An old fashioned super 8 camera with a Facebook Live sticker on the side held up by someone's hand. An old fashioned super 8 camera with a Facebook Live sticker on the side held up by someone's hand.

How Video Content Marketing Can Help Generate More Sales

Nearly 85% of internet users in the United States watched online videos in 2018. Additionally, videos are the second most popular form of content among marketers after visual images. About 63% of marketers used them in their content strategy in 2018 as compared to 57% in 2017.

A bar chart entitled: "Commonly used types of content"

Showing that visual images are the most used with 80% of the share. 

Followed by Videos with 63%

Then, Blogging at 60%, Live video at 35% and Podcasting at 9%.

Source

What’s more?

Nearly 95% of marketers planned to increase their budgets for videos for their content marketing activities in 2020. All of these statistics clearly indicate that video content is beneficial for marketers and their usage is growing. 

So what types of video are there at your disposal? Well, there’s:

  • Vlogs
  • Explainer videos
  • Tutorials
  • Live streams (Facebook live / IGTV / YouTube live streams / Twitter Periscope)
  • Product videos
  • Testimonials
  • Webinars
  • Podcasts (filmed or uploaded as video)

But how can these videos help increase your sales? Let’s find out.

How Can Video Content Marketing Increase Your Sales?

Here’s how video content can fit neatly into your marketing strategy:

1. Video content is what people look for in 2020.

One of the reasons why videos can help you grow your sales is that people want to consume videos. According to a study, 53% of people want to see more videos in the future. When you create video content, people will be more likely to watch it than other forms of content.

Due to the increased demand for videos, there’s a greater chance that your video marketing will be seen by your target audience. When they see your branded content, they might end up following and purchasing from you. 

What’s more?

Nearly 62% of people consume videos thoroughly as compared to 48% who consume social media photos thoroughly. 

When consumers pay more attention to your content, brand awareness and product awareness will begin to soar. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that this is the way to better sales figures. In fact, 80% of marketers said that video content has helped them increase their sales.

However, to improve the chances of people engaging with your video marketing strategy and purchasing from you, it’s essential to create high-quality content. For this, you need to be able to shoot and edit videos well. To do this effectively, you can use a good quality camera and video editing tools.

2. Video content marketing has to be helpful.

Ultimately, the prime purpose of your content marketing efforts should be to provide valuable content to your audience. If you’re not able to do this well, you might end up losing a lot of prospective customers.

But that’s not the only thing that matters. 

People are pressed for time in today’s fast-paced life. This can make it challenging for them to read through big blocks of text. In fact, 73% of respondents in a survey said they had less time to dedicate to reading and research. However, 51% of them were willing to watch videos for 5 to 20 minutes.

Videos can deliver valuable information in a short time as opposed to lengthy blog posts. This can help you get the attention of your audience and convert them quickly into customers too.

3. Supercharge your emails with video marketing.

Email marketing is one of the best methods of marketing. In fact, for every dollar spent on email marketing, marketers are able to earn $40. However, you can further optimize your email marketing campaigns to generate more sales from them by adding videos.

Image showing a bar chart of Return on Investment per $1 spent.

Email returns $40

SEO returns $22.24

Mobile returns $10.51

Keyword Ads returns $17

and, Banner Ads returns just $2

Source

When you add videos to your emails, they can save the receiver’s time. Additionally, through videos, you can convey your information in a shorter duration and more efficiently.

What’s more?

Due to the engaging nature of videos, people may end up dwelling on your email for longer. This, in turn, might prompt them to click on the CTA (call to action) button and purchase from you. As a result, you guessed it, it’ll help increase your sales.

4. Using video marketing on your landing page.

Video content marketing can be extremely helpful when you do it on your website. In fact, 87% of marketers stated that videos have increased traffic to their websites.

But that’s not all. 

The engaging nature of videos means that people will spend more time on your pages and website as well. In fact, 81% of marketers in a study said that using videos in their marketing content has increased the average time that people spend on their websites overall.

But what does this mean in terms of sales?

