they need to do but also give them some idea of what they’ll get – and how they’ll benefit – when they do it.
5. A one-size-fits-all approach
Many businesses assume that they can create one corporate video and release it on every possible platform to get it in front of as many people as possible.
There are several reasons why this is usually a mistake.
For a start, as we’ve seen above, the video needs to be tailored to the intended audience and where they are in the customer journey. This might affect which platform they’re using to view the video. For example, the first contact with a company might come from a short video on Instagram, whereas potential customers might seek out more in-depth videos on YouTube or your website when they know more about your business.
For this reason, it’s advisable to create platform-native content and to think about what the viewer might be doing when they hit play on your video.
Are they likely to be watching with sound on or off? (More about this below). Will they be scrolling through Instagram or watching IGTV? Will they have gone purposely to YouTube for a how-to video or tutorial?
We should also recognise that different sizes and aspect ratios are preferable for different platforms.
My advice is to ditch the cookie-cutter approach to videos and create different versions for different platforms.
Having a strategy in place before production will help you secure all the footage you need to create platform-native videos that share a consistent message.
6. Letting poor quality distract from the message
Poor sound, over-exposed video or out-of-focus shots can all be distracting for the viewer. And, if someone is being distracted by one or more of these issues, it means they’ve probably tuned out the actual message and content of your video.
For this reason, the quality of your video production is important. You want people to absorb your marketing message, and not be distracted by the technicalities of the video production process.
Yes, the audience tends to be a bit more forgiving if they’re viewing a Facebook Live, for example, but regularly publishing low-quality videos will damage your brand image.
7. Not measuring results
Launching a new corporate video is an exciting event but your work doesn’t stop the day it goes out into the world. Many companies make the mistake of thinking they can create a video and just watch the new customers roll in.
While your videos should certainly deliver results if you’ve produced them based on a sound strategy, you won’t truly be able to assess this unless you measure the results.
There’s an often-used quote in digital marketing that “What gets measured gets managed” and there is a large amount of useful data available to help determine the effectiveness of your videos in achieving the desired goal.
While the ‘vanity’ metrics like the number of views, social shares and likes are nice to have, don’t forget to look at how long people watch a video or which bits they re-watch as well as which bits they skip. This data will help you build up a clear picture of what works for your audience and what doesn’t. You can feed this knowledge through to your subsequent videos.
8. Not providing captions
Back in 2016, Facebook stats showed that 85% of videos on the platform are watched with the sound off. A survey from 2019 showed this figure could be as high as 92% when video content is viewed on a mobile.
Even though 60% of Instagram videos are viewed with the sound-on, you could potentially alienate more than a third of your audience if your video isn’t accessible without sound.
In other words, if you create corporate videos without captions, you risk losing the ‘sound off’ audience which could be catastrophic for your conversions, depending on which platform you’re using.
Make sure you always add captions for a sound-off audience and those that are hard of hearing.
9. Forgetting about SEO
It’s surprising how many businesses forget about search engine optimisation (SEO) when it comes to publishing their videos. And yet, SEO is how content is found online.
If you can give your corporate videos a properly optimised video description and keyword-rich/relevant title, this will help your video content to show up in searches.
It can also be helpful to give the search bots some text information about your video content so they know what they’re crawling.
A transcript of a video is the ideal solution when posted with a video on your website.
10. Expecting instant results
Thanks to the rise of viral videos, many companies hope that they will publish a video to an instant buzz and viral success.
In reality, even the corporate videos that seem to achieve overnight fame are actually the product of a video production strategy and, sometimes, years of tracking metrics and honing the message.
As with any content, videos take time to build up momentum. You need people to view, enjoy and share them with their network in order to open your videos to a wider audience.
If you can avoid all of the mistakes above and keep referring back to and refining your video marketing strategy, you should find that videos benefit your long-term marketing efforts even if it takes a while for them to be noticed.
How to Repurpose Video Content to Increase Value
Create additional marketing content by reusing and repurposing your video footage.
A great video marketing strategy should include ways to repurpose video content as well as create fresh content from scratch.
There are many reasons why this is a sound approach. Repurposed video content can:
- Help you maximise the value of each video you create, especially if you invested in a professional shoot
- Attract more views across multiple platforms
- Reach a wider audience
- Reinforce your brand messaging
- Boost your search engine optimisation (SEO)
After investing the time, energy and budget into creating video content that is perfectly targeted to your ideal clients in whichever relevant stage of the customer journey they're in, it would be a waste to use it once and then park it.
