Reasons to Use Video Marketing
The whole point of having a business website is to attract new customers. You want people to know what you do, what you offer, and most importantly how you can help them solve their problems. One of the best ways to do that is through video marketing. A short video demonstrating a new product, talking about a service, or alerting customers to a special sale or event will resonate much more with your visitors than marketing copy alone.
Think about it. Would you rather read about a product’s features and how great it is and take those words on faith, or would you rather see for yourself—in video—how easy it can make your life? Video can simplify things where words can miss the mark or overcomplicate. Video also allows viewers to make an emotional connection which is very powerful in sales.
Here are some illuminating recent video marketing statistics:
Source: 10 VIDEO MARKETING STATISTICS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW IN 2023 [INFOGRAPHIC]
- Video consumption is at an all-time high with 244.4 digital video viewers in the US as of 2020
- 91% of consumers want to see more online video content from brands
- 66% of consumers find short-form videos to be the most engaging type of content on social media
- 8 out of 10 people have purchased a piece of software or app after watching a brand’s video
- Video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year
If you are the face of your brand, then video can be one of your most critical marketing tools. It’s the quickest way to build trust and a loyal following, because people get to see the real you.
Of course, this is just the beginning. Let’s take an in-depth look the benefits of video as part of your content marketing strategy.
1. Rank Better In Search Engines
One factor that affects how Google and other search engines rank your website is how much time visitors spend on it. If your visitors are sticking around for a long time, it is a signal that your site contains high-quality content that people are looking for.
But videos are not a magic pill with automatic SEO value. They need to be engaging, tell a story, offer valuable information, answer questions, etc. Put some thought behind your video creation strategy, what you are going to say, and how you want to present things visually—write a script (mainly talking points, you don’t want to sound rehearsed) and consider using video production equipment if you have easy access to it.
Great video content attracts people, increasing their time on-site—especially if videos are a staple of your content. Visitors can move easily from one piece of content to the next (better click-through rates), and, in turn, they could also become loyal followers who return to your site again and again and recommend it to others.
YouTube is also the second largest search engine, so being at the top of your audience’s playlists has its SEO advantages. And because you can link your channel and videos back to your website, you get the added benefit of using your videos to drive traffic to where people can learn more about your business and products.
2. Connect With Your Tribe
It’s great if what you’re selling has tons of cool features and can revolutionize the way your customers do something, but if your target audience cannot form a connection with you, they might not hang around long enough to realize all you have to offer.
Check out this product demo video that shows how to use the Mai Pattern Library. Here, Samantha builds trust and connects with viewers by showing them how to use the tools in a friendly and simple way.
Videos give you a platform to show who you really are and what sets you apart. By talking to your audience through a video you are helping to build trust with them. A brand video that features your company founder or team, discussing the motivation for creating your product/service and how it helps people could be just the thing to establish that personal connection while explaining the benefits of what you have to offer.
3. Give Social Proof (with Video Testimonials)
What better way to show your potential customers how great your products and services are than by sharing testimonials from satisfied clients?
A video testimonial is a video that showcases your products and services from the viewpoint of a customer.
Adding customer testimonials to your website will improve your credibility and bolster the view of your products. You should always engage your customers to ask them for both written and video testimonials.
Give an Incentive
Make sure to make it easy and worthwhile for people to record a video testimonial. Most people don’t naturally gravitate to the camera, so you need to give them a reason to put themselves out there. Some ideas include:
- Offer a one-time discount on products/services.
- Add them to a VIP membership/list where they’ll receive exclusive offers.
- Hold a contest. The best video will get a reward and/or be featured in a prominent place on your website.
- Write them a personal email thanking them for their support/business and asking if they can help you out.
Choosing who to ask is also important. Sending a generic email blast to all your past customers is not the most effective method for getting quality video testimonials. Instead, choose customers whom you have a great relationship with, who are well-known in their industry, and who have metrics that show their success (which you may be able to help provide).
