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.
If you enjoyed this article and found value in it then please consider sharing it with your network. We’d really appreciate that!
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/
If you enjoyed this article and found value in it then please consider sharing it with your network. We’d really appreciate that!
The Power of Brand Storytelling in Video Marketing
Introduction: The Emotional Power of Storytelling
In today’s digital age, with content and distractions at an all-time high, capturing and holding attention is a monumental task. Stories, however, are the ultimate fluff-busters. They are the first thing we are drawn to in marketing, or anywhere. We are creatures predisposed to tell stories to make sense of a chaotic world and bring meaning to our lives. They help us empathise and build trust. Add video, the medium best at generating emotion, and you get a potent combination ideal for spreading your brand message.
The Battle for Attention: Noise and Trust
In a world where trust in marketers is dwindling and ad blockers are on the rise, the challenge is not just to reach people, but to genuinely engage them without triggering their defences. Here lies the magic of a well-crafted story—it builds bridges between you and your audience, fostering trust and bypassing scepticism.
What is a Story? A Simple Definition
Let’s define what a story actually is. A story is a retelling of events, often from a single perspective. The term comes from the Latin “Historia”, which means a history. In simpler terms, a story is “stuff that happens to people.” It’s a narrative that unfolds, taking the listener or viewer on a journey with the characters involved.
Why Storytelling? The Strategic Edge
As Seth Godin famously noted, “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” This shift has prompted brands, from small businesses to FTSE 100 companies, to invest in compelling content, including film and video, rather than traditional forms of paid media advertising.
Why Brand Storytelling?
Simply put, brand storytelling is the technique of using a narrative to forge a connection between a brand and an identifiable audience (customers, employees, shareholders, etc.) to affect a certain outcome. It often aims to link the values, attitudes, and beliefs shared between a brand and its target consumers, using story as a vehicle to make these connections more obvious and, in doing so, heighten interest or preference towards the brand.
The Human Connection: Why Stories Resonate
Stories are inherently human. They allow us to empathise, to see ourselves in others' shoes. In marketing, this translates to customers seeing themselves using your product or service, and experiencing the benefits firsthand through the narrative you craft.
Building Trust and Loyalty Through Story
Stories are authentic, and authenticity builds trust. When customers trust you, they are more likely to return, creating a loyal customer base. Storytelling in video marketing isn’t about making a sale; it’s about building a relationship.
The Science of Story: More Than Just a Tale
Our brains process stories differently than rational arguments. A well-told story allows your audience to lose themselves inside of the narrative, experiencing it as if they were the main character. This immersion creates a strong emotional response and makes viewers more receptive to new ideas, effectively lowering their defences. A study by marketing guru David Aaker found that a brand’s audience is up to 22 times more likely to recall information when it is presented through a story, versus presenting information and facts by other means.
The Transformative Power of Story
Story creates meaning, and meaning creates value. This effect is so powerful that it can overcome even our most commonsense judgments. We like to think that we’re rational creatures, but in reality, we’re not. For brands and organisations, this means when communications or experiences are able to break through and connect with their audiences on an emotional level, they can be powerfully persuasive.
Conclusion: Storytelling as a Welcome Pull
Learning the science behind storytelling allows you to unlock a powerful way to ensure that you are seen, heard, and remembered. It’s not about demanding attention; great storytelling is a pull, not a push. It creates real value and meaning for people, offering a welcome alternative to the noise that characterises today’s media landscape.
In Part 2 of this article, we dive into the practical aspect—how to effectively craft and integrate storytelling into your video marketing strategy. We will delve into practical steps for crafting a narrative that resonates, focusing on the four essential pillars: People, Plot, Places, and Purpose.
Ready to harness the power of storytelling in your video marketing strategy?
Storytelling is a craft, and like any craft, it requires expertise and finesse. At Reach Video, we specialise in helping businesses like yours tell their stories in the most compelling and impactful way possible. Whether you are just starting with video marketing or looking to elevate your existing strategy, our storytelling experts are here to guide you every step of the way.
