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Now, more than ever, video is becoming an indispensable way to reach and convert your customers. Google, who also owns YouTube, is 50 times more likely to feature a landing page with a video in organic search results than one without. What’s more, visitors to your website who watch a product video are 73% more likely to make a conversion.
It’s not only your website which needs to embrace video content. On social media, video is the single most engaging format, with 100 million hours watched every day on Facebook alone. Video is easily digestible, and very sharable: on Twitter, a video is six times more likely to be shared than a photo.
When a face-to-face conversation isn’t possible, consumers are looking for a human touch, especially if the value of what they’re buying is high. Video has the potential to revolutionise how you sell, both in terms of your number of sales and your customer’s experience. You want your customers to be delighted at every stage of their purchase, and video can help you to deliver just that.
What is video marketing?
Video has become an essential part of our lives. Whether it’s streaming video on Netflix, or learning a new skill from YouTube tutorials, video accounts for much of the content that’s available online. In 2017, more than 56 billion gigabytes of video was streamed online, and this figure is set to quadruple by 2022. In order to stay ahead of your competition, it makes sense to look into ways you can reach this ever-growing audience now – and FINALLY can help.
Even if you think that your core customers don’t currently fit the bill, there are a number of ways video can be incorporated into your marketing efforts, including video selling, video conferencing, product videos, video proposals and testimonials. Each of these has a place in every marketing strategy to help you to keep your audience engaged, and turn your prospects into customers.
Top 5 ways to use video for making sales
If you sell physical products, you may want to invest in multimedia content to boost the appeal (and search rankings) of your converting landing pages. If your business is services-based, skill-share webinars or customer case studies and testimonials may be the best option for you.
Video proposals
Video sales messages, also known as video proposals, delivered to your LinkedIn profile, or via email, can be a powerful tool for getting your message across, especially as cold contacts are becoming increasingly less effective. Video proposals are a pretty useful medium if your product is high-value or your service is account-based (for instance, if you’re an agency or have a detailed on-boarding process). Sure, they may take a bit of time at first but once you’ve perfected your format (through tried-and-tested approaches) you’ll discover that these are your most efficient route to market, and the results speak for themselves.
FINALLY’s Sales Director Rob Dando achieved an 83% click through rate by including video content in his outreach efforts, which resulted in 26% of those he emailed to send a reply. So, how did he do this?
In an effort to get noticed, and to stay ahead of the competition, Rob started to send an embedded video message to prospects in which he could add a human touch to his introduction, and better showcase his services in a more efficient and time-expedient way. Hosted on Vidyard, these short videos were tailored to its recipient, identifying what he knew of the contact (even something as small as their name and place of business can help) and how they were connected, namechecking mutual acquaintances from LinkedIn. This made the message more personalised and tailored to its audience which, as any marketer will know, improves conversions.
In his video, Rob gave his messages context by identifying a problem, or a recent success, that his recipient had posted on LinkedIn, and told them how his company may be able to help them further. He then embedded a calendar at the end of the video so his recipient could book in a meeting without having to leave the page.
It’s not only prospecting where video can help. Video content can enrich your after sales’ offering, providing guides on how your customers can make the most of their purchase, suggest other products or services which they may like, or simply to touch base and find out how they’re getting on.
Product or service videos
This will be something that almost everyone will have had an experience with when you’ve shopped for products online. Product videos are great for when making an informed decision about what you’re buying can be tricky without seeing it. Video can help to bridge this gap, showcasing your products or services in a way that’s interesting, to help your customers decide if they’re right for them. This is particularly useful if your service is hard to explain, or more appealing when you see it in action. Product videos can improve conversions and are ultimately helpful to your audience, which will build trust in your brand.
Webinars
Webinars are a terrific way to capture your lead early on in their journey. At the start of any significant purchase, a customer will do their research, turning to blogs, guides, and yes, webinars, to help find a solution to their problem.
Webinars offer a platform on which you can reach a wide range of people, adding value to their journey right from the very start. For you, webinars can give a real insight into what your audience are interested in, positioning yourself as a thought-leader in this field, and ultimately a useful resource who continues to delight your audience, time and again.
There are some dos and don’ts about hosting a cracking webinar, and FINALLY CEO Steve Howard has some tips about how to maximise the success of your webinar.
Video testimonials
When it comes to growing your business, word of mouth is everything. After all, the opinions and attitudes of your existing customers directly impacts the number of new customers you’ll make. There’s no better way for customers to advocate your brand than by making a video about their experience. Research suggests that video testimonials are 90% more effective than written recommendations, but how do you secure those all-important video reviews of your service or products?
An easy way to do this is to approach some of your most valued, long-standing customers and ask if they’d mind sharing their experience on camera. Arrange a time to pop along to their workplace and, with the help of a qualified videographer, capture what they have to say about you on film. This can be used on your website, sent to prospective customers or shared in marketing campaigns, for as long as you need to.
Video conferencing
Video chat via conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Google Hangouts or Slack are now the new normal. When face-to-face meetings were limited, or removed altogether, companies had no choice but to embrace video as a way to continue doing business. Now everyone is pretty savvy when it comes to video conferencing, and for sales people this presents an opportunity to use this as their preferred platform for making sales.
It stands to reason that your business should speak to its customers how they want to be spoken to, and on the platforms that they use. But, if suited to your target personas, the benefits of video conferencing are many:
- You can talk to all the decision-makers at once.
- You can share documents, websites and presentations.
- It's cost-effective and frees up your time and resources.
At a glance: what is video selling and how can you use it?
- Videos are great for converting customers: visitors to your website who watch a product video are 73% more likely to make a conversion.
- Video is indispensable to your SEO strategy. Google is 50 times more likely to feature a landing page with a video in organic search results.
- Video can be incorporated into your marketing efforts: through video proposals, video conferencing, product videos, video testimonials and webinars.
FINALLY can help: our video strategists can help you to decide how to use video in your marketing efforts, and our videographers can make it happen. Get in touch today for advice tailored to your business.