Video can keep on delivering value and increasing its return on your investment (ROI). It can also continue to build brand awareness, engagement and customer retention.
But how?
There are many ways that you can keep your existing video content working for you:
- Reuse footage from your content library in new videos
- Recycle and refresh older videos for a new audience
- Repurpose video content across multiple platforms
Remember, it is important to plan the different ways in which you can use a piece of footage before production if you are to do this successfully.
You’ll find some ideas below for recycling, reusing and repurposing your video content.
Pull out short snippets from longer videos
While long-form video is great for platforms like YouTube and will be well-watched by its intended audience when properly targeted, there may be times when shorter 30-second videos would perform better. This will depend on which platform you plan to use.
If you have a long-form video, review it to pinpoint quick snippets that you could use for shorter videos.
For example, you might want to take a few soundbites of a client talking from a case study video and turn them into 30-second reviews or testimonials.
Reuse your "universal" footage
Look for "universal" footage in your videos, such as views of your premises, your long-established products or services, location, etc. This is footage of the constant, evergreen elements of your business that won’t quickly go out of date.
You may be able to use this universal footage in a range of different videos – mixed with fresh content - without having to pay for multiple shoots of the same scenes.
Refresh your old videos
Always keep track of what’s in your video archive.
For example, a video that attracted plenty of engagement two years ago may never have been seen by your newer customers. It could make sense to bring this old content back into circulation.
Another approach is to update the narration of old footage or edit fresh content into a video you’ve used before.
You could even go back to the original raw footage and see if there is content that you discarded before that could be used now.
What are your most popular videos? You could bring them back into circulation by adding an update.
Extract still images from your videos
You can make a video part of a wider campaign by using screen captures as stills for your posters, adverts and other promos.
This can be a strong way to create cohesion across your marketing materials.
High-resolution professional filming will help you here as you should be able to capture crystal-clear stills that display well in a range of sizes.
Create a transcript of a video
Although search engines are getting better at understanding video, it’s helpful to give the search bots some text information about video content so they know what they’re crawling.
A transcript of a video is the ideal solution when posted with a video on your website.
As well as the SEO benefits, transcripts have other positives too.
Someone visiting your website may not always be in the position to watch a video immediately. It could be that they’re in public or at work. A transcript provides a written overview that explains the video without it having to be viewed.
Like closed captions, transcripts also improve accessibility for viewers with hearing impairments.
Reuse the audio
Just as we can review a video for shorter visual snippets, audio snippets of the content can be repurposed too. For example, you could use audio from a video – a testimonial is ideal - as the basis for an ad on a podcast.
Create slides and presentations
As we’ve seen in previous blogs, video is one of the most engaging forms of visual media, which makes it ideal for keeping people’s attention.
Instead of filming something new for a presentation, could you use a video from your archive?
For example, a professional services firm could use footage from a client case study in a presentation about applying new legislation to client cases. Or footage from a training video could be used to show how your company is supporting health and wellbeing in the workplace.
Create GIFs for social sharing
GIFs are a series of images or soundless video that will loop continuously and doesn't require anyone to press play. They are hugely popular on social media because anyone can watch them at any time. They also provide a good middle ground between text and video but go a step beyond a static image.
It’s possible to take short clips from your videos and add text to them. GIFs are highly shareable, especially if they’re humorous or visually impactful.
Repurpose your video webinars
If you have pre-recorded video webinars, there are several ways you can get more value from this session.
For example, you could pull short snippets from a webinar and turn them into a series of 1 - 2 minute video clips containing advice or information for your audience (just don’t forget to include a call to action with each clip).
You could turn short clips into teaser-style videos encouraging people to book on to future webinars. Alternatively, you could package the webinar so that it’s available for purchase via your website or only downloadable to be viewed in the customer’s own time once they sign up to your mailing list.
Compilation videos
People love compilations whether it’s a "Greatest TV Shows of the 80s" style programme on Channel 4 or a blog rounding up the best posts of the year.
Your archived videos might lend themselves to a compilation too. For example, you could take the highlights of your most recent footage to tell the story of ‘Our Year in Video’.
