In today’s world, most businesses can and should include a video marketing strategy in their overall marketing plan. In fact, if you consider content marketing as the cornerstone to reaching your marketing and business goals, you should be including video in your overall content strategy.
The best part? It doesn’t have to eat into your budget. In fact, unless your organization needs a professionally produced video for a nationwide commercial or other business venture, most videos can be done using a camera you’re already familiar with: your smartphone.
But in a world where it seems like everyone is using video, how can your video marketing strategies stand out? Here are four video marketing strategies to consider adding to your content plan.
If you’re in the software as a service (SaaS) world, a demo request is probably the ultimate goal in order to convert your website traffic into leads your sales team can actually start talking to. But a demo request is a big ask, because it means the person who fills out the form actually has to talk to someone—and that can be a lot for some people, especially if they don’t know what they’re getting into in the first place.
That’s where video comes into play. Including a short 1-2 minute clip of a typical demo call or a screen recording of your product in action can encourage these leads to fill out the demo request form so they can learn more. You might worry, “But that means we are giving away our secret and they may not want to talk to us anymore.” Not necessarily. Chances are you’ll weed out the ones that probably wouldn’t be interested in the long run, and you’ll leave the more qualified leads wondering “what’s next” or “give me more details.”
It’s no secret that word of mouth and customer reviews can make or break a business. In fact, consumers read an average of seven reviews before trusting a business. So why not share your customer success stories with your audience on your website and your social media channels?
Short 30-second videos can be shot at your office or by running a customer review campaign, where your happy customers send videos they take themselves talking about your product or service—the more organic, the better. Bonus: Ask your customers to share these videos on their own social media channels or website.
If you are hosting webinars, giving presentations, or speaking at conferences, why not use what you already have? Chances are these kinds of talks are recorded, so they can easily be repurposed and added to your website and social media channels. And don’t overthink the editing. Leaving the Q&A session at the end as part of the recording can help you appear as a thought leader in the industry.
If you aren’t already hosting webinars, now might be a good time to start. Webinars help those in the consideration or decision stage of the Buyer’s Journey move toward the next steps. Offer an incentive at the end of your webinar to encourage attendees to sign up for a free trial or talk to a sales person.
Videos can be used to nurture contacts via email or to personalize messages from your sales team in an effort to help your leads better understand your products or next steps. Rather than sharing an overload of written content, video allows you to discuss the high-level overview of how your product solves your leads' pain points.
In fact, video has been linked to increased engagement for most viewers. According to Social Media Week, viewers claim they retain 95 percent of a message when obtained via video. Furthermore, according to Wyzowl, 84 percent of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.
Still not convinced? Beyond providing a better user experience for those on your website and allowing your customers to truly understand your product in order to move to the next step, video marketing also adds value to your SEO strategy and can increase website traffic. Bottom line: If you want to stand apart from your competitors, don’t skip video marketing.