Hi, Kyle Domitrz here, with this month’s Third Thursday Tip. Click play to watch the video, or read the full text below.
I talk to a lot of marketers who want to create videos for their brands. But these same businesses often come to the table with the wrong impression about video. They mistakenly pigeon-hole this type of content by targeting it at a single result or goal.
For example, one company Brafton has worked with was putting out one or two videos per year that were designed solely to explain their products. Product demos are a good use of video, just as testimonials are. But creating a narrow approach was restricting the brand’s reach: They were forgetting about consumers who wanted to watch at the beginning of their purchase decisions.
This is more common than you’d think. Brands look to video for SEO and brand awareness, seeking something “viral” or see video as a sales tool and want to develop clips that explain their value props. But they forget that, like any other content, video can be created for a variety of business goals.
Let’s look at how we worked with one company – maintaining their level of investment, while shifting the focus to add new types of video. Their new dynamic video strategy engaged consumers at various points of the sales funnel – and its metrics went through the roof.
1. Capture interest: Top-of-funnel branding and engagement
Create videos that start conversations and engage new audiences – without making a hard sell – like video blogs or how-tos. Take advantage of the video format with a broadcast-like synopsis of industry trends, or poll lots of consumers or employees to show a variety of perspectives that give a brand many faces.
2. Educate and develop product awareness: Build thought leadership and nurture leads
Continue the conversation with videos that demonstrate why your brand is better than the rest. Product demos, how-to video blogs and corporate overviews educate viewers about your products and establish you as a go-to resource for information. These are also a great way to break down complex principles or practices into an easy-to-follow visual format.
3. Earn trust: Generate leads and drive sales
Next, use video to earn trust and fuel conversions. Customer testimonials prove your brand is the right partner – and when your customers take the time to sit down for a video shoot, prospects know you’re worth the investment.
The results speak for themselves
By diversifying the strategy, our customer was able to scale its video efforts – not every piece had complex animations (and showcasing presenters was less expensive and more effective for some audiences). This gave a wider variety of content and more frequent publication that paid off.
Within a couple of months, video page views were up more than 68 percent, the video page of the site was getting way more traction from organic search and the aggregate exit rate from video site pages was down by more than 37 percent. People were clicking through the video options to find related content, and coming back for more. In a single business quarter it boosted the site’s web conversions.
It seems like everybody’s getting into the video marketing game, but it’s not enough to just make a single type of branded video. By creating videos that cater to your audiences throughout the funnel, you bring a level of sophistication to your strategy that will give you results-driven, competitive video marketing.