Make It Easy With Clear Guidelines
Make it easy for people by telling them what you’re looking for—making them much more likely to follow through. You can provide guidelines and information such as:
- minimum/maximum length of video, if any
- tools/methods for recording (can be as simple as using their phone)
- a list of considerations or questions to think about
- key metrics that demonstrate how your products/services helped them reach their goals
- facts, features, or other benefits you may want them to briefly highlight (and how they used them)
You may be surprising how many new clients seek you out because they saw that someone else was happy (and got results!) with your work.
4. Video Is Ideal For Mobile Viewing
Every day we’re bombarded by distractions from every angle. It’s hard to grab people’s attention, especially when they’re on the go. On mobile, our attention span is even shorter. Couple that with the fact that it’s much easier to watch a quick mobile video than to read an article on a small screen, and you’ve got more than enough reason to include strategically placed videos on the key parts of your site.
In addition, people are always on their phones and also tend to be very connected on various social media channels, so having videos on your site also increases the likelihood that your content will be shared and seen by more people.
5. Show How to Use Your Products to Increase Retention
As a writer, my teachers and professors always emphasized how you should “show, don’t tell.” I guess that college education wasn’t a total waste, because they were right, show>tell applies to digital marketing too! It’s always more powerful to show how your product works and how it can change people’s lives. Showing paints a picture, provides proof, gives confidence. Showing makes it real for the viewer; it allows them to imagine themselves behind the wheel racing toward a better future, leaving their problems in the dust—or in an exploding inferno, depending on how fed up they are. 😉
A solid place to start is with product videos or explainer videos. These are great resources for your users to get to know your product and how it works. You can include a product video right on your homepage to showcase its most important features.
Different people have different learning styles. The importance of video in communication should be clear based upon the billions of YouTube videos on the Internet. Many people learn by watching and listening instead of reading.
Explainer videos/how-to videos are perfect for support documentation, especially if you sell something digital, such as a software program, desktop application, plugin, etc. As such, having these valuable assets on hand empowers your customers to help themselves, improving their overall experience with your brand and increasing retention. You can create several videos and group them together in a support section on your site. Show your customers exactly how your product works by recording a screen share of you using it to carry out typical tasks that a new user would need to understand.
We have some examples of explainer videos at Mai Theme Features explained. Direct people to these frequently for quick answers to common questions.
6. Social Videos Broaden Your Reach
People search for content in a variety of ways, so it pays to make “social videos” part of your video marketing strategy. Most of the below social channels allow live streams—with varying capabilities. Live streams are a type of video where you interact with your audience in real-time and share insider content, breaking news, off-the-cuff insights, and other personal, unscripted content.
On any of these platforms, the goal of your social media marketing efforts should always be to get viewers back to your site, because that is where your most important conversions will happen. Link to a related blog post or page where they can learn more, sign up, or buy. Read our post, Use Social Media to Drive Traffic to Your Website, to learn more. Or, consider trying video ads on your social platforms of choice.
Here are some of the social media platforms you should consider sharing on.
Facebook allows you to create live videos and reels, which give you a great opportunity to show yourself in a human light. That kind of authenticity is invaluable and will help you form a deeper connection with your tribe. Live Facebook videos are well-suited to Q&A’s, quick how-to’s, or even your musings on a topic (showing your know-how of course).
With Twitter, you can share native videos or create live videos using Periscope (their in-app extension). Videos automatically play as the viewer scrolls over them, grabbing the viewers’ attention immediately. Twitter also encourages short videos (140 seconds), so if you are planning on creating a video marketing campaign on Twitter, you’ll likely want to design your videos specifically for Twitter to pack a lot of punch into those precious seconds.
People come to Instagram specifically for visual entertainment/consumption.
Over 95 million photos and videos are shared on Instagram every day. (Instagram, 2016)
-HubSpot’s Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2021
And of course, there are Instagram stories which allow you to highlight of whatever is new or exciting at the moment with your business.