Ready to transform your marketing with the power of storytelling? Contact us at Reach Video for expert guidance and support. Let’s craft stories that resonate, engage, and inspire action.
Read more about our Brand Story solutions.
If you enjoyed this article and found value in it then please consider sharing it with your network. We'd really appreciate that!
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
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 importance of storytelling in your brand videos
How to weave stories into your brand videos and why your customer must be the hero in your story.
If your marketing content is to stand out from the crowd then it is important to tap into the power of video storytelling.
We all love a good story. As human beings, we are psychologically wired to enjoy them. Stories help us to make sense of the world, concepts, emotions, morality, society and so much more.
Stories create an emotional connection
Stories invite the audience to step into the main character’s shoes and imagine themselves going through the same trials and triumphs.
For video marketing purposes, this is powerful because you can entice your target audience to join you on a journey that highlights how good their life will look if they buy from you.
Video storytelling can make your brand more memorable as our human brains find it much easier to recall the key points of a story than a list of features. It can also help you to forge a deeper emotional connection with your customers, secure more sales and result in more repeat business.
The customer is the hero
Many businesses make the mistake of believing that they are the hero of their marketing stories. But, in truth, a story will only resonate if the viewer – in this case, the potential customer – takes centre stage.
If you have read my previous article, Your Brand Video. What it is and what it’s not you will already know that the most successful brand stories are those that recognise the ‘hero’ is not the brand. Your challenge is to pinpoint where your business fits into the hero’s story and then play that role with aplomb through the story you tell (more about this later).
Plot-lines that work for business videos
According to storytelling expert and screenwriter, Melissa Cassera, there are two main types of plotline that are particularly effective for brand videos.
The first is to tell a story about Overcoming the Monster. The second is to take your customers on a Quest with you.
At their heart, both types of story are about the triumph of good over evil, heroes over villains, success over adversity.
How does this translate into a video to market your business, products or services?
Using the Overcoming the Monster approach, the monster will probably be a problem that your customer is currently facing.
This could be a legal problem that they don’t know how to overcome, being stuck in a dead-end job with no prospect of promotion or a dietary need that’s affecting their life – the type of challenge or ‘monster’ will depend entirely on the nature of your business.
Once you’ve identified the monster that is most affecting your potential customers, your video needs to tell the story of how your business can help the viewer to slay the monster.
The Quest format may overlap with an Overcoming the Monster story or be told independently.
The concept of the quest is that the hero of the story – your customer – will go on a journey through various challenges and pitfalls until they reach their desired destination.
Your business should act as a guide, leading the customer safely through their journey to a happy ending.
The rule of three
From 10-second Instagram marketing videos to three-hour-long films or children’s short stories to classic novels, most stories are told in three acts.
- Act one – the ‘Hook’ – sets the scene and draws the audience in
- Act two tells the meat of the story, setting up the conflict and delivering on the hook promised in act one
- Act three resolves and concludes the story, giving viewers a satisfying ending – with marketing messages, act three may end with a call to action
This ‘rule of three’ can be applied to most marketing messages and is a strong way to define the story you want to tell in your video.
Other key elements to include in your video story
I’m a big fan of Donald Miller’s StoryBrand approach to brand storytelling. After analysing a huge number of famous films and stories, Donald believes that there are seven key parts to any compelling story:
- You know what your audience wants
If you’re able to identify exactly what it is that your potential customers want and need, you can not only develop an engaging story but also communicate how you can meet these needs in a clear, compelling and memorable way.
- You can identify three levels of problems
In stories, there are three types of problems that prevent the hero of the tale achieving what they want. These problems are either external, internal or philosophical.
Typically, the external problem is something that has happened or will happen to the hero that’s beyond their control. For example, the target customer for a legal firm may be someone who doesn’t know how to go about writing a will but desperately needs to do one.
Using this example, the internal problem would be that the hero of the story has to find someone they can trust and someone who is affordable to help them but they don’t know where to start. They keep putting their worries about their will to one side, reasoning that it’s not urgent.
