What Does “Video Marketing” Mean?
Video Marketing is one of those things that all of us are aware of, but we do not think about what it is. With so many different forms, and cutting edge digital camouflage, the line between content and marketing has grown thinner and thinner over the years. In some places, it is impossible to tell the two apart.
If you are thinking about turning to video to fulfill your marketing needs, though, it is important for you to know what you are getting into before jumping in with both feet.
What Does “Video Marketing” Mean?
Before we go any further, it is important for everyone to be on the same page regarding what video marketing is, and what it is not. According to the Internet Marketing Dictionary, video marketing is when a company uses short videos to promote their products or services.
That is it. If you are a lawn maintenance company, who makes videos showing your employees in action to entice potential customers to hire you, that is video marketing. If you are a cafe showing your audience how to make the perfect cup of coffee on camera, then that is also video marketing. In short, if a company is making a video whose purpose is to hook an audience to promote themselves, that is video marketing.
Content Marketing, and Changing Perspectives
When most people think of video marketing, they think of commercials. Moreover, while there are certainly plenty of companies who are using the wider reach of the Internet to get more eyes on the sort of videos that look like television commercials, that is not the only kind of video marketing going on. There's also something called content marketing, which has had great success with video.
What Is Content marketing?
According to Content Marketing Institute, it is when someone makes valuable content and offers it for free as a way to build an audience. The hope is that the more people who follow the content, the more people the creator will be able to mobilize to use their products or services.
Let's put that in perspective. If a gardening supply store made a video about how great its products and customer service was, that would be a commercial. You would be trying to hook customers into coming in right away to make a sale. If that same store made a series of videos offering gardening tips, it would not sell any products right away. It is not meant to. However, the series would gain an audience and buy that audience's good will. Later on, when the audience is given a call to action to come to the store and buy their products, they are much more likely to do so.
Put simply, content marketing is a long game, and it is meant to build a following organically.
Why All The Buzz About Video?
There are all kinds of ways you can market yourself, your services, and your products, but why has video risen to the top of the heap? Several reasons, according to the Huffington Post.
First and foremost, video is engaging in ways that print, and still media are not. A picture is worth a thousand words, but video is worth even more regarding traffic and views. The sound, the motion, and the human faces also engage the brain, making people pay attention.
Video requires less effort for those watching, which makes it more likely to be engaging. Video has a better chance to go viral, it makes consumers trust the creator more, and it can be accessed from practically anywhere in our technology-driven world. So, is it any wonder more people than ever before are trying to get into video marketing?
If you need help with your video marketing efforts, simply contact us today!
What is Video Email Marketing?
When you incorporate video into email marketing, you have two mediums that exist in beautiful harmony to help you achieve marketing and sales goals and improve the user experience. Emails help video gain exposure, and video improves click-through rates on your emails and increases audience engagement.
4 Advantages of Using Video in Email Marketing
As you market a product, you want to show the target audience the benefits of your products and services. Before you begin transforming your email marketing, you want to understand the benefits of incorporating video.
- Improved Click-Through Rate. Regardless of the email type--newsletter, follow-up with prospects, automated alert--an email that mentions a video gets 3-4 times more click-throughs than ones that don't.
- Increased engagement. Getting people to your site is nice. Getting them to stay and engage in your content is better. Those who click through to a video spend substantially more time on your site than regular web traffic.
- Finding the right message. Tracking which videos your audience watches and which part they watch will help you deliver better content. If for example, the data shows your target audience prefers how-to videos instead of videos showing the benefits of your products and services, you know what types of videos to do to increase engagement.
- Better insight. The more data you collect, the more effective marketer you will become. Video allows you to collect better data. For example, if the only information you receive is who clicks through, then everyone who clicks through is equal. If, however, the data you receive identifies who clicks through, who clicks through and watches a video, and who clicks through and watches a video multiple times, then you have insight into who in your audience should be given the most attention.