When visitors spend more time on your website, they’ll be more likely to discover your products and understand them. As a result, they may become inclined to purchase them. This, in turn, can help grow your sales.

And get this.

When people spend more time on your website, it increases their time-on-site and reduces the bounce rate. This will impact your SEO positively. As a result, your website may start rising up Google in the search engine results pages (SERPs) too. This will definitely grow your website traffic click-through, and then it’s down to you to optimise your conversion rate, but having more users on your landing page, will make that task much easier.

5. Leveraging Videos on Social Media

Social media has over 3.8 billion users and the rise of video-oriented platforms like YouTube and TikTok says a lot about video marketing trends. In fact, YouTube is the most popular platform for video marketing with over 85% of marketers using it in 2019.

Infographic entitled: "Jan 2020 - Digital Around the World in 2020 - The essential headline data you need to understand mobile, internet and social media use"

The graphics show total population at 7.75 billion with urbanisation at 55%

then unique mobile phone users at 5.19 billion with penetration at 67%

then Internet users at 4.54 billion with penetration at 59%

and finally, active social media users at 3.8 billion with penetration at 49%.

Source

By uploading videos on social media, you can reach out to this massive audience. This can help you increase your sales because 84% of consumers say that they’ve been convinced to purchase a product or service after watching a brand’s video.

What’s more? 

People are 2x more likely to share videos with their friends as compared to other forms of content. As a result, you can expect greater reach and sales from video content marketing on social media.

However, with so many videos flooding social media, you need to get creative and make high-quality videos. This process can be time-consuming and may require some technical expertise too. 

To simplify it, you can leverage tools that don’t require that you have the technical know-how. As a result, even as a small business owner or solopreneur, you can create striking videos.

Alternatively, you can curate high-quality videos from our platform

Leverage live video to win extra loyalty points.

Live videos are no longer the new kid on the block in the video marketing world, social media videos, in particular, have matured and grown in popularity since 2015 (where they’d really started to take-off). Now, if your marketing efforts don’t include live video, in some form, then you’re seriously missing out on opportunities to connect with your followers.

These types of videos are ideal for instant, reactionary product updates on social media. You can run flash deals, generate buzz about a new product, feature or upcoming event, you could even run Q&As or AMA (Ask Me Anything) style videos that help to form those really strong bonds with your potential customers.

This sort of real-time marketing strategy can be called upon on a regular basis whenever you need a new injection of engagement or traffic. In fact, the more you go live, the more you’re going to get back from your video marketing efforts.

OK, so you get it, this is important, but where the heck do you begin, right?

Well, lucky you should ask. While doing my research I came across an excellent blog from Innovation Visual where they listed the starting points. This blog post isn’t all about live video production, so I’m not going to go too in-depth, but here are some considerations.

Source

Video production tips to get you started with video content marketing.

  1. Have a script/storyboard – know what you’re going to say/do.
  2. Organise the b-roll footage and audio you’ll need to capture (if applicable).
  3. Experiment with, and test, your lighting before getting the shot.
  4. Use a proper stand or lapel mic, rather than built-in microphones that pick up too much ambient sound. You want crisp and clear audio.
  5. Less is more with regard to editing effects and transitions. Keep it simple, to begin with.
  6. Choose royalty-free music and stock audio. You can find this from lots of sources, but a couple of popular choices are Epidemic Sound and Incompetech.
  7. Don’t worry about making it ‘perfect’ at first. Just product content and trust me, it’ll come naturally to you after a bit of practice and experience. In fact, if you’re a touch camera shy then here’s a video from Quuu‘s Co-founder, Matthew Spurr

Final thoughts before embarking on your new video strategy

Video content marketing is a great way to grab the attention of your audience and engage them. The demand for videos is increasing and by keeping up with it, you’ll be able to find takers. Also, you can convey valuable information through videos in a short span of time. This can help increase your chances of getting customers.

By incorporating videos into your email and social media marketing campaigns, you can increase your engagement and sales as well. Even adding them to your website can help keep your visitors on your website for longer, and this, in turn, can help you boost your sales.

Do you have any questions about using video marketing to grow your sales? Let us know in the comments.