The philosophical problem explains why their internal feelings need to be resolved.
The hero in our example above risks leaving his family with a huge amount of stress and legal hassle to sort out his estate. Without a will, they will not be able to ensure that his last wishes are honoured. The hero won’t want to leave his family to suffer when he’s gone.
As Donald Miller tells us, the best marketing messages solve all three of these problems in one go.
For example, “At Acme Law, we offer a trustworthy, affordable will writing service that will protect your estate and save your loved ones from distress when you die”.
- You position yourself as a guide
In every good story, there’s a guide, mentor or teacher who comes in and helps the hero. In the case of brand marketing, this guide should be your business.
You can use storytelling to show how you support your customers to help them achieve whatever it is they want. This might be by giving them the best tools, insider knowledge, an easier journey or something else altogether.
- You can give your audience a plan
Think about your favourite story and the chances are that the guide who supports the hero puts together some sort of plan for them to follow.
The plan is what tells your audience how you’re going to get them from where they are now to where they want to be.
For example, an orthodontist might tell potential customers who want a brace that they should:
1) come in for a face-to-face consultation,
2) receive and agree their individual treatment plan and
3) complete their treatment with the beautiful smile they’ve always wanted.
The clearer you can make the plan, the better.
- Know your call to action
Even with the most compelling, effective marketing videos, it’s essential to provide a clear call to action. What is it that you want the people watching the video to do next? People won’t act unless you tell them.
- & 7. You know what success or failure looks like for your audience
Your story and the call to action may lead to a happy or sad ending for the customer, depending on what they decide to do (or not do).
Your brand story needs to show the viewer how good their life will look if they follow the call to action or how bad it would look if they decide to walk away.
Your customers have to have a stake in the story
What each of the approaches above tells us is that your customer has to have a stake in the story you choose to tell.
This stake is what will spark an emotional connection and spur the viewer to action once the story is over.
With brand messaging, you can use your story to show your purpose, values and how you benefit others. In turn, your target audience will realise that they share the same values, beliefs and aspirations as your brand. They will prefer to buy from you over another company because of this alignment.
As we’ve seen above, video storytelling isn’t just about telling the history of your business. It can also be used in other types of video such as explainer videos, behind-the-scenes videos, events videos, testimonial videos and case studies, or culture videos, as just a few examples.
In all cases, just remember that your business is the guide that leads the customers to success. Now, go out there and overcome the monster that is effective video marketing!
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
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.
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
Your Brand Video. What it is and what it’s not.
How to use your brand video to effectively tell your story and attract your ideal audience
Not so long ago, businesses would rarely use more than one type of video. This would be the company video, a promotional film that was all about themselves and was often a little conceited too. This video would be shown everywhere possible, at presentations, exhibitions and on a constant loop in the company reception.
These days, with video most commonly shown on the internet, it is no longer enough to use one style of video to do it all. Corporate video has evolved and the company promotional video is now commonly called a brand video. You may have read my earlier article where I listed the brand video as one of the 7 effective ways to use video in your business marketing. It is still an essential element of a business’s video marketing but the content and structure need to be different if the video is to attract and engage your target audience.
So what is a brand video? Read on to find out.
Brand video overview
A brand video is perfect content for raising awareness and positioning your brand in the market. This ‘top of funnel content’ should be targeted at an audience that is early in their customer journey and needs to be created with an emotional connection in mind.
People buy with emotion and then justify their purchase with logic, so an “awareness video” such as your brand video is about encouraging people to connect emotionally with your company. You must do this before asking them to buy.
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.
Why create a brand video?
The brand video is powerful content for your business. It introduces potential customers to the personal story behind the brand and is a great way to showcase why you’re the best choice for your audience.
Your brand video is a fantastic way to bring the personality and ethos of your business to your target customers in a format that people are most able to retain.
This is core video content that plays an important role in many video marketing strategies.
What should a brand video include?
As we’ve seen above, a brand video needs to tell the story of your business, the how and why it came into being. There are many different ways that you can choose to do this, depending on the story you want to tell.