Snapchat
Snapchat is another option that is all about video and photo sharing. What makes snaps unique is they are fleeting. Stories remain visible for 24 hrs and snaps disappear after viewing. It’s like you are giving the viewer a glimpse into something special, just for a moment, and then it’s gone forever. FOMO all the way!
YouTube
YouTube is a video platform and a top choice for video marketers, so if you are going to create lots of types of video content it’s probably a good idea to create a YouTube channel where you can aggregate all of your videos and drive viewers back to your website. YouTube also allows you to track video views, which can be helpful in determining how effective a particular marketing campaign is. YouTube videos can also be easily embedded on your website.
By utilizing this professional social network, you can create and share engaging videos that capture the attention of your target audience. Showcase your products or services, provide valuable industry insights, share customer testimonials, or even deliver educational content. With LinkedIn’s extensive user base of professionals and decision-makers, your videos can effectively build brand awareness, establish credibility, and drive engagement, ultimately helping support lead generation and business growth.
TikTok
By creating short and visually appealing videos on TikTok, brands can showcase their products or services, share behind-the-scenes content, and leverage popular trends to increase their visibility. Utilizing relevant hashtags, collaborating with influencers, and engaging with the TikTok community can help businesses gain traction and attract potential customers. The platform’s algorithmic nature also enables content to reach a broader audience, making TikTok an effective tool for businesses looking to enhance their marketing strategies.
7. Video Helps You Sell Courses
A landing page with an awesome video could be a game-changer when it comes to course sign-up conversion rates. We have seen success with several of our clients who run recurring courses/programs using this method. Provide visitors a one-stop spot where they can get all the information they need about your next program or course with a compelling video as the main attraction. Tell them what they can expect, what problems will be solved, common objections, and then show the potential outcome. They’ll feel much more comfortable investing their time and money if you lay it all out there, and they can hear it coming straight from you.
You can also create marketing videos to use in on-site retargeting campaigns when your pre-sale or sign-up period rolls around. This method is effective because it alerts new visitors (who may know nothing about you) to your current promotion, and these campaigns can be tied back to your drip marketing as well.
8. Keep People on Your Site Longer
People have short attention spans. No surprising news there. We all have heard the recommendations to optimize for this by including lots of headings for skim readers, a TL;DR section on posts, and even making pages that encourage scrolling. But what about video?
Video is the secret weapon to getting people to stay on your site longer. That’s because instead of skimming your content and bouncing when they get their answer (or worse yet when they don’t), people are staying to watch a video. As long as your content is helpful and provides the information the person came looking for in the first place, most people prefer this way of consuming information. It’s the least amount of work with the biggest payoff.
If they watch all the way through, you’ve built a little trust and credibility, making it more likely they’ll click on the next thing to learn more, watch another video, or see what kind of products you have to offer.
9. Build Trust with Video
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, you can quickly build trust with video on your website. It is important to be your authentic self when recording your video because this is how you form a connection with your audience. People like to buy from people they like. They like to see that the person they are buying from is a real human being with strengths and flaws just like them. So be yourself and let your passion do the talking.
If you do struggle on camera, that’s okay! There are still ways to create awesome videos—and even repurpose content in the process—without ever showing your face (though this creates the deepest connection).
Start Video Marketing Today
Video does not need to be intimidating. If you are not already using video marketing, we hope this post has given you some solid reasons to give it a shot.
Start incorporating more video into your overall strategy and experiment with different types of video such as live, product, how-to, animated video, and more to see what resonates best and where. The more you practice and create, the more you will find how much of an impact video can have on the growth and monetization of your website.
Download the How to Start Blogging Guide
Explore this FREE GUIDE to take a deep dive into how to start blogging to make money. Get a PDF version of this guide right to your email, plus weekly tips from our blogging experts at BizBudding.