Key takeaway
When you’ve invested in video content, it should work as hard as possible for you to deliver greater value and increase your ROI.
By considering how you can repurpose content as part of your video marketing strategy, you can organise the video shoots more effectively to capture footage that you’ll need months and, sometimes, years in advance.
I’d always recommend that you work alongside video production professionals to design a video strategy and capture your video content. This is because professional companies will understand how fresh and repurposed content can be used to its full potential, extracting as much mileage as possible from every frame of footage.
Developing a strategy for using video in your marketing mix can be confusing if you haven’t worked extensively with video before.
If you want to make video a profitable part of your business, you must have a video marketing strategy that extends beyond your normal digital marketing or content marketing strategy and maximises the impact of the videos you produce.
Don’t know exactly what you need?
Get in touch for some free advice and discover:
- What videos will have the greatest impact on your bottom line
- The best way to have your videos produced, based on your needs and budget
- The video marketing channels that will deliver the greatest reach and engagement for your brand
If you enjoyed this article and found value in it then please consider sharing it with your network. We’d really appreciate that!
Video metrics and why they matter to you
How we measure whether your videos are delivering the desired results.
Producing a successful video is not just about making something that looks good but also about making something that actually delivers results.
But, how do we know if a video has achieved the results that you’re looking for? Well, we track the video metrics that matter!
The approach of combining art with science is at the heart of any good video marketing strategy.
But what are the video metrics that matter and what do they mean for your videos?
Five main types of data for video
There is a huge array of data available to assess how a video is performing and whether it’s achieving the goals you have set for it. Different platforms offer different video metrics that, when put together, can help you build a deeper understanding of your audience and how you could use video even more effectively in the future.
Broadly speaking though, all of the available metrics will fall into five different categories:
- Reach
- Engagement
- Conversion
- Retention
- Audience
Let’s look at these in more detail.
Reach: How many people have seen the video?
The data in this category helps us understand how many people may potentially have been exposed to your video content.
This doesn’t necessarily mean people who viewed the video in its entirety – or at all! – but instead, the number of people who may have seen it in a social media newsfeed, for example, thus registering as an ‘impression’.
Each platform varies in how it measures reach and impressions. On Facebook, a video just needs to appear on the screen – even without playing – to count as an impression.
Reach data can be a helpful measure of brand awareness and impact and it is the first metric that we look out for. Without reach there will not be a lot of other data to measure but, it is only the start. To get a fuller picture you’ll have to dive deeper. What actions have your audience taken as a result of seeing your videos?
Engagement: How interested in your video was your audience?
For marketing of any kind to be effective, it needs to attract engagement.
In other words, people need to like what they’re seeing and interact with the brand in some way. We might measure this by looking at metrics such as:
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- Watching with the sound on
- Watching the video to completion
- Repeated viewings
Generally speaking, the higher the level of engagement in a video, the more effective the video is.
This is reflected in YouTube’s algorithms, which use ‘watch times’ rather than ‘views’ as an important positive ranking signal. After all, a view can be a matter of seconds whereas longer watch times suggest the viewer actively choosing to consume the video content.
Facebook, on the other hand, uses average completion rates – i.e. the per cent of each video your audience watches – to rank video content in newsfeeds. The more people who watch from start to finish, the better for your visibility.
According to Facebook, 48% of all video watch time can be attributed to social sharing, which is why stats relating to likes, comments and shares are relevant.
It’s worth keeping an eye on average view durations too. This measures the total watch times of a video divided by the number of watches. This can help us build up a good sense of the ideal video length for the audience – if people keep dropping off 30 seconds into a 45-second video, it could be an indication that the video needs editing or that future videos should be shorter.
Data covering repeated viewing is also helpful. Are there particular sections of a video that people keep re-watching? If so, this could be a sign that this portion of the video is of greater interest to your audience.
The above metrics are all positive signals that your video content is striking a chord with its intended audience. People want to watch, they’re interested in what you have to say.
If, on the other hand, you don’t see much in the way of engagement, this could be a sign that you’re reaching the wrong audience or that your message needs fine-tuning before it will resonate.
Negative feedback such as how many people hide a video or unlike your Facebook page after watching will give you a clearer view of what videos just aren’t a good fit for your customers.
