It seems as though there’s a video touting some business almost everywhere you turn. Bakeries show mouthwatering muffins coming fresh out of their ovens and service industry professionals offer tips on how to keep your equipment running at peak perfection. You may have even tried your hand at a few videos without the results you expected. Perhaps you even tried out Facebook Live videos or jumped onto other social media sites.
About 87 percent of businesses use video as a marketing tool now, a rise from 81 percent in 2018. If you aren’t trying out different video types and experimenting with what works best for your brand, you may miss out on valuable marketing opportunities. Videos serve multiple purposes, as you can place them on your website and share them on social platforms.
Don’t limit yourself to just one kind of video for your website needs. Although there are many different techniques you can use with video marketing, here are five types your business site needs if you want to successfully reach buyers:
1. Testimonials
Customer testimonials add authenticity to your website and show site visitors that other people are happy with your product or services. Around 92 percent of people say they’re more likely to make a purchase after seeing a review.
The review must be authentic, though. Don’t try to hire an actor to give a testimonial. Customers tend to see right through shady tactics. Allow your customers to record their own reviews. Worry less about the quality than the content at this point.
If you professionally record the videos, make sure you let the customer use their own words rather than a script. It may take a bit more editing in post-production, but the result will be more authentic than if you tell them what to say.
ChowNow places a featured testimonial at the top of their page in a hero slide. As the user scrolls down, there are additional video testimonials on topics such as how ChowNow helps one restaurant owner create a dialogue with guests and how another has increased online ordering by four times. Because the videos focus on specific ways the service helped their business, it’s a powerful sales tactic for potential leads.
2. Tutorials
The more educated your customers are, the better they understand the value of your product or service. Think about some of the problems your customers face that drive them to your site in the first place. How can you offer help with these issues and show the user you understand what they’re going through?
One example of this might be a heating and cooling company that creates a tutorial video on basic furnace maintenance, such as how to change an air filter or when to use the emergency settings on your thermostat. Educate your customers about your product, who you are, and how you can help them, and you’ll attract more loyal fans.
3. Motion Graphics
One of the big trends of 2019 is adding motion graphics to websites. You can use motion graphics to highlight complex processes without spending a fortune creating actual scenarios. This works particularly well for construction industries and businesses which create larger-scale products.
One Point Partitions uses motion graphics on their landing page to show how easy it is to install their bathroom partitions. Instead of actually using materials to install a bathroom and going through each step of that process, they use an animated image to highlight the key points of installation such as measurements, how the bolts go together, and how the doors hang.
4. About Us
When users get to know who you are, they trust you more. A website video highlighting your brand history is a nice addition to any website. Place it on your About Us page for those who want to know more about what you stand for. Depending on how far back your company history goes, you could do a chronological timeline or, if your history is shorter, focus on why you started the business in the first place and what it means to you.
5. Staff Introductions
There are many reasons why you might want to introduce others to your valued staff. You can use employee videos to highlight and recognize your best employees. Attract some of the top candidates in your field by showing how fun your staff is. For customers, they’ll get to meet some of the people they do business with online or on the phone and better understand your philosophy as a company.
SimCorp highlights its employees with short video clips. They use a headline that reads “Meet” and then the employee’s name. Under the headline is a short quote from the employee. Click on the video link and you learn more about what value the employee adds to the company and why they like working for SimCorp.
Experiment With Different Techniques
The type of video that works best for your target audience may vary even from what works for your competitors. Try out different types of videos and don’t be afraid to experiment a bit. Show off your company culture, highlight a special event or add a webinar. As more and more people access videos from their smartphones, think of video as the wave of the future and an effective way to reach site visitors on yet another level.
