The depths of Video marketing
“Hey bud, saw that brilliant Youtube ad campaign? It’s trending.”
That’s how small talk goes with GenZ. Today every brand wants to create the best content, but according to Brian Clark, Founder of CopyBlogger, you must strive to create content that’s best for your audience to make the cut. And making the cut, in most cases means getting your audience into your sales funnel. Videos are the undisputed mediums of content that clicks, but how far in the sales funnel do they take your viewers?
Let’s find out.
Going into the funnel
Simply put, a funnel is used to denote on which level a potential customer lies. A sales funnel has 4 levels – awareness, consideration, sales and retargeting. It’s a step-wise marketing system - an ideal process you intend your customers to experience as they go from Prospects to Leads to Customers to Repeat Buyers. Sales funnels have been around much longer than web marketing, but the online world is the best thing to ever happen to sales funnels because websites and email marketing make sales funnels easier to build.
The sales funnel, just like any funnel, helps you avoid "spilling" (or losing) potential customers. Unless your content is convincing and relevant to a particular level of funnel, you won’t be able to help your prospects trickle down to the next level.
Videos seal the deal
Posting a video will give you, on average, 135 percent more organic reach than a photo. – Socialbakers
There’s no denying the fact that videos are easily consumable. That’s precisely why they score over text-based content. However, it’s a general conception that videos are effective only at the top of the funnel. Majority of branded videos are either aimed at creating awareness or announcing their arrival in the market.
But an intelligently put together video marketing plan has the power to push your audience to the final level of the sales funnel.
If you think otherwise, then we are going to hold your hand and fast forward you to the 21st century marketing techniques.
Product videos sell products. While flipping the product pages, shoppers who view the product video have a higher conversion rate than those who opt for not watching the video. StacksAndStacks shoppers who watch videos are 144% more likely to buy than those who saw no video.
But what is more interesting is the fact that even the people who do NOT watch the video are converting at a significantly higher rate than shoppers viewing the same product page without the option for video viewing. (Source:Treepodia)
Interesting. Isn’t it?
So that means providing an option to watch the video is already a selling point. But what could be the reason behind this astonishing theory? Maybe, it’s because you trust your products so much that you put them up in a multi-dimensional format.
Funnel Level – 1
This stage, being the inlet, gets the maximum footfall. It's at this stage in which customers have determined a problem, begun searching for a solution and become aware of an organization via content marketing, an email campaign, social media marketing or other avenues. An awareness video, if well-made, can bring the brand into the limelight.
Begin by Inspiring
Reebok’s “Honour your days” campaign targets the top of the funnel audience helping them realize that the average human lives for 25,915 days – it’s the countdown for our lives and pushing our bodies to their physical limit. The video was made without using a single word and it still gave a strong message to the audience.
With this video leading the campaign, Reebok communicated its mission of changing how people perceive and experience fitness at every age -- and of letting customers know they'll be there to cover their athletic gear needs throughout their lives.
Funnel Level - 2
Down the funnel, the number of prospects begins to decrease, but the possibility of a sales conversion increases. This is generally when the customer will engage with the organization, request more information and ask questions. As a brand, here’s where you enter the ‘consideration set’ of your consumers.
Your content needs to be more product centric, directly answering your consumers’ questions. A great way to curate content for your video marketing at this stage would be through empathy mapping. Identify your consumers’ feelings, emotions, thoughts and needs. When you empathize with them, that’s when you create things that’s just what they want.
(An exhaustive explanation of the empathy map by webtexttool.com)
Hit the bull’s eye with your video. Try explaining your business proposition as a solution to a specific problem.
Explain - the clearer, the better
Explainer videos are a great fit for content at this stage.
Take a look at this clear, concise and interesting content by Instappy that explains the need and the usage of an app builder with the help of a fantastic explainer video. That’s how you tell them that you are made for them.
The step-wise procedure includes everything you’d want to know before creating an app. Choosing what type of app to create, writing titles, inserting pictures and social media sharable buttons - all explained under 90 seconds. These type of explainer videos lure the potential customer further deep down the sales funnel as they start considering whether to invest in that product or not.
Funnel level – 3
They're ready to buy! Are they going to choose you?
A step further down the funnel, brands view their customers as business assets who could increase their sales. It is that part where numbers matter more than anything else. Videos help you seal the deal if your brand follows the right marketing strategy. You need great product demos, but sales videos can go well beyond that. Make a pitch. Tell them ‘why you’? Tell them, why not anyone else?
But while you are at it, keep the distance between your pitch and your product purchase link as less as possible. You never know, what would make them want to go for your product. You don’t want them to spend few nano-seconds searching for the ‘Buy Now’ button and give up on you. Not at this stage!
Also, it’s inevitable to make sure your sales team has all the numbers for an insight into your video marketing strategy.
Shop while you watch
Shoppable videos have been around in various guises since the early 2010s. The main motive behind these videos is quite obvious: close down the gap between moments of inspiration and actually clicking “buy now”. YouTube’s click-to-buy function is operational, while Facebook is rumored to be exploring shoppable video ads. More recently, many brands have been flocking into the sector of clickable videos to attract customers to a whole new level of shopping experience.
The luxury brand created a four-part video series that allowed shoppers to buy apparels and accessories directly from campaign videos on its site. This video is actually a disguised Point-of-Sale.
Funnel level – 4
Congratulations! Successful sale. But that’s not the end of the story. To close the loop, welcome to the last stage of the sales funnel. Here’s where you ascend from a brand to a brand worth remembering. Because a brand journey doesn’t end with good sales number. We live in an age where people demand more from a brand, may that be offers and discounts or appreciation posts. Make sure you keep up steady engagement so your customers not only come back, but keep coming back for more. And spread the word for you.
Birchbox customer appreciation video
“It is always easier to retain the loyal customers than to acquire new ones” Birchbox, a subscription beauty box club, stands by this thought. Have a look at the way they used videos to extend appreciation and gratitude for their consumers.
The company took to social media to celebrate appreciation day to share experiences of their loyal customers. With this video, the brand laid the foundation of being a brand that cares about their customers.
Your turn now!
Videos can do wonders to increase user engagement and Click Through Rates but the process to create a nice video requires time and brains. Many marketers give up because of their Too long; don’t care attitude and fall just short of what might just be exceptional. If you think fancy camera equipment and editing software will make your videos sharable, then you need to change your line of thought. It’s the idea that’s going to make it big. You can create great videos for social media without all those bells and whistles.
Video streaming would account for approximately 80 percent of internet traffic by 2019. – Cisco
Going by this, you still have 18-month period to start this practice until the competition devours you. Don’t wait; begin.