Videos comments tend to provide softer, qualitative data about how people feel about your videos or brand. This can give you some powerful insights into what matters to your audience.
Conversion: How many people are doing what you want them to do after watching the video?
As we saw in my previous article where I detailed How to create a video marketing strategy it is essential to have clear goals for your videos.
Most often, a goal will include something you want people to do after watching your content. This might be visiting your website, signing up to your mailing list, making a booking, or buying a product or service.
For this reason, most businesses concentrate on conversion metrics.
This is the data that tells you about sales, new leads, lead quality, site traffic, clickthroughs and conversion rates.
Stats such as your clickthrough rates can give you great insights into how your call to action is working. Does it need repositioning within the video or would different wording work better?
Also, conversion stats can help you understand how video is best used on your landing pages. Again, does the position make a difference? Or the length? Are people more likely to make a purchase on a sales page with or without watching a video?
Retention: What happens to the customer after they buy from you?
If you’ve read How to use video content throughout the ‘customer journey then you’ll remember that the journey doesn’t end with a purchase.
Every business should focus on retaining as many customers as possible. Research shows that as few as 8% of your customers can account for 41% of your revenue – these are your repeat customers!
So, retention metrics are those that help you build up a picture of how many customers are returning, how long they stay a customer, how often they buy from you and how they rate your service. You might also want to look at referrals and customer complaints in this category too.
The videos you create for the retention or loyalty/advocacy stage of the customer journey will have a different message to your earlier-stage videos. Retention metrics will help you to craft and refine this message.
Audience: Who is watching your videos?
The final broad category of video metrics is relevant at all stages of the customer journey and will be core to your video marketing strategy.
These are the audience metrics that help you understand who is watching your videos.
As well as providing demographics such as gender, age, location, socio-economic background, location, device, etc. of your audience, these metrics can also help you answer different questions.
For example, are your videos resonating with the right people? Or are they reaching an unexpected audience? What type of videos seem to resonate most strongly with your audience?
Why the metrics matter
What gets measured gets improved and no online marketing campaign can be successful without measuring and analysing performance. One of the real strengths of digital video marketing, as opposed to traditional video advertising, is the amount of useful data available to help determine the effectiveness of the video in achieving your desired goal. But, it’s important to know which video metrics matter so that you can refine your video marketing strategy moving forward.
By taking time to reflect and track the results of each video you publish you can strengthen your video marketing strategy. In turn, this will boost your visibility, develop your voice, build your audience and improve conversions.
Do you need help in creating an effective video strategy for your business? At Reach Video we provide the strategy, content and ability to connect to your target audience, drive them to action and deliver tangible, profitable results.
The tremendous power of the Video Testimonial
Why you should create testimonial videos for your business.
When was the last time you made a major purchase decision, without first checking out reviews for that product or service?
Online reviews have become essential to today’s customers and video takes their impact to the next level.
Why are testimonials, reviews and case studies so important?
According to the 2019 BrightLocal Consumer Review Survey, 82% of people say that they check reviews before buying, while the average consumer reads 10 reviews before they’ll trust a business.
The message is clear – in today’s marketing savvy world, a business without customer reviews or testimonials will really struggle to win new customers.
Why is this?
We all know that businesses will use their marketing to say how great they are, so we approach these messages with a healthy dose of scepticism. What we really want to see is reviews and testimonials from genuine, recent customers.
According to the BrightLocal survey, 76% of us trust online reviews as much as recommendations from our friends and family (a figure that skyrockets to 89% for consumers aged 35 to 54).
The power of testimonial videos
Who better to sell to your future customers than your current happy customers?
People want to hear honest, unscripted opinions about your products and services from someone who doesn’t have anything to gain from encouraging them to make a purchase.
I’ve mentioned just a few stats above that show how influential reviews are (the BrightLocal Survey includes a lot more). Video testimonials, reviews and case studies take this influence a step further.
Video testimonials are more effective than written reviews because the human brain retains 95% of what it sees in a video, compared to 10% of what it reads.
There’s also an emotional connection that comes from seeing and hearing someone speak about a product or service. The mannerisms and expressions of a genuine customer add a layer of authenticity that simply can’t be achieved with text.
It’s known that the human brain is full of mirror neurons that fire either when we do something or when we see someone else doing it. If we watch a video of someone feeling happy, relieved or thankful, for example, those mirror neurons tell our brains to feel the same emotions too.
