Video marketing is rapidly increasing in prevalence and importance, especially on social media. A survey conducted last year by video production company Wyzowl found that 87% of businesses that use video use it on social media, and 78% of them believe it to be effective.
If you’re still stuck in the still image era, you’re falling behind your competitors in the way you present your company to its target audiences. Let’s look at how easy it is to adopt video into your marketing strategy.
Benefits of Video Marketing on Social
Establish Trust
Video enables customers to meet your staff and to understand your company in a more personal, engaging, detail-rich medium than text and still images. Listening to and watching your staff introduce themselves or explain your products or services establishes trust and creates a personal bond between the customer and your company.
Use video to show your staff at work, and give customers a “behind-the-scenes” look at what makes your business tick. Show how your products are made or your services are performed to give them a sense of “insider information” and faith in the process.
Improve Search Rankings
Google loves video content, especially video on YouTube (which Google owns). Use keywords and searchable phrases in your video titles, descriptions, and tags to help your target audience find you through online search.
Embed your videos in your blog and on your social media channels for added search benefits. Tailor the tags, keywords, and phrases in your blog posts and hashtags in your social posts to reach target audiences.
Increase Engagement and Sharing on Social
Moving pictures naturally attract more attention than still ones. Now that videos auto-play on Facebook, they’ve become the most viewed type of content, and the most likely to be liked, and shared. Facebook currently gives top priority to its “live” feature and YouTube has launched a similar “live” component. Pinterest and Instagram are also popular channels for video.
Increase Sales
The same survey found that 64% of businesses using video say it has led directly to increased sales. You can use this in a feedback loop, using video testimonials from new, happy customers to establish trust with still more new customers.
Begin With These Types of Marketing Videos
Homepage/Landing Page
Use video on your home page or landing page to introduce new visitors to your company or products/services. Explain what your business is about; give them a quick tour through your facility; and include a call-to-action to steer them in the right direction.
According to the Wyzowl survey, 45% of businesses who use video have an explainer video on their home page, and 83% of them say it’s effective.
Explain and Demonstrate
For functional products, video can be extremely effective to demonstrate applications and show the customer how to obtain their maximum value. For lifestyle products, video helps customers imagine themselves enjoying it, using it, wearing it, eating it, or incorporating it into their lives.
Answer FAQs
Every product- or service-related question that customers ask on a regular basis can be the basis for a video. Such FAQ videos can be quick and easy to produce and can draw traffic to your website from customers seeking information not just about you and your product, but about the product type in general. Of course, FAQ videos also work well on social media.
Video Production & Quality
It is better to create and share videos that are “just OK” than not to share them at all, especially in social media. They’ll still generate engagement and clicks. Modern smartphones have sufficient video capabilities for many purposes, and you can edit video with basic programs like IMovie and Windows Media Player, and online with YouTube. What is more important than production quality is that the video serves to educate, demonstrate, inspire, and motivate your customer.
Take your business to the next level by incorporating video in the marketing mix. If you are not sure which direction to take or feel overwhelmed with the process, contact us. We can help you develop and implement a video marketing strategy.