Building an Audience through Email and Video
Before beginning or altering any marketing campaign or method, it is important to have specific, measurable goals, so you know whether the campaign wins or loses. Regardless of specific goals, all marketing campaigns carry the mandate to grow and build engagement with the target audience.
Here are five simple steps using video and email that will grow your audience.
- Compose an email that includes an attractive link to a video on your website
- Send the email to your email subscriber list
- Your audience shares the video or forwards the email
- New viewers discover your engaging content
- Your audience grows
These steps are, of course, contingent on a couple of very important factors. The most important consists of creating engaging, valuable content. If the content is not relevant and engaging to your target audience, then it will not matter how many people you send it to. The second important factor consists of having at least a small engaged email list to send it to, a list that has been created by offering valuable, engaging content to your target audience.
Identifying the Goal of Your Email
What exactly are you trying to do with the email? The most common purpose is to get people to visit your site, consume content, and share content with their sphere of influencers.
If your goal is expanding your audience and encouraging conversions, certain email and video tactics work better than others.
- Tell recipients there's a video. You can mention the video in the email subject line, in the text of the email, or with a video thumbnail that includes a play button. The easier it is for the recipient to see there's a video, the more likely they will engage and click through.
- Choose an enticing thumbnail from the video to show in the email. Friendly faces entice clicks.
- Link the thumbnail to a page on your website. You should have a play button on your thumbnail. The play button will get viewers to click. Clicking on the thumbnail should not play the video. Instead, it should link to a page on your website that contains the video. Unlike a video playing within an email (which can encounter all sorts of technical issues), a video playing on a company website is surrounded by complementary elements that strengthen the company's brand.
- Keep the number of calls-to-action limited. You have a high-quality, engaging video. Your goal is to get people to click on it and watch. Stay focused.
HARNESS is a team of digital marketing innovators with a unique focus on inbound marketing combined with video marketing. Whether as a complement to your content marketing team or as your entire marketing department, HARNESS consistently generates leads and drives sales through engaging marketing content.
Video Marketing: Top Reasons Why It's Highly Effective
It is projected that global Internet traffic from videos will make up a whopping 80% of all Internet traffic by 2019. Additionally, 78% of people watch videos online every week while 55% do daily (Source: Hubspot). These numbers illustrate the growing trend of video marketing and the importance of leveraging video in your business strategy.
You see, if you do not currently have a video marketing strategy in motion for your website and social media, you are missing a grand opportunity to reach and engage with your audience. Videos are incredibly effective in capturing attention, maintaining engagement, building relationships and getting viewers to take action. These are key metrics to any effective digital marketing plan.
In fact, here are the top six reasons why video marketing is so effective and the significance of honing this strategy in your inbound marketing.
#1 Consumers Vote Video over Text
Did you know that four times as many consumers prefer to watch a video about a product versus reading about it? Videos allow prospects to see your product in action, getting a full grasp on how it works, the features and its benefits. They can digest the information easier and faster when it is demonstrated through video.
Your customers are better positioned to make an informed decision quickly by watching your video than reading a blog article or social media post. Therefore, give the people what they want by implementing more product, how-tos and demonstration videos in your content marketing strategy.
#2 Moves Viewers to Action Quickly!
After watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online. When optimized for conversions, videos are incredibly compelling in moving viewers to follow directions and take action quickly. You can bolster your lead generation and sales tremendously by giving a clear call-to-action in your videos that direct your audience to the proper link.
#3 Increases Brand Awareness
Video marketing is also effective in creating more awareness about your brand. From telling your story, sharing customer testimonials, to answering common questions relevant to your industry, your video strategy is the ideal tactic to increasing exposure and expanding your reach online.
With YouTube being the second largest search engine, building your channel with valuable video content is huge towards growing your presence, boosting visibility and getting in front of your target audience.
