What type of video would work for my business?
As you probably know, video is an extremely powerful tool to increase traffic, and thus business, to your website. There are lots of statistics out there to support this claim, and really it’s not surprising that video generates increased interest in a business – we live in a time poor age, when people want information quickly and in a way that shares more than just the written word. Video is memorable, easy to ingest and thus appealing to the on line audience. Obviously, it’s vital to start planning your video content with the end in mind, that is who is your target audience and what are they looking for that you can supply? We always find it’s useful to ask clients, ‘What is it that your potential clients are searching for when they are looking for your products or services? Often it comes as quite a revelation to clients to find that their new leads will be entering search terms that they didn’t expect or naturally consider for optimization. Depending on your audience and your message, different styles of video may be more or less appropriate and effective.
Here are 5 types of video that can help:
1) Explainer videos
Using explainer videos can be highly effective. A recent survey conducted by Video Rascal (https://videorascal.com/) found that using an explainer video could increase your potential market by 85%. Consider posting them elsewhere – in addition to on your website itself – to drive traffic to your site. Consider Facebook, Twitter and Linked In; also look at local on line directories such as HotFrog and community groups that share local information. The more sites you can share your video content too the better, just make sure your viewers can easily get back to you and make contact, so the call to action is really important! Don’t assume the viewer will know where to find you.
2) Educative videos What are your clients asking about?
You can use educative videos to build awareness about what you do or what you sell: this can help drive qualified leads and help give the consumer more information generally about your business. These work really well for professional services such as accountants, lawyers, HR consultants, IFAs and many others. Sectors where direct selling is frowned upon, or in some cases not actually allowed, benefit from educative videos. The things to consider here are the frequently asked questions that your potential clients would ask of you if they met you face to face. Obviously, you’re not looking to give everything away, but just enough information to be useful, build rapport and encourage engagement. FAQ videos are also a perfect way to build your own reputation as a thought leader and expert in your own sector.
3) How-to videos Share what you know…
How-to videos are a great tool in showing potential consumers how to use your product, a specific process or how to solve a need. They are great for attracting new business leads but need to succinct and brief so they hold attention. The ‘how too….’ search is one of the most popular searches on YouTube and generally on line; so if you can give a How too…. piece on anything that is related to your business, it’s worth considering. The most useful things are those which you probably take for granted, so for instance for us how to load videos to YouTube or How to set up a YouTube Channel – we do this every day so we understand the nuances of the platform, but for others it can be a mystery. Interestingly enough, though we may tell people how to Set up their own YouTube Channel, most actually decide it’s easier for us to do it for them in the end.
4) Video retargeting
You can use video retargeting to bring potential customers back to your site who didn’t materialise last time – personalise the content to them maximise the opportunity. They were obviously interested in what you had to offer to visit the site previously. Retargeting can be a bit irritating actually, and it’s interesting that now we’ve seen the option to close the retargeting messages down on some sites – this is a good move as you are asked to say why you don’t want to see the message again, i.e. you’ve already bought, you’re no longer interested and so on which is useful information for the business, but also keeps the viewer happy and less like to get irritated by seeing that same piece following them around for days.
5) Live video
Streaming live videos can be very effective: it’s a very different kind of video experience creating a very personal experience and can be a very powerful marketing strategy. This used to be something that would only be done using very expensive streaming and satellite technology, but now Facebook Live is pretty good for certain markets – though don’t be talked into thinking that Facebook Live replaces proper corporate video production, they are entirely differently but both have a place in a digital marketing strategy. We recently did a live global webcast for a client that used 3 cameras from the transmission site with an audience of over 400; the speaker was a high profile stakeholder in the client’s business and his message received across the globe using the internet – definitely not something that could be done via Facebook Live, yet.
If you'd like to know more about using video for your business do get in touch; we'll arrange a free review and video discovery session to explore the opportunities and options best suited to your business.