Although video marketing is not a new concept, it has certainly exploded in both utility and popularity with the emergence of the online space as the primary forum for business-consumer relations. After all, television was always a very basic form of advertising, in which the product was marketed via commercials, and the program, itself, had none-to-very-little actual advertising.
Today, this form of marketing is fully understood to refer to videos that directly market your products and services for the purposes of elevating your brand above that of your competition. For best results, you may consider bolstering your efforts with testimonials from customers, viral videos that have even a tangential relationship to your product/service, and how-to-videos where applicable.
Video Marketing: The Deep Dive
For new businesses and veterans alike, let’s get deeper into exactly what this marketing is – given the plenitude of available markets through which you can promote your content. Because of the huge impact that social media has on everyday life, social advertising, in particular, is one of the more important avenues. After all, one of the goals in creating content is to have your audience be able to relate to it, or aspire to be around it. Social networks do a fantastic job of serving up content to a ready-made audience, which then encourages them to share it with their own ever-widening social circles.
One aspect that we’ll touch on later is the role of the so-called “influencer.” This title is especially-applicable to the social media realm, and is akin to Hollywood actors using their social clout to promote a watch brand or other product. The influencer is like the actor in the social media realm; if you can secure one for your target audience, it has the ability to elevate your brand significantly.
With all that said, it’s important to make a distinction between video advertising and viral videos. Viral videos are with a subject matter that is sufficiently interesting to make the content take off; many people share it with their concentric circles of social networks. The content tends to be more about a universally-interesting occasion than a product or service – although of course it can be about a product/service that has been displayed in a unique way.
If your business can take advantage of a viral campaign, then your efforts will virtually explode in reach and catapult your product/service into a significantly greater pool of prospective customers. A social media influencer has the ability to work in a similar capacity for you.
Video Marketing With BizIQ
Our local packages include a wide range of specialized services to bring you the success you are looking for, and our production services are available across a few different packages. Two of our local packages, the Big Impact and the Complete Solution, come with a professionally produced clip to help market your business.
Our production team will work with your dedicated account manager to create a piece that will help share your company’s message with potential new customers across the internet. Each one that we produce promotes your specific message and brand through the use of high-quality graphics, royalty-free music, branded colors, coordinated titles to match the graphics shown, and a professional voice-over.
We then create a YouTube channel for your business and upload the content, as well as across other popular platforms to increase the visibility of your business. These videos are optimized with the best SEO practices in mind, to ensure that your business remains visible to your current customers, as well as appearing to more people in need of your services.
If you are interested in adding content onto your current package, or producing additional videos to compliment your existing presence, we can help with that as well. We can provide additional videos for a one time cost of $149.
What Does Video Marketing Include
The most important thing about this advertising is forming a viable strategy. You do not want to be one of those companies that have been languishing with very low conversion rates for years; the key is to make a plan so that your videos become impactful shortly after you start producing and releasing them.
Out of all the other methods of promotion that you might favor, this will be the most impactful when done correctly. No matter what social platform your prospective customers are using, they are engaging with video-content at a much higher clip than any other medium – with those being text, infographics and pictures. In fact, social media platform research shows that of the six major social media platforms, four of them are video-centered. Even the ones that started out being dominated by text, have seen visual content overtake that. This includes Facebook, Twitter and others.
In fact, in order of preference, video advertising takes the top spot by a solid margin, with email and newsletters next in line. These formats are the ones that consumers want to see from businesses. According to well-known research content provider, Hubspot, the breakdown is as follows:
Videos: Garner 54% preference
- Emails and Newsletters: Garner 46% preference
- Social pictures: Garner 42% preference
- Social videos: Garner 34% preference
- Blogs and articles: Garner 18% preference
- Professional PDF (post document format) downloadable content: 17%
As clear as these numbers are, the full effect of this advertising extends even further, to other conclusions from the data: by having a video on your landing page, you can expect up to an impressive 80% improvement in the conversion rate of consumers to customers for your product/service. You can look forward to even better conversion rates if you know how to expertly handle placing the different types of advertising at different stages of the sales funnel – sometimes, text works better to bolster the effects than pictures.
The Proven Types of Video Marketing
This section is all about what this includes, and we would be remiss if we didn’t explicate the breakdown of the types that have been used successfully by numerous companies. No matter which ones you decide will work for your business, it’s important to keep another important truth derived from survey data: consumers prefer lower-quality content with a message that resonates, than higher-quality content that seems contrived and inauthentic. The following will summarize several of the top options for making impactful videos:
- Brand Videos: These videos should be focused, with a minimum of extraneous elements. Although you want a crisp, professional look, you should eschew too much emphasis on the visuals, in favor of making sure that your company’s brand, mission and product explanation comes across. You want to attract customers based on how well the product meets their needs.