Typically, the duration of these videos is between two and three minutes. Long enough to tell your story, differentiate you from the competition and engage potential customers without being overwhelming.
If possible, try to include one or two client testimonials within your brand video. Video testimonials help people see other people like themselves, which helps them relate, to picture themselves in the other person’s place. Therefore, a client testimonial video can be an extremely powerful tool in converting sceptical leads. There needs to be a method of gaining your prospect’s trust to convince them to engage further with your business, which is why video testimonials are so powerful.
I’m a big fan of Donald Miller’s Storybrand and if you’re familiar with his content then you will already know that the most successful brand stories are those that recognise the ‘hero’ is not the brand. Instead, we must position the client or customer in the hero role with the brand, business or product serving the role of the guide. At the awareness stage in the customer journey, your audience doesn’t really care about you. They are focused on themselves and their own problems which they are seeking a solution for. Acknowledge your audience’s problems, provide a solution through your products or services and offer to guide them to a successful resolution.
The structure of your brand video
Your brand video or ‘story’ needs to have a clear emotional hook that grabs the audience’s attention with something that they really care about. This can be a visual, textual or aural hook, whatever will best serve your story and draw the viewer in.
Often, the emotional hook will reflect the ‘pain’ or problem the customer faces. You should emphasise what’s at stake from the outset.
From this pain comes desire – the desire for a better life, a resolution, the realisation of a dream. This is what sets your brand story in motion.
The video should set up the positive outcomes that can be reached by working with your brand, product or service. Allow your customers to really connect with that and want the same outcomes for themselves.
This is where your brand comes into its own, guiding and leading the customer through their journey of transformation and success.
With your business by their side, how will the customer’s new normal look? Your brand story should clearly highlight the win, the possibilities of a changed life that come from engaging with your brand.
Finally, a soft call to action inviting viewers to learn more or engage further works well and can be either explicitly mentioned or more subtly encouraged through the words and action on the screen. This could be asking viewers to download a free guide, enter a competition or sign up for a webinar. The action will depend on your video strategy and the overall goals of the business.
Building on your brand story
With your ‘Brand Story’ in place, we recommend creating additional video content that continues the conversation with your prospective customers and moves them through your sales funnel. Examples of such content include ‘Client stories’, ‘How-to’ or ‘Explainer’ videos, ‘FAQs’ and in-depth ‘Services’ videos.
As we can see, brand videos are a powerful communication tool between any business and its customers.
Of course, the content has to be supported by a great video marketing strategy. In other words, you need to know why you’re using video and what your desired outcome is. Get that right and your content will truly resonate with its target audience, turning them from first-time viewers into passionate brand ambassadors.
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 effective ways to use video in your business marketing
What different styles of video content to use & when
If you want to attract new customers online, increase engagement and grow your business then video marketing provides many benefits. But having decided to use video marketing to grow your business, what style of video should you use?
The answer will depend on the purpose behind the video and where it fits in the customer journey.
Below are seven common styles of video that can be used for different reasons.
1. Brand videos (The story of your ‘why’)
Your brand video is perfect content for raising awareness and positioning your brand in the market. This ‘top of funnel content’ should be targeted at an audience that is early in their customer journey and needs to be created with an emotional connection in mind.
This is where the power of storytelling really shines when it comes to video. Every business has a unique story to tell. What’s yours?
The brand video is powerful because it introduces potential customers to the personal story behind the brand.
Why was your business created? How did you come to offer the products or services that you sell? Why are they so important to you? How do they make a difference to the lives of your customers?
Having a brand video is a great way to showcase why you’re the best choice for your audience. It will serve as a visual introduction, allowing people to become familiar with what exactly your company has to offer.
This is core video content that plays an important role in many video marketing strategies. So important, in fact, that I’m going to dedicate an entire article to the brand video in a future post.
2. Testimonial videos (Case studies & social proof)
People influence people.
Recent stats show that 72% of us won’t buy from a company without customer reviews.
Every business will tell you that you should buy from them. The truly convincing marketing message comes from genuine, satisfied customers who are happy to talk about how buying from a business benefitted them in some way.