#4 Live-Streaming Videos Generate Tons of Engagement
People are spending three times longer watching live video on social media versus those that have been prerecorded. Live-streaming apps like Facebook Live, Instagram Stories and Periscope are generating crazy engagement on social media and brands and are taking full advantage.
The beauty of live-streaming is that it allows your followers to join you in real-time. You will quickly build the know, like and trust factor with your audience with these “at the moment” experiences. Whether you are hosting a live Q&A session, taking your followers behind-the-scenes to an event, or reporting breaking news, live-streaming is an excellent way to keep your social audience in the know and connected to your brand.
#5 Highlights Your Brand’s Personality and Culture
Videos have an amazing way of drawing your audience into your brand’s culture, giving them a taste of your personality and passion for what you do. It further humanizes your brand, making you relatable and reachable. People are craving authenticity and transparency, and your video strategy allows you to do both which significantly builds trust with your viewers.
#6 Positions You as an Expert
At the heart of inbound marketing likes sharing valuable content that solves problems, educates and inspires your intended audience. As a result, you will bolster your thought-leadership and position your brand as an authority in your industry. Your video marketing strategy serves as the perfect platform for showcasing your expertise, giving solid advice and tips, and addressing common issues that concern your audience. It is the best way to building credibility fast in your niche.
Video marketing is highly effective in boosting brand awareness, generating leads, increasing sales and connecting with your audience. With more consumers leveraging video, it is crucial to begin implementing a video marketing strategy to get in front of your audience. Doing so will yield positive returns for your business.
Much success.
Ready to use video to drive sales? Reach out to us here and discover how we can help you create a solid plan that gets your videos in front of your audience.
How to Sell Video Marketing To a Skeptic
Although you may be hard-pressed to find someone unfamiliar with YouTube, that is no guarantee that the majority of people realize the value of video. If you want to know how to sell video marketing to a skeptic, you need to know the surprising statistics associated with the power of the strategy. Share the numbers, and you are sure to win over any skeptic.
The Numbers
An industry study released data this year that is incredibly compelling for the power of video marketing:
- 1200% - That is how many more times a video is shared compared to text and image only ads.
- 403% - Increase in inquiries for real estate listings with a video.
- 200-300% - Ratio of growth for click-through rates in email leads featuring video.
- 157% - Organic traffic increase to a site from search engine results when sites feature video.
- 100% - Rate of annual video consumption rising for YouTube.
- 92% - How many consumers share mobile videos.
- 80% - Conversion rate increase when featuring a video on your site's landing page.
Who's On Board With Video?
Once you have gotten the skeptic's attention with those phenomenal numbers, you may still have another hurdle to clear. They may not yet be convinced that their particular industry can benefit with video marketing. That is when you reveal that everyone is using video.
- 96% - That is how many B2B organizations use video marketing campaigns.
- 86% - That is how many institutes of higher learning have a YouTube presence.
- 80% - Expected amount of all consumer traffic to be video traffic by 2019.
Particular to B2B video advertising:
- 50% - How many executives prefer reviewing product or service information through video ads.
- 65% - Of executives who view video ads, this is how many follow through with a visit to the website marketed through the video.
- 39% - The number of executives that call a vendor after viewing their video ad.
The Effects Of Videos
The final word should always be about the audience. If nothing else gets a skeptic's attention, revealing just how many consumers care about video should. It is time to share the data of how video ads affect the consumer experience.
- 139% - The increase in brand association with consumers because of video ads.
- 92% - That is how many consumers are sharing videos through mobile devices.
- 90% - That is how many viewers use video in making a purchasing decision.
- 80% - That is how many consumers recall a particular video watched within the last month.
- 75% - Out of all video users, that is how many interacted with video ads.
Videos To Dollars
By now, you should have captured the skeptic's interest. It is time to seal the deal with a recap of how all of this video marketing data can translate into revenue.
- 144% - Increase in product purchases for e-commerce sites featuring video advertising.
- 77% - Consumers who become convinced to buy a product or service after watching a video ad.