- Interview Videos: Obviously, the higher the profile of the person you can get to interview, the more impactful the piece (usually). Ideally, you want to have enough quality content, or promising product/service, to be able to get a thought leader to agree to an interview. Of course, it’s better if the guest is actually in the industry in question, and recognized as a thought leader – but if you can get an Elon Musk or a Bill Gates, go for it.
- Videos with Animation: These are like a super-charged infographic – except a video is worth a thousand pictures, so animated videos will be much more effective at grabbing converts. This format helps you explain the hard-to-follow stuff that may lose people when displayed as text.
- Demo Videos: This is exactly what it sounds like: videos that explain to consumers how your product/service works. Since it’s in this format, it displays a hands-on approach, guiding them visually through the steps using your actual product. Sometimes, demo videos are all that it takes to convince them that this is what they want; when time is short, people often type “demo video product” into the search engine to see what they come up with.
- Event Videos: Do you travel to conventions related to your industry? Then it is a great idea to take a quality phone/camera with you to record the event. Whether it’s a fundraiser, keynote address or conference, your prospective customer base would benefit tremendously from being able to check it out later on your YouTube business page – or even embedded into your business website. Make sure to edit the content to detail the most interesting aspects.
- Live Videos: When it comes to customer engagement, there’s nothing like a live clip to make your viewers feel special and engaged. The fact that it is live also encourages them to tune in so as not to “miss” it – even though it will usually be available afterward. The stats, however, show a markedly-increased period of engagement for live videos over the prerecorded alternative. Additionally, the ability to perhaps ask questions real-time may be especially attractive if you have a certain kind of product/service.
- Educational Videos: This is largely self-explanatory. You want to explain, in a carefully-delivered “how-to” format, how your product or service is used for optimal results. In addition to going over the fundamentals, you can expand on this with instructional tips on pairing your product with any applicable accessories. The chief utility of educational videos is for your affiliates or sales team. It forms a package with which they can instruct people in the field in a standardized way.
- Customer Testimonial Videos: Another mostly self-explanatory medium. Having professional, real-life users talk about their experience with your products is a tried-and-true conversion method. It worked well before the internet took over the business sphere, and works even better now. If you can incentivize a few customers to record their experiences using your product or service, the piece can be worth its weight in gold for new customers’ acquisitions.
- High-Level Videos: This is a spate of things that includes virtual reality videos, videos shot from the unique viewpoint of a 360 degree camera, and even augmented reality videos. Although one of the selling points is the ability to see all around, the primary one should still be your product. Don’t lose sight of what you’re actually selling customers. The virtual reality aspect gives the viewer an unprecedented amount of control over what they see and what they can do. The augmented reality version impresses with a digital layer over the real – which can really capture the imagination and allow the prospective customer to visualize product placement in different environments. This is especially useful for furniture and clothing stores.
What Are the Benefits of Video Marketing
There are many benefits to this style of marketing – as long as it’s done correctly. To keep things succinct and to the point, let’s dive right into a handful of the most important attributes.
- Improved Conversion Rates – Right off the bat, you can expect the presence of a video on your webpage to improve your conversion rate by up to 80%. Of course, the content must be a good one with a capable presenter, delivering the information in an attractive manner.
- Google Search Preference – Not surprisingly, it turns out that Google Search really likes videos! You’ll gain a lot of search engine clout simply by displaying your content in this format, because audiences have shown a significant preference for this over text and images. In fact, combining your campaign with the right text and images has the ability to cause your campaign to skyrocket. Use Youtube for better results than your company website could provide.
- Video Marketing/Email Marketing Combo – If you already engage in email marketing – and you should – adding a video-clip in the Subject line is proven to improve conversions by a significant amount. It also helps keep your unsubscribe numbers down. After all, wouldn’t you rather watch a 3 minute piece than read 30 minutes of text from said content? If you need even more convincing, then consider that in an email improves CTR (click-through rates) by a factor of up to 300%. Now that’s incredible!
- Social Media Likes Video – A LOT – How much, you ask? Unlike the written word, which enjoys a few shares, 92% of videos watched are shared by mobile device users. Clearly, this beats all other mediums to shame. People know that friends and family are much more likely to watch a clip than read a long page – especially on the smaller screen of a smartphone or tablet.
- Video Exudes Credibility – Watching someone deliver needed or helpful information naturally creates an atmosphere of credibility. In fact, trust goes along with this, which is necessary to building long relationships spanning years. Customer loyalty to a product cannot be underestimated. Over 90% of watchers report that the piece was essential in their product purchasing decision.
Video is only going to grow in the future, with more and more necessary to capture the attention of the prospective consumer. The time to get in on the ground floor is now, so that the process becomes second-nature to you.
Produce a Quality Video to Meet Your Goals
Video marketing is the promotional method of today and the future. All the metrics point to this – which is why you need a committed program that can be competitive with the top merchants in your industry. In fact, the goal is to make your business one of those top merchants. For more information on where to start, don’t hesitate to contact us for video and digital marketing services at BizIQ.