And this is where video has the edge over the written word. It’s one thing to read a great review about a business but it’s quite another to see the person on camera, to witness their emotion, and to hear them talking about how much they’ve gained by buying from you.
There’s no better way to show the impact you’ve made than to show the people you’ve impacted. This is the ultimate social proof.
The testimonial video, or the in-depth case study, is a must-have for any business aiming to attract customers online. It can also be used later in the customer journey during the consideration and purchase stages. I’ll explain why you should create testimonial videos & case studies for your business in a future article.
3. Services (Demos/product walkthroughs)
There will always be barriers that hold people back from buying. Price, functionality, ease of use, time commitments or fear of making a mistake are all common worries.
Product or service demos/walkthroughs are one of the most effective ways to address these issues and show people why they shouldn’t walk away without making a purchase. Because of that, it is perfect content to use during the consideration and, most commonly, purchase stages of the customer journey.
Use a product demonstration or service walkthrough to show exactly how something works or to highlight its value or convenience.
Ultimately, these videos should help potential customers picture what it will be like once they’ve made their purchase. You can help them imagine using one of your products or being supported by a service you offer.
4. How-to (Explainer videos/FAQs)
Sometimes it’s difficult for people to understand what a product or service includes from pictures or text.
A short-form explainer video can help to make your offering clearer and, similar to service demos/product walk-throughs, they are most likely to be used during the consideration and purchase stages of the customer journey.
This style of video highlights the features and benefits of a product, service or business idea in a succinct and compelling way.
You’ll often find explainer videos on a landing page or the Home page of a website, as well as ads on social media.
Another option is to use video to answer your potential customers’ FAQs.
There are different approaches you can take, from product demonstrations to a customer service rep talking straight to the camera. Many businesses also create a series of videos to answer a different FAQ in each one.
The key here is to identify what potential customers worry most about and reassure them with information, advice and experience.
This content can be the difference between people dropping out of the sales funnel and turning into a paying customer.
5. Culture (Meet the team/employee bios)
With so much of today’s communication being done online via email, instant messaging and chatbots, it’s easy for businesses and their customers to forget that there’s a person on either side of the communication.
Like the brand videos we mentioned above, employee bio videos are an engaging way to introduce the people that make the business.
These videos can take the place of a headshot and short blurb on your About or Team Profile web pages or they can enhance the text. They act as a short portrait of your key people, showing why they care about what they do and why this matters to your customers.
After all, it’s not just your business that has a unique story to share – your employees have their own too. Profile videos can showcase their talent and experience, while also beginning what will hopefully be a lasting connection between your customers and staff.
Another option is to create company culture videos that highlight what your business is like behind closed doors.
These videos have great social value and they’re good for recruitment. If you’re keen to recruit new employees, culture videos are the best way to show off what sets your business apart and makes you unique.
6. Community Involvement
Once you’re at the stage where you’re putting out a lot of content then it’s a good idea to mix things up a bit.
How does your business connect with the local community? Are there any initiatives that your employees are involved with? Could your team take part in some volunteering or sponsor a local organisation?
You can use video to show what you’re doing to support your wider community, why you’re doing it and how you’re making an impact. Again, this is a fantastic way to show the human face of your brand.
7. Thank you (personalisation)
The customer journey should continue long after someone has made a purchase from your company for the first time.
Stats show that it costs five times more to recruit a new customer than it does to keep a current one. Repeat customers also convert more easily, spend more and make more referrals than one-time-only customers.
But how can you use video to help with customer retention?
‘Personalisation’ is the key here. It’s important to make sure that your existing customers feel individually noticed and valued. You can do this by sending out a video thank-you message or a personalised welcome message.
How could you use video to grow your business?
So, there we have it, seven different ways in which you can use video to engage with your current and prospective customers. There are, of course, many other ways in which you can use video to grow your business. First of all, assess what it is that you want to achieve and then consider what style of video aligns best with your goals.
How could you use video to grow your business? Contact us to start a conversation.
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