- 75.5% - Number of marketers and small business owners who report a direct impact on the bottom line by video ad campaigns.
- 73% - That is how many companies report a positive ROI on video marketing campaigns.
- 64% - Number of video consumers who are likely to purchase a product after viewing an ad.
- 49% - Growth rate increase annually for businesses using video marketing strategies.
- 4.8% - Conversion rate for websites with video ads, which is nearly double the conversion rate for sites featuring no video (2.9%).
Videos That Sell
The skeptic should now be convinced and asking the question, "What are the elements of a great video ad?" The good news is that the same studies that reported these impressive numbers included that information as well:
- 97% - The degree by which consumers' purchase intent increases as a result of a video ad that is a pleasure to watch.
- 80% - Number of viewers who stay engaged in video ads less than one minute long.
- 80% - Number of viewers who click away should a video stall or take too long to load.
- 60% - Number of consumers who stop watching a video after 2 minutes.
Moreover, if the skeptic thinks that it is impossible to convey all the wonderful things about their brand in a one minute message, you have the skill to leap that hurdle as well. According to experts, a one minute video can contain the equivalent information of about 1.8 million words.
The final question from a marketing professional to a skeptic is, "When do you want to start production?" If you are ready to get started, please contact us to get equipped with the latest tools and innovative methods to maximize the marketing potential of your video campaign strategy.
5 Important Aspects Your Video Marketing Campaign Should Include
Are you using video marketing the right way? Video Marketing is an effective way to reach out to customers while keeping them engaged and interested in your material. Customers can get all of the information they need through a video in just seconds. So how do you optimize video marketing to make your campaign even better? Here are five methods:
Schedule your Videos
As you may have discovered, scheduling your social media is an effective way to release posts consistently and at the optimal time for engagement. You should do the same thing with your videos. Be creative with it. Instead of releasing unrelated videos, come up with a topic and put together a series of related videos that will tell a story to you customers. Remember, you can also utilize this tactic to lead up to a big announcement, launch or event.
Take Advantage of Micro-videos
Micro-videos are all the rage right now on social media. Making small videos through apps is a smart way to promote your product on social media as customers scroll through their social media feeds. Consider using Vine or Instagram to make videos. Make them entertaining so your audience will want to watch them.
Tutorial and Tips: Implementing tutorials in your video marketing campaign is a way to keep customers coming back to your site. Some may think that providing tutorials and tips is giving away your company’s secrets, but in actuality it makes customers look for you as a point of reference. This will also keep customers coming back because they will look for more videos hoping that there are a series of tutorials.
User-generated Content: Let your customers be on camera sometimes. This allows customers to be involved with your brands and give genuine thoughts on something related to your brands. Instead of making a script, customers can come up with their material. You can even incentivize users to create content by awarding the best video. This will show people how passionate others are about your product.
Call-to-Action: Tell your users what to do after watching. Provide a description of next steps in your video. Without this, your customers will have no idea what to do after watching. An example of a call-to-action can be a coupon code, or you can even offer a discount to customers who mention your video on their social media. Another method is to utilize a “turnstile” to capture emails to view the video if the content is particularly valuable. Finally, a call-to-action button, such as a “buy now” or “learn more” button, can be utilized to drive traffic to a landing page to drive traffic and increase conversions.
Now that you’ve learned how to optimize your video marketing campaign, you can stand out from other products or marketing companies. For more information on video, marketing stays in touch with Harness on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Inbound Marketing to Ensure Customers Find Your SaaS Business (Part 2)
As the developer of a Software as a Service company, you obviously have put a great deal of thought into your product or products. Even before development began, you thought about what kind of service you could provide, what kinds of companies you could serve, why your product(s) is best for those potential customers.
Now, you need to figure out how you can best reach those potential customers and convince them your SaaS company is the best solution to their needs.
