Want to know how to increase your conversion rate by 80%? You could start by including a video on your landing page. This is just one of the many surprising ways that video marketing can boost conversions and increase sales and engagement.

What is Video Marketing?

With the rising popularity of video-based platforms such as YouTube and Tiktok, it’s no surprise that videos are getting more attention than ever. Video marketing leverages the popularity of videos to benefit your business. This can include recording a video ad, a promotional video, a how-to video, or an informational video about your product. These videos help you meet and exceed your business goals, from increasing conversion rates to attracting new clients.

Why is Video Marketing Important?

The vast majority of marketing professionals use video as a marketing tool, with 88% of marketers reportedly satisfied with the ROI of video marketing. In fact, nearly all marketers have acquired new customers by means of video used on their social media channels.  Even mentioning the word “video” in an email subject line increases open rates by 19%.

Social media platforms everywhere have video options. From Facebook to Instagram, video marketing can take center stage and make potential clients stop scrolling and pay attention. Studies have found that videos lead to 300% more traffic than marketing content that does not include videos. Including videos in your marketing strategy also helps with search engine optimization (SEO); by incorporating videos, a website is 53 times more likely to reach the front page of Google.

Videos can help generate leads and increase conversions, but they also help personalize a business and can foster a sense of connection between you and your clients. Watching a video is a great way for potential clients to familiarize themselves with your business, the product, and your content—and with half of consumers wanting to see videos from brands over any other type of content, incorporating videos into your marketing strategy is the best way for brands to leverage their content for the current market. 

Interested in incorporating video into your marketing strategy? From conception to execution, we can help.

How Can I Make Effective and Engaging Videos?

Step 1: Start With a Strategy

Every video should have a clear goal behind it, so it is important to specify what yours is. Do you want to increase leads, sales conversions, or engagement levels? Is your aim to boost your website traffic, improve bounce rates, or increase engagement on social media? Or do you simply want to build brand loyalty and awareness? These are important things to consider before you even start brainstorming for a video because your goal will determine the strategy that you will use to guide the entire video creation process. 

Ask yourself these questions to decide your video marketing strategy:

• What are you hoping your video will accomplish? What is the desired outcome?
• What will your audience gain from your video? What value does it have?
• How will you measure your video’s success?
• What type of video (tutorial, ad, testimonial, interview, informational) will help you achieve your goal best? Why?

Step 2: Define Your Target Audience

You need to know your target audience in order to personalize your content for them. Like good copywriting, knowing your audience—what they like, what problems they have—can help make your video more relevant to their daily lives. Knowing your target audience makes them feel heard, understood, and spoken to. 

Video marketing also has an advantage over copywriting; it simulates a face-to-face connection, which can strengthen ties with potential clients and solidify brand awareness. It’s a personal way of marketing that fosters human connectedness. However, video marketing’s success will be correlational with how well you know their audience. Having a clear idea of who your target demographic is will help you make content that resonates with your audience in a way that is authentic and relevant to their lives. 

The type of audience you are creating content for also determines the direction of your video. For example, if your audience is industry-specific, using jargon and industry statistics may improve your credibility, whereas a brand whose purpose is to provide entertainment will want to take a different approach to the type of video they create.

To identify your audience and their video preferences, ask yourself these questions:

• Who is my typical customer?
• Who is my ideal customer?
• Why would they watch my video? What value does this bring to them?
• What type of videos do they prefer?
• Why would they choose my product or service over competitors?
• What problems does my target demographic have? How does my product or service provide a solution?
• What do they like/dislike?

Step 3: Brainstorm

Now that you have a clear strategy and target audience in mind, it’s finally time to brainstorm. Your strategy should give you an idea of what you want to accomplish with the video, while determining your target audience should inform the video’s direction. 

It may be helpful to look at your sales funnel at this point. There are three main parts to the funnel: awareness, intent and consideration, and evaluation and purchase.

If your goal is to increase awareness for your product or service, perhaps using an informational video is best. If you want to make purchasing easier, smoother, and better for your customers, producing an FAQ video may help with better reviews. If you’d rather convince your target audience to consider purchasing your product or service, using how-to tutorial videos, promotional ads, or testimonials from other customers may be helpful. In fact, 90% of users find that seeing a video about the product is helpful in the decision-making process.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to determine what type of video is best for you:

• At what stage in the sales funnel are you struggling the most (product awareness, closing a sale, or product reviews)?
• Based on your strategy, will your video be short or long?
• What ideas will align best with the strategy and audience you have in mind?

Step 4: Write a Script

You’ll want your script to be short and simple. Reading your script out loud and timing it is always a good idea—while 350 words may not seem like much, it ends up being only 2 minutes on video. 

Here are some things to be mindful of when writing your script:

• Write a good hook and convey value right away—one-fifth of viewers click away from a video within 10 seconds or less
• Keep it simple, easy-to-watch, and understandable
• Repeat important points and your call-to-action (CTA)
• Consider incorporating your video URL in the video
• Tell a story to make an emotional connection

Step 5: Film and Edit

While it isn’t necessary to have fancy equipment for a video to do well, it may be worth investing in high-quality videos. Whether you’re going for a professional-looking video or one that looks more intimate and homemade, everything depends on the strategy and the target audience you’ve set from the beginning.

Step 6: Don’t Forget the Logistics

Ensure your video will work without sound. While having music in the background of a video can make it more engaging, the vast majority of videos (especially on Facebook) are watched without sound. Instagram videos are muted on default, and users have to manually unmute videos themselves. You can increase video accessibility by having captions to emphasize parts of your video.

Most videos are watched on mobile devices. Facebook found that people are 1.5 times more likely to watch videos on their phone than a computer, so it’s important to make your video mobile-friendly. Youtube, Vimeo, and Brightcove are great responsive video players. They will automatically increase or reduce video quality depending on the specific viewer’s bandwidth. Mobile devices also have smaller screens than computers, so be sure to watch out for any text on your video. While their sizing may look okay on a TV screen or laptop, it may be unreadable on a smartphone.

You’ll also want to pay attention to video playing time. Tailor your videos to the platforms you’re posting on. For example, longer videos are more well-suited for YouTube, while a short snippet can be showcased on Instagram.

As mentioned earlier, videos are great for search engine optimization (SEO). To maximize SEO, remember to write a good description with relevant keywords. You can also tag the video to help boost SEO.

Want to use video marketing to maximize your reach and generate lasting results?

Let Us Help

Whatever you imagine, we can bring to life. Here at Imagine Better Solutions, we can help you incorporate video marketing and develop your brand’s full potential across a variety of platforms. In addition to advising best practices for video marketing, Imagine Better Solutions also helps with photography, copywriting, and search engine optimization (SEO). As a company that strives to be a one-stop shop for ease of management, we have all of your marketing needs covered.