A testimonial video taps into this, inviting the viewer to step into the shoes of the happy customer and imagine how they will feel when things work out well for them too. This is an integral part of the brand story and how you can use your marketing to guide your audience to a successful outcome.
Video reviews, testimonials and case studies are also a powerful way to humanise your brand, even if the potential customer hasn’t come face-to-face with anyone from your company yet.
They see and hear someone who is just like them – someone who is struggling with the same challenges or who has the same aspirations – and it creates a feeling of connection and familiarity and the promise that your company will do its best by them too.
These feelings are essential to building credibility and trust.
Social proof is a powerful decision-making factor, so the fact that you have people who are so pleased with their customer experience that they’re willing to talk about it on camera is a huge vote of confidence.
Creating testimonial videos for different stages in the customer journey
Testimonial videos are incredibly versatile, meaning that they can be pitched to different stages of the customer journey. For example, you might want to use short testimonials that focus on emotional experience for the Awareness stage but release in-depth case studies highlighting measurable outcomes for the Conversion stage.
A really effective approach is to film an in-depth case study but pull out shorter snippets and soundbites to use as testimonials or to include in your company’s brand story. This is a great way of repurposing your content throughout your sales funnel and making the most of your video marketing budget.
This tactic also helps to take the potential customer on a journey with the existing customer. For example, someone might watch a short testimonial just as they’re becoming aware of your company but be more willing to watch a longer case study when they’re seriously considering a purchase. The viewer might think, “This was the person who said they were happy with this company. Now I want to know what made them happy, in particular. How did they measure the outcome?”
Another benefit of video testimonials is that they are ideal for sharing on your website, social media or via email, boosting the visibility of your brand across multiple platforms.
The case for case studies
As we’ve seen above, a cost-effective and strategic approach is to film in-depth case studies and then use snippets from these as testimonials.
According to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2018 benchmarks study, case studies are ranked as the second most effective content marketing tool behind ebooks and whitepapers. Pre-produced videos were the third most widely used type of content marketing after social media posts and case studies.
Knowing that case studies and video are both ranked so highly, it makes sense to bring them together.
Case studies give you room to take an in-depth look at a customer and why they needed a product or service that you offer. You can then draw out the benefits that came from choosing your company over your competitors.
How to use video testimonials
Once you’ve found suitable customers to feature in your videos, you’ll need to think about how you’re going to use the testimonials and where they’ll fit in the customer journey. This will help you pinpoint the kind of soundbites you want to pull out.
Testimonials are the ideal way to convey your authority and expertise as well as your connection with your customers in a way that makes the customer the ‘hero’, the one who has triumphed with your help.
Here are a few ideas for soundbites you can look for when collecting testimonials:
- Overcoming objections – Look for testimonials that address the reasons people may be worried about buying from you, e.g. “I was worried that the service would be expensive but I saved over £500 by getting professional advice”.
- Solving problems – Aim to get soundbites that highlight the customer’s problem and how your product or service provided a solution, e.g. “I needed a proper contract that I could send out to my customers. Acme legal created one for me, covering issues that I hadn’t even considered”.
- Adding value – Look at how testimonials can help you take potential customers past the payment threshold by focusing on how much value they received, e.g. “I have received bespoke support as well as lifetime access to expert resources so it really is tremendous value”
Summary
Testimonials are all about highlighting the benefits of choosing your business from the customer’s perspective.
They answer the customer’s question, “What’s in it for me?” and provide a strong motivation to buy.
The tremendous power of the video testimonial means you should be looking for ways to use them wherever it makes sense. This is why, in a previous post, I listed the testimonial video as one of the 7 effective ways to use video in your business marketing.
They are easily filmed and you can use them across a variety of different marketing campaigns. Surely, there can’t be much other content that offers a better bang for your buck?!
Developing a strategy for using video in your marketing mix can be confusing if you haven’t worked extensively with video before.
If you want to make video a profitable part of your business, it’s important that you have a video marketing strategy that extends beyond your normal digital marketing or content marketing strategy, and maximises the impact of the videos you get produced.
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- What videos will have the greatest impact on your bottom line
- The best way to have your videos produced, based on your needs and budget
- The video marketing channels that will deliver the greatest reach and engagement for your brand