That's where the services of an inbound marketing company can come to your assistance. This is the second part of a two-part blog on how inbound marketing can ensure customers find you in the burgeoning SaaS business. In the first blog, we offered you a primer on inbound marketing that you can find here. In the second part, we will explain how all that hard work you did in development can lead directly to a successful inbound marketing program for your SaaS company.
Who Are Your Potential Customers?
As we explained in the primer, inbound marketing targets potential customers who turn to the Internet looking for your service, generally to solve a need or problem they are encountering in their lives or business. In the marketing field, we refer to this as their "pain point" and address how your product can ease their pain.
The first step in identifying these potential customers is to develop a "persona" so you can target the communication to the appropriate level.
Do you have an accounting software package you'd like to sell to Fortune 500 companies? Or do you have an accounting package you'd like to sell to a mom and pop retail store? Or maybe it's an accounting package you'd like to sell to farmers who spend their days in giant tractors, tilling thousands of acres. Each of these "personas" will respond to different forms and levels of communication.
What if your SaaS idea is something completely different? Maybe you've developed a program that can point avid readers to authors who write similar works and you get a share from each book you recommend through an online bookseller. Or maybe it's obscure documentary films. Or Japanese anime. Again, you are targeting very different "personas" so you need your language to appeal to each of these targets as they search for answers.
The more you know about your potential customer, the better your inbound marketing effort can succeed.
What Are Their Pain Points?
Before you ever developed your software, you had a vision for what it could do and why it could appeal to your customers. You already were thinking about how you could relieve their pain points, whether you thought of it that way or not.
Putting that thought into language that will attract potential customers is the next step to a successful inbound marketing effort. Knowing the language of your potential customers is vital to successfully meeting the ever-changing demands of Internet search engines.
If you're promoting that accounting software to Fortune 500 companies, their CFO is not going to search for "accounting software". She is more likely to search for "ASC 606 compliance" to deal with her latest pain point. Understanding how your best potential customers will speak and search boosts your chances of reaching them in the first place.
Drawing Your Customers into the Funnel
If you remember from the primer, we talked about how inbound marketing casts a wide net through search engine optimization to ensure your company appears highly in search results. The next step is to make those searches pay off into customers who enter your funnel and become paying customers.
Research now is pointing to the absolute necessity to feature video on your website and in any marketing effort. HubSpot reports that 59 percent of executives would rather watch video than read text; while individual consumers are four times as likely to watch a video as read text about a product, Small Business Trends reports.
The same report from Small Business Trends notes that 50 percent of executives are likely to seek more information about a product or service after watching a video. The same research found 65 percent will visit a marketer's site and 39 percent will call a vendor after seeing a product or service video.
As you can see, you've already done much of the hard work necessary to launch an inbound marketing effort for your SaaS company in identifying your potential customers and their pain points. Contact us to learn how to take the next step in developing a marketing program that will make your company stand out in the crowded field of cloud computing.
Should You Post Video on Social Media?
As we have mentioned in the past, by 2020 around 80% of Internet traffic will consist of video views. So, when this question arises, it is a little surprising. Wistia broke this query down very nicely with a graphic:
WISTIA
Wistia, in their usual awesome way, goes on to explain that even small businesses with a single (or no) marketing team should be thinking about social video. They discuss which channels work best for a given situation. We usually recommend to our clients that they use an omnichannel approach to video marketing. Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Linkedin, Snapchat (sometimes, depending on the brand), and Wistia for hosting videos on the client's site.
Why Wistia? The answer is relatively straightforward: Wistia is a subscription platform that doesn't rely on ad revenue as its business model. So what does that matter? Well consider that Youtube is interested in serving you ads and keeping you on Youtube. That is how they make money. That's why they continue to suggest additional videos to you, so you keep watching cat videos for as long as possible. The longer you stay, the more ads they can serve.
