More often than not, products or services that are marketed or displayed without a catchy, fun or cinematic video aren’t expected to do well in the market. That’s mainly because people believe that if it’s not good enough for a video, it’s not good enough to be bought.
Consumers prefer visual aids to everything else, they like the concept of a video telling them everything they need to know rather than reading it on manuals.
How often has it happened to you, that you were watching one of those inescapable ads on YouTube and the video fascinated you enough to engage in the product or service they were offering.
Videos have been so effective that companies have completed researches on it, concluding that videos do actually increase your conversion rate by almost 80%.
No wonder there are so many video advertisements on YouTube and Facebook, this is because it is easier to get a viewers’ attention through a highly targeted video than through any other retail method.
Or by using a traditional advertisement that is still heavily used in retail, such as radio, banner, or TV ads which are not even remotely as targeted as the ones leveraged through social platforms. So regardless if you create video content yourself or maybe you get the help of a video editing services agency, there’s a ton of potential here.
The truth is that video marketing can do wonders for your business if implemented properly.
Here are 5 ways you can use videos to increase sales.
1. Keep it Simple!
People don’t care how entertaining your video is if its 10 minutes long. Most of them wouldn’t even bother watching it when they see the time of the video in the window.
The key here is to strategically insert content in the video beginning with the information that is most vital and going sideways after that. People seldom watch videos more than half a minute long, in fact, most of the people get disinterested within the first 20 seconds.
The picture below shows how viewers fare, with a drastic drop at the 20-second mark.
The issue isn’t just that the videos are too long, they are bland as well. Those videos are neither properly integrated with the product that is being offered, nor are they catchy enough to attract attention.
So, don’t just have someone narrate the details of the products that are being offered, use the visual aids like animation and video editing to make the video look cooler and much more integrated with the modern world.
2. Instilling a sense of trust
Have you ever been in a situation where you didn’t know what to do and was too afraid to ask someone about it and suddenly saw a guy indulging in your query on a video?
That trust and that bond you felt with that stranger at that moment are what you need to present your customers with. You need to show them that you are the only one they can trust in the market and that you work for them.
Therefore, always include facts and research results in your videos to complement your product, instilling a sense of trust in your customer’s mind. People believe in facts, and when you would lay down a series of facts in front of them, they would be obliged to trust you, increasing your conversion rates.
Make sure to have all the data that backs up the facts presented in your video prepared upfront. You can even go as far as preparing a creative brief or a script for your video before you start filming.
This will give your video more credibility and will make your brand look professional.
3. Record Demos and Webinars
This term webinar has become increasingly common in recent years, which simply means web conferencing. It’s an umbrella term for web meetings and web-peer discussions allowing relevant queries of individuals to be answered.
The idea of webinars allows viewers to engage themselves in the ongoing activities making them feel a part of a discussion like they are physically involved. This allows brands to answer the question that they haven’t even asked yet. This personal level engagement has been expected to increase conversions by 72%. Although this might be more suitable for an e-commerce website, it can be equally effective for pretty much any type of business.
On the other hand, demos are basically the understanding of the product being transferred to the relevant person. People are often confused or dazed by what they need to buy or what are the functions or capabilities of the product that they are buying.
These demos which can be in either video form or in-person as well, allow people to understand that companies think from the consumer perspective, understanding where they need help and providing instruction therein.
4. Product Portfolio improvement
Every business is bound to have a product portfolio, right?
This lets people know what the product range is alongside its prices if necessary. Traditionally these portfolios depict some pictures of the products giving a brief introduction of the item that is being sold.
For consumers, this feels a little bland. They want to engage with the website properly and what better way than a personal touch. A specific video for the product range would allow people to interact on a personal level.
This video would basically be a guide through the product clearing the mind of the viewer of what they need to buy.
5. Use personalized videos
You might have noticed that when you access an online retail store or even an online magazine, they ask you for your email address and your name. Just as this happens on a website, it’s starting to happen in retail stores as well where they would keep your personal details after you have checked-out.
They do this as they see a future client in you and want to lock you down for the future. Believe it or not, this has been reported to work very successfully. This usage of lead capture allows companies to interact with their prospects directly, establishing an emotional connection with them and garnering their specific and undivided attention.
Once retail companies can lock in the information of their prospective clients, they can email them custom-made videos and specific offers, luring them towards the products of the websites and in turn increases the overall conversion rate.
When videos are good enough you can almost be certain that they would bring in some heavy viewership and thus, attract more and more customers. The key part here is to acknowledge every viewer as a potential client, not letting go of any single lead and making sure the conversion rate does increase over time.
6. Do live videos
Live streaming is all the rage nowadays.
For some reason, it gets traction on any platform more than pre-recorded and uploaded videos.
So, if you are in your early days and you don’t really have a subscriber base, one quick way to get in front of a bigger audience faster is to do live videos.
No matter if you are on YouTube, Facebook, or any other platform that allows you to live stream, you will probably to better, have better engagement and just get more from your videos.
On top of that, you don’t need to edit your videos anymore. So that’s one thing less to worry about. I know first hand that video editing takes 2-3x more time than the actual recording took.
Why not use all that extra time to put out even more content and grow your audience even more?
So definitely give live videos a try at least. If I were in your shoes I would probably do both pre-recorded and live streams to see which performs better for me personally, or for my industry, or the niche I’m in. And then, based on the results I would double down on what works.
7. Just start already
The last and maybe the most important tip I have to share with you is to just start.
Don’t spend days, weeks, or even months planning everything to perfection. Start with what you have now and adjust your videos as you go. Nobody is perfect and it’s totally fine for your videos to look a little bit “rubbish” at the very beginning.
The question you need to ask yourself is this. What would benefit me and my business more – working 1 month on the perfect video, or putting out 5 or 6 okay looking videos in that month?
I remember when I first got started with video content, I was OCD about the video quality, the audio, the way my background looks, the video editing, and so on and so forth.
So, stop worrying about that and focus more on getting that content out there and getting in front of your audience.
Conclusion
Creating video content, especially when you are a small retail business owner might seem simply too hard to do. And it probably is more demanding than other forms of marketing, but the results will match the efforts.
That’s it from my side in a nutshell. I dare you to start implementing at least one of the 5 above tips and share your results in the comments down below.
