One of the most important things to understand about marketing is that not all video is created equally.
Different formats have different strengths and if you’re going to be able to use them effectively, you need to understand why each medium works and what it’s capable of accomplishing under the right conditions.
This is especially true if you’re hoping to use video content to boost your conversion rates.
Video conversion rate optimization: the 6 key tactics
Case in point: there are six key types of video content that not only can increase conversion rates but can also dramatically impact your bottom line in the process.
Customer testimonial videos
Customer video testimonials are the perfect chance to boost your conversion rates, in part, because they’re emotional. As a marketer, you get to show someone’s real, genuine reaction to something rather than spewing off a boring and enigmatic copy.
With a testimonial, you give a customer the chance to use their own words to describe how your product or service made their life better. People can hear the tone in a customer’s voice and see the emotion on their face — leading to a more visceral reaction. Here’s a recent example of a customer testimonial from Uscreen, a leading all-in-one platform for video monetization:
According to Social Fresh, customer testimonial videos have the highest effectiveness rating for any type of content marketing opportunity you may be exploring, to the tune of 89%. Likewise, customer testimonials are perfect for creating an emotional side to your branding that goes beyond the cold, calculated, “business” part of a conversation. Brands that have a high level of emotional intensity often receive three times the word of mouth traffic over brands that are less emotionally connected.
It doesn’t matter whether you include customer testimonial videos on your product landing pages, in announcement emails or on social media remarketing ads — you need to be leveraging this type of video content.
Explainer videos
An explainer video (or product video) is exactly what it sounds like — it’s an opportunity for you to dive deep into a particular topic and cover it from all angles. If you’ve got an innovative new product that people don’t really have a frame of reference for, an explainer video can be a perfect chance to show, not tell, people why they should be paying attention the product.
In Hootsuite’s explainer video, they chime in on the capabilities of their social media marketing software:
Explainer videos are great for boosting conversion rates and increasing brand awareness on social media and can they even make great additions to announcement emails that you’re sending out to customers.
Keep in mind that a full 71% of consumers think that video explains even complicated topics far better than text alone can, so the results can be enormous with this method of video content.
Need some inspiration for this type of video? Studiotale put together a great list about the best explainer videos currently out there.
On-Demand demo videos
One of the great things about a VOD demonstration video is that you get to show your prospects exactly what your product and services are capable of delivering. Not only can you explain what your service entails, but you also get to provide people with the basic knowledge of how they can use and get the most out of your product. Let’s say you’ve created a series of demonstration videos that break the use of your product or service down into a series of smaller, more manageable steps.
You could then repurpose these videos on your product’s landing page to entice visitors to make a purchase, or even push them out to your followers on social media channels. Here’s an example of this type of video in action from the team at Trello:
All of this is important because 73% of the people who watch these types of demonstration videos are likely to make a purchase soon after.
"Likewise, 58% of people think that companies who produce this type of video content can be trusted more than those who don’t watch —which can be an important factor that can help get someone off the fence and closer to making a purchase."Webinars
Webinars aren’t just an effective way to boost your video conversion rates — they’re one of the most effective types of OTT content that exists. You can record a webinar on virtually any subject, from educating your audience about the history of your business to breaking down how to get the most out of your products or services.
Research has indicated that 73% of B2B marketers and sales leaders say that webinars are the best method for generating high-quality leads.
Part of this has to do with how webinars help usher people through the entire customer lifecycle funnel. Someone can begin a webinar totally unaware of your product or service and by the end emerge as a loyal brand advocate.
Video Emails
Everyone loves the convenience of email, but in an era where the average person gets about 90 messages in their inbox every single day, you have to do something to stand out from the crowd.
Video emails have become one of the best ways to do precisely meet that expectation, all while boosting your conversion rates in the process.
Instead of typing out a 500-word message for your next promotional email, record a short two or three-minute video and send that instead. Your prospects can see your face and hear your voice, making that experience far more compelling.
Patagonia excels at this method of video. They sent out a full film, Force, that recalls a climber’s journey climbing through South America’s Patagonia region:
Why does video email matter?
Studies have shown that an initial email with video tends to receive a 96% click-through rate increase on average. Even using the word “video” in your subject line makes people more likely to open your message.
Once you’ve got a recipient on the hook, the video itself will take care of the rest — and the same research revealed that 46% of users are likely to act very quickly after viewing this type of content.
Announcement Videos
Last, but certainly not least, we have announcement videos — which are the perfect opportunity to not only spread the word about your upcoming new product or service but to do so in a way that builds maximum anticipation.
Buffer utilized an announcement video for the launch of their new product, Stories Creator:
Announcement videos are perfect when paired with emails because historically the two channels always worked very well together. This type of video is also a perfect addition to your landing page and can even be valuable on social media.
The important thing to understand is that announcement videos are ideal in both the B2B and B2C marketing spaces. According to Forbes, 65% of executives visit a marketer’s website after viewing this type of video and 39% of people call a vendor directly. That’s significant.
As they say, you can only make one first impression — and the right announcement video can help you make the strongest one possible for your upcoming product launch.
Video marketing, while often intimidating at first glance is not as difficult as it was at one time. DSLRs and iPhones allow you to make quality videos, video production has become less expensive, and there are countless software tools to make the process easier.
Now that you have some ideas to implement video into your marketing strategy, what are you waiting for? Go out there and make some content!