YOUTUBE
However, Youtube has its place in your video marketing mix. Consider Youtube as a top-of-the-funnel channel. You can utilize it for educating your market and reaching new viewers. By answering questions that your future customers are asking through educational and entertaining video, you are likely to gain trust while building authority in their perception of your brand. You then have an opportunity to drive that viewer to your site and continue the relationship through lead generation tools.
Facebook is similar in being ad supported. Facebook has become the ever-present social network in most of our lives. Video views make up more than half of Facebook use, so it is a no-brainer to publish your videos there. Similar to Youtube, you may consider Facebook a top-of-the-funnel channel. However, Facebook is unique in that once you gain a follower, you can continue to nurture that relationship through social interaction. So the social network can work throughout the sales funnel, but you should always focus on driving traffic to your site. Your goal is to own the interactions and move prospects through your funnel with videos that target viewers at each stage of their buyer's journey.
If you have questions about how to use video at each stage of your sales process, please drop us a line. We are happy to help!
Video Marketing Statistics - 2016 and it's Benefits
Video marketing is rising at an alarming rate. Consumers connect through mobile devices and are more apt to watch a video than they are to read an extensive blog. It's important to incorporate video into all of your marketing aspects and know how they affect your audience. The following statistics are according to an article on Hubspot:
Increase in Conversion:
- Video in an e-mail leads to 200-300% increase in click-through rate.
- Including video on a landing page can increase conversion by 80%.
- YouTube reports mobile video consumption rises 100% every year.
Who Uses Video:
- 65% of US marketers plan to increase their mobile ad budgets to account for video.
- 96% of B2B organizations use video in some capacity in their marketing campaigns of which 73% report positive results to their ROI.
- 22% of U.S. small businesses plan to post a video in the next 12 months.
User Interactions:
- 90% of users say that product videos are helpful in the decision process.
- 80% of viewers recall a video they viewed in the past 30 days.
- 36% of online viewers trust video ads.
Spending:
- By 2016, video ad spending will reach 5.4 billion.
- Video ads make up of 35% of total online ad spending.
Content:
- Enjoyment of video ads increases purchase intent by 97% and brand association by 137%.
- 59% of executives would rather watch a video than read text.
- The average user spends over 16 minutes watching online video ads every month.
As small business' become aware of the growth potential using videos in their marketing strategy, they must also know where video marketing is headed.
The article on Forbes by Jason DeMers, 5 Video Marketing Predictions to Guide Your Content Strategy offers some insight into video marketing and where its outlook in formatting and presentation are headed. Some of the projected observations are the following:
- Videos will become shorter and more concise. "...as the market becomes increasingly populated with video content, the shorter, more concise entries will start to stand out more."
- Live streaming and virtual reality will merge, and it's believed they will develop together. For businesses catering to outdoor sports, this could mean allowing your users to “virtually” attend learning sessions about safety or initial meet and greet in readiness for an excursion.
- Videos will be used for more than just information. Currently, a video is used as a 'content medium,' such as how-to's, and tutorials. However, it's quickly spreading that video can be utilized for much more, such as face to face encounters or exercises in improving communications.
- Videos will become more personalized. Companies are moving toward catering to individuals' particular needs and giving specific attention to those within their audience.
Your business will only grow with video marketing. With having the knowledge of the above statistics on how video marketing will affect your audience, and how videos will further develop in the future, your business will have an edge for your marketing processes and leads to your sales funnel. Contact Harness Consulting today for more information.
7 Tips for a Snapchat Video Marketing Campaign
Snapchat is a hot social media platform that can be used for more than just sending pictures to your friends and playing with different filters. Snapchat is an extra feature in your video campaign that will bring it to success. Here’s how:
Reply to stories to increase user engagement
With new features like swiping up to reply to a story, marketers can receive feedback from their consumers. This is a way to measure how your campaign is progressing. It’s also a way to get feedback on your campaign. New companies use Snapchat already to conduct informal contests and host polls through the Story Reply feature.
A new Snapchat tip would be to utilize the Story Reply feature to host Q&A sessions to receive audience questions and feedback. Consider common questions, recommendations, and satisfaction level mostly.
