Have you heard of Magic wands? Maybe like the one Harry potter uses to perform magical moves beyond one’s skills and efforts? A wand that makes anything and everything happens?
Are you a bit confused about why I am talking about the magical wands all of a sudden?
If you are a sales guy and reading this, I am going to introduce you to a magic wand that helps you stand out from the crowd.
Before we dive into discussing our magical moves (Yeah right!) let's talk about numbers.
- A survey from Smart Insights shows that 92% of the marketers feel videos are important for their marketing/sales strategy.
- 41% of B2B marketers are interested in exploring how video marketing can be helpful for their marketing efforts.
- 48% of customers want videos that reflect the specific products and services they are interested in.
Source - Smart Insights
By this time you might be thinking, what’s new there. The fact is the usage of videos in sales and marketing is not an add-on anymore and it has become an integral part of the sales itself.
However, from videos in sales campaigns to being ' nice to have or could have’, it is evolving to be a ‘must have’ tool stack in your sales outreach.
Yes, the videos are your magical wand
But you should know how to use it to get the best out of it.
Videos to use in different stages of the sales funnel
We are familiar with the different stages of the sales funnel - Awareness, Consideration, Decision, and Action. We also know the wide range of videos we can use in our outreach - Demo videos, Testimonials, Company stories, etc.
Now, let’s discuss how to put these videos to use effectively at different stages of your sales funnel.
Awareness Stage
Homepage videos
This is the stage where you and your audience get to know each other. Your audience tries to understand the solutions you provide, basically the research stage. SEO-driven videos - where you can convert a blog into interactive videos, create videos on topics that your users might be interested in. While doing this, also - make sure that you nail your groundwork and be it putting keywords in the title, description, and thumbnails.
Homepage videos can also be used to develop interests in your brand among the audience, especially when you are putting in a lot of effort to drive traffic to your website, ensure you use the chance well to communicate your values to them in a compelling way.
Educational Videos
To move your audience to the next stage of the funnel, educational videos help in establishing your brand as an expert in the industry and put you forth above your competitors.
Create videos that you think will add value to your audience and something they would be interested to learn about. Examples: Webinars/Podcasts.
Consideration Stage
Your audience now knows the kind of product/service you are offering and they start evaluating the options they have in the market. It is important to showcase the competitive advantages of your product to make sure they make the right decision.
Demo videos
Demo videos give you the opportunity to explain to your audience about the product that doesn’t explicitly feel like selling. You get to talk about the unique features and provide them a real-time experience of your product. Include stepwise instructions of how to use the product and showcase each and every feature leaving no room for them to have any confusion in their mind.
These videos can also be a great addition to all the marketing campaigns as well.
We had Book a demo CTA on our site earlier. We felt only a small number of people are willing to book a time and learn about Hippo Video. So we added a product walkthrough video and changed the CTA to "Watch the demo video". Once we did that, we saw the conversions go up by 3X. And people who booked a demo with us after watching the demo video were more informed and showed very high intent in buying the product.
Case study videos
At times, there is no harm in bragging. To play the game well, it is important to exhibit your strengths to your audience. Case study videos are a great way to do it without actually having to feel like doing it. It is the best way to demonstrate the actual results that will help your audience move to the next stage of the funnel and convert into potential leads.
Decision stage
This is the stage where a lot of actions are triggered by emotions. Ensure you cultivate positive and trustworthy emotions among the audience.
Testimonial/Review videos
Testimonials help build credibility and keep you on top of your audience’s mind whenever they are choosing to make the decision. Even if you already have testimonials from your customers, video testimonials tend to perform better and give the audience the belief that your products are solving their problems.
We host these videos on Hippo Video so we could get detailed metrics for the video like how many people have watched the video, the watch percentage, and even demographic metrics. Based on this data, our sales team could reach out to high-intent prospects (those who have watched the complete video multiple times) and convert them faster.
Company story videos
No better way to translate your mission and brand values to the prospects than making a company story video. It opens the door to a better understanding of what you do, why you do it, and eventually building a solid trust in you. Great isn't it? Here is an example
Action stage
We are here! The most critical stage of the funnel, where the prospect makes the final decision of choosing over 1000 products in the market. Meaning? You get to keep them happy and satisfied.
Onboarding videos
You don't want your customers to get confused about every single step on what to do? How to do it? Etc, A well-explained video on how to get started and videos on FAQs will provide them a better onboarding experience.
97% of people believe video is an effective tool to welcome and educate new customers. (Wyzowl)
Retention videos
Your job is not done once the prospect has reached the action stage. Retaining your customers is where you miss out most of the time. You can send them thank you videos, videos for festival greetings that will keep them engaged with your brand and keep them coming back.
Let’s take a step back and think, what is that one thing that is holding us back from using the magical wand for so long. It has been fixed in our mind that video making is a tedious process or it is expensive for a small business which is not true.
Videos help you engage with the audience like never before and provide them a visual experience that is instilled in their mind for a very long time than you expect. This is something that you should try if you haven’t already.
Here are few best practices that worked for us so far
1. Understand your audience and their expectations. They don't enjoy some random videos. They feel connected only when it is relatable. Personalize, Personalize and Personalize.
2. A big no to scripts that are too complex and filled with jargon. You don’t want to look alien in front of your audience. Come up with a script that is easy to process in the given time.
3. Find a place with a good ambiance and no distractions. There is no point in putting in all the effort if your user is looking elsewhere on the screen.
4. Look and sound professional. If you want your audience to pay attention to what you are saying, you need to impart confidence in them to trust you. Look out at your body language and use gestures that look natural.
5. Repeat until you are satisfied with the video. Even if you don’t get it right in the first few tries, you will eventually get there.
To put everything in a nutshell, videos are not just to increase your traffic or tell your brand story to the audience. When used in the right place and in the right way, the magic wand AKA videos can greatly accelerate your sales efforts and bump up conversions like never before.
Want to talk more about video marketing? Reach out to me on LinkedIn - Sanjana Murali
