Five Realistic Video Marketing Benefits For Your Business
For the small to medium sized business owner or head of sales, video marketing seems to represent that magical unicorn at the end of the rainbow (is that a thing?) that lures us in with promises of more sales, better conversion rates, and universal brand recognition. Undoubtedly, many of the promises made by video marketing gurus are pure hype. However, if we have realistic expectations of what video really can do for our business, and we’re committed to an actual marketing game plan in which video plays a part, the results can be stunning. Here is our updated list for 2019 of five things that video really can achieve for your business.
A careful & thoughtful video marketing strategy can boost conversions and sales, increase your overall marketing ROI, build trust and perceived value, increase your SEO, and enhance your email marketing campaign.
1. Video Marketing Boosts Conversions and Sales.
If you’ve built a good website, and have populated it with content that your audience finds useful, but the visitors are just not converting into sales like you hoped they would, video can help. Depending upon what you’re selling, different types of videos can offer great conversion results.
If you’re selling a service that is slightly complicated, and you know that you can close more sales if you can just get in front of potential clients and clearly explain your offering, then video will be a great additional tool. A short, animated video can be great for explaining complicated product or service offerings, but if your budget is limited, you can get your best sales person in front of the camera to do a little Q & A. Your sales people know the most common questions prospects ask, and if you can answer those questions in a short video, they’ll be moving prospects closer to a sale. Using video to provide potential customers the information they want, when they want it, goes a long way to turning your website into a closing tool.
If you’re selling a product, a short video showing how the product works, different uses for the product, or how to properly clean and store the product can be a great sales driver. Animoto reports that prospects who watch a video about a product or service are 73% more likely to make a purchase. Social proof is also a powerful sales motivator, so having a couple of short testimonial videos of people who have used, love, and recommend your product can boost sales and conversions.
2. Increase Your Marketing ROI With Video
Tracking the return on investment from a marketing video can often be subjective and challenging. This is not because it can’t be done effectively, but because many businesses that use video marketing are not using it deliberately. The deliberate use of marketing videos entails careful planning and implementation. If your company creates a cool video and then just uploads it to YouTube and embeds it on the home page of the website, it’s likely that the video will not only be less effective as a sales tool, but also virtually untrackable. Sure, you can track how many people watch it, but that doesn’t directly relate to closed sales, and that’s what we’re after, right?
A company who carefully manages where their video is used in the sales funnel, and analyzes the data on clicks and sales can get a much better handle on the actual ROI of video marketing. Businesses who carefully plan and implement their video strategy report that they’re getting great return on their investment in video marketing.
3. Build Trust & Perceived Value
In the area of business branding and name recognition, video is a very powerful tool indeed. Now, many will think that branding and name recognition videos are only for large, established companies, or those lucky few who happen to make a marketing video that becomes a viral hit. This is simply not so. Branding or “general agency” video serves the purpose of creating an impression in the mind of your audience. You get to craft and mold that impression by the images and sequences you choose to highlight. Using the right images, music, and sequencing can build trust and warmth, generate excitement, create a sense of exclusivity, and much more.
Consumer survey results have shown that 58% of customers view companies that produce video content in a more favorable light. This is likely because video content lends the impression of more openness and transparency in your organization, which builds trust. Everyone wants to do business with a company they trust.
4. Video Increases Search Engine Results.
5. Enhance Your Email Marketing.
What's holding you back from using video?
With the thoughtful and deliberate integration of video into your marketing efforts, you should be able to achieve much greater results in sales, conversions, search engine rankings, and more. As part of a comprehensive strategy, video has tremendous promise for marketers, but only if used strategically and consistently. One of the biggest reasons that businesses give for not using video effectively or enough to make a real difference is either the complexity or cost, but video marketing should be neither complex nor expensive. With the right message to the right audience, video can be incredibly simple and effective, so get out there and make something great. If you have questions about video marketing, let us know!