Create customized on-demand Geofilters
You can now create and publish a Geofilter for your business or private events. Can you imagine how much exposure your business would get with a customized Geofilter? Here’s how it works:
- Design – To create a filter, go through Photoshop or Illustrator to create compatible filters.
- Map – Pick a location where your filter will appear, then choose time and dates when you want your Geofilter to appear.
- Buy – You have to submit your Geofilter for approval to Snapchat, and then you buy it.
Offer exclusive discounts
Providing coupons and discounts through Snapchat is highly successful. This makes it an exclusive offer because it can only be found on your businesses Snapchat. This also gives an opportunity for one-day only promotions, since Snapchat stories last for 24 hours.
Target content to select followers.
If there is a social influencer who you want to promote your business or product, you can give that person promotional codes through Snapchat. This was, that social influence can inform the pubic about the product and let them know about the promotional code as an incentive to buy the product. If have avid users of your product, you can also offer them special codes as a thank you for using the product or giving business frequently.
Activate Snapchat stories
Create Snapchat stories so your audience can see what their favorite brand is doing. This allows your audience to see what you’re doing every day.
Build up to a special event or moment
Snapchat is an excellent platform to spread the word about an upcoming event and get people buzzing about it. Make people excited about your upcoming events, moments and launches!
Back your marketing campaign with special ads
Jump on board by making Snapchat ads. This helps you to reach the demographic who has moved from Facebook to newer social media platforms. Plus, our ad is less likely to get lost in a Snapchat feed.
Video Marketing and Marketing Automation
Making sense of marketing: focus on the basics of communication.
When companies begin to consider the process of creating and nurturing new business relationships, they are often bombarded with endless offerings from various software providers, agencies, and other outlets that throw around jargon such as CRM, automation, CPA, CAC - the list goes on and on. The truth is, however, business remains relatively simple when you remember one basic thing - people still buy from people even in our technology-driven culture.
People buy from people.
Whether you are focused on a digital campaign or outside sales, there are individual humans at each company that are making the decisions about which products and services will best solve their problems. You simply need to figure out the best way to reach those individuals and let them get to know you as a fellow human. What makes you special and how should you communicate that in the most efficient and effective manner?
If you are marketing to a large list of prospects, it can be daunting to consider how to go about developing and nurturing relationships with each person at the end of each email address. However, there are tools that allow you to do that in a way that is still very human with one-to-one communication. Which tools you ask? The answer: marketing automation combined with video.
The importance of results-driven video
Video marketing has an immeasurable impact on marketing initiatives. In fact, Forbes named it #1 of the Top 7 Online Marketing Trends that Will Dominate 2016. A few of the numerous major benefits of video are:of
- SEO - Having unique video on your site makes it 50x more likely to appear on top of Google search results
- Email Marketing - Click-through rates increased as much as 300%
- Conversions - Prospects that watch video on your site are 64% more likely to make a purchase
If you are not already convinced that the critical nature of video playing a key role in your marketing efforts, be sure to watch the video above.
What is marketing automation?
The power of marketing automation is rooted in an ability to tailor a specific solution for a business based on the business’s unique sales model, marketing funnel, products and/or services sold and the unique behaviors of each lead. Automation allows companies to optimize and grow their business through nurturing leads from initial awareness through all stages of the sales funnel at substantially reduced marketing costs. According to Forrester Research, companies that utilize this technology are able to generate 50% more qualified leads at a 33% reduced cost - that is certainly worth noting.
As we have mentioned in other articles such as Email Marketing Refined, email is still a very viable marketing channel if utilized properly. This is important to realize because email plays a vital role in marketing automation especially when combined with video. By utilizing results-driven videos, we have seen our clients increase their click-through rates in email marketing by as much as 300%! We try to use video in nearly every email campaign - it just works.
Where do you start? At the finish Line!
So now that you have decided to utilize marketing automation with video, where do you begin? The answer: start at your goal and work your way back. Are you hoping to generate new leads, increase traffic to your site, or increase conversions on your e-commerce platform? Once you identify your ideal result, you can establish the metrics needed to reach that target.
One simple example of these metrics would be to use video analytics such as engagement rate or rewatches in order to score your leads and segment your list. In doing so, you can send subsequent touch points to each list based on their engagement levels. For instance, if a person watched 100% of the video, then they are exhibiting deeper interest than a person who bounced after 30 seconds. These individuals should receive different marketing materials to nurture the respective relationships.
We like to use video heat maps to see areas where individuals watch, rewind, fast-forward, and rewatch to segment our targets. If a person rewatches an area of the video that is focused on a particular product or service, we can automatically send them subsequent emails that focus on that service.
An example: one of our clients manufactures a men's luxury clothing line. We sent out a video promoting a new Autumn clothing collection. We created a follow-up touch points around each of the products highlighted in the video in advance of sending the first video campaign. That way, if a user watched or rewatched a section of the video that highlighted a type of pants, we had an automated workflow to send follow up emails illustrating additional features, advantages, and benefits of those products.
Using video to create new leads
Video can also be used to create new leads by utilizing a signup form inside the video player to capture email addresses of viewers. If users are interested and want to keep in contact, they can provide contact info, which is then synced with our customer relationship management software as a new account. From there, we are able to cultivate the relationship over time with appropriate materials.
Nurturing with video: awareness, consideration, & decision stages
How do you nurture that new relationship with video? We build our video marketing campaigns over time to cater to each step of the funnel as the individual continues to search for a solution to his or her problem or need. From broad awareness style videos to more precise videos highlighting an individual value proposition, we walk buyers through the sales funnel from awareness to decision and then later with after-sale service videos.
Further, our automation software will allow us to place the individual accounts into a visual funnel so we know precisely where each buyer is in that process. Most leads fall into the awareness or consideration stage, and may stay there for a short time or longer depending on your particular sales cycle. The important part is knowing where they are on that journey so that you can send them timely, relevant information to assist them in making the best decision possible.
Awareness
In the awareness stage, we send our leads more broad educational content about the features advantages and benefits of our services. Who we are, what we do, how we do it, and what makes us so special compared to others. Those are the basics to build that awareness and establish credibility.
Consideration
Once a buyer moves into the consideration stage, we work to build a deeper relationship with them. Let them get to know you a bit. This still stays high-level, but gives them more depth into how we can help them solve their problem by answering questions they have about our solutions.
Decision
In the decision stage, we like to leverage the selling power of our current clients by letting them speak for us. We like to use testimonials and case studies to really paint a picture for our prospects and allow them to see how our relationship will take shape if they work with us.
Scoring leads
Another important aspect is lead scoring, which is another way for us to identify the quality of the lead and their position in the buyer’s journey. A quick example - we assign 20 points to a lead that fills out the form on our site to receive our emails. We give 50 points to someone that watches our first video in our video marketing series. We assign 50 points for each subsequent video they watch in the series. If someone completes all of the videos, we consider them to be in the decision stage and market to them differently than we would a brand new subscriber.
Bring it all together
Another important aspect is lead scoring, which is another way for us to identify the quality of the lead and their position in the buyer’s journey. A quick example - we assign 20 points to a lead that fills out the form on our site to receive our emails. We give 50 points to someone that watches our first video in our video marketing series. We assign 50 points for each subsequent video they watch in the series. If someone completes all of the videos, we consider them to be in the decision stage and market to them differently than we would a brand new subscriber.
Marketing automation has been around for a few years. As mentioned above, it can have a profound impact on generating and building relationships. Internet video has been around for several years as well and has become critical for any successful marketing campaign. By combining these two technologies, we are able to help our clients build substantially deeper relationships that allow us to anticipate needs and create recurring revenue from repeat buyers.