People remember 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see and 70% of what they see and hear. Online video marketing is clearly a great way to reach your customers. Consumers want to be entertained and online video marketing fills the bill. Studies show that video marketing can increase purchase intent by 97%. Using the high quality of a simple smartphone, furniture and home goods retailers and manufacturers can showcase products and merchandise in short videos that are easy to produce in-house.
Here are some current statistics that solidify the value of video marketing:
- 66% more qualified leads per year
- 54% increase in brand awareness
- 94% of businesses see video as an effective tool
- 81% saw an increase in sales
- 53% said support calls were reduced
Use Storytelling in Online Video Marketing
As this article in Technology Advice points out, advertising needs to be more than flashy pictures. People prefer simple story-based ads over expensive action-driven ads every time. Author David Beriev says “To drive conversions, you need a good branding campaign, and a good branding campaign needs transparency.” Video marketing is the absolute best way to provide transparency and build empathy with prospective customers.
Today’s online buyers grew up channel surfing (and now on-demand streaming) moving through channels looking for what they want to watch. They will only watch videos that tell a story and tell it fast. Tell your story in a fun and short video lasting 45 seconds – 1 minute. Videos that are too long won’t keep the viewers watching. Shorter is better because of the other distractions that demand shopper attention.
Also, recognize that today’s tech-savvy shoppers know how to create videos on their smartphones and will expect you to produce high-quality videos. If you produce your own videos make sure you use the best accessory equipment available like tripods for stability, portable LED lights, and external microphones.
Be Knowledgeable with Your Online Video Marketing
When using videos for marketing, you need to demonstrate that you have a good understanding of how your customers use your products. They expect you to provide the information they need to make confident buying decisions. Informative videos will keep them on your website longer. Google pays attention to how long people stay on your website and if specific pages cause them to stay on longer, that page will receive higher rankings. Informative videos help your customers understand what will work best for them and can also reduce product returns.
Knowing what types of video content to produce is just as important in knowing how to produce it. Work with someone that has basic filming and editing experience or jump in and teach yourself. Pro tip: It is not necessary to narrate videos while filming. Movie production software provides the ability to add narratives and overlay music. There are several inexpensive video editing software packages available including:
- Apple iMovie
- Windows Movie Maker
- Corel VideoStudio
- Adobe Premiere Elements
Take the time to learn how to use your software and you will produce high-quality videos for marketing in no time!
Show Authenticity in Your Online Video Marketing
Bierev says “stories have meaning besides simple entertainment value. Stories connect people with other people, businesses, brands, products, and their dreams. And businesses cannot succeed without this connection.”
Lead with trust and authenticity in your online video marketing. For example, if you are going to show your upholstery team in action covering a sofa, show the actual people doing the work in your actual facilities. If you want to demonstrate how your interior designers work with customers, shoot some actual footage of your own people meeting with real customers. You, of course, will need everyone involved to provide written permission for showing your videos online.
Video marketing is a great way to showcase your company, your staff, and your facilities. People love to learn the history of the companies with whom they do business. Listen to what shoppers are talking about on social media and bring this discussion into your videos.
Use Multi-channel Marketing
Videos take time and effort to plan and film. Make the most use of this asset and use it on your website, social media channels, and in email marketing campaigns.
Social Media Channels
Videos posted on social channels like Facebook and YouTube can draw an engaged audience but should be evaluated differently than if posted on a website. Videos that are “Shared”, rather than “Liked”, hold more value and can lead to increased visibility from platform algorithms.
Email Campaigns
When adding videos to email campaigns, you’ll want to be sure to tag each URL with an appropriate UTM code to identify which channel gets the most clicks on the video. UTM Codes are what Google Analytics uses to track where a video came from, how often it is viewed and how often a video campaign directs people to the desired location on your website. Once you understand the analytics from your UTM codes, you will be able to produce better videos that deliver what your customers are looking for when they view your videos online.
Digital Marketing Institute offers the following advice for creating videos for use in multiple channels: “Get right to the grit of the tale and manage expectations from the outset (within the first 5 to 10 seconds). Your video should immediately convey its value and answer that “why should I watch it?” question that will be on your audience’s mind. Should they watch it because it will make them laugh, because it will inspire them to act or because it will teach them something new?”
Optimize Videos for Different Channels
Once your video is completed it can take on a life of its own. A single video can be sliced, diced, and edited to create fresh content for multi-channel marketing efforts. Using video software, edit your videos for different channels, different audiences who value different messages, various lengths (long format for your website and Facebook, shorter clips for Instagram and Twitter). You’d be surprised how much you can recycle and maximize the mileage from a video if you take the time to plan and optimize. Pro tip: In general, videos should be filmed in landscape orientation, but when posting on Instagram, this platform only wants portrait (i.e. vertical) – so keep this in mind when editing.
Hubspot article offers guidance on the types of videos you can create for each of the various channels you are targeting:
- Demo videos on your main website can demonstrate expertise
- Branding videos build awareness and work well on Facebook
- Expert, how to and educational videos can enhance email marketing campaigns
- Target Instagram with short event videos
- Short testimonial and case study videos also work well on Facebook
Summary of Online Video Marketing
Produce quality content. Don’t just pitch products, provide value. Demonstrate expertise, be transparent and build empathy with your viewing audience. People are exposed to an endless amount of advertisements each day. Ads that are solely trying to sell viewers on a product or service are going to blend in and can turn them off.
Focus on providing value to your viewers to educate and entertain them. They are much more likely to share your content and find value in it when you teach them something new or entertain them. Demonstrate how easy it is to use your latest power recliner or give tips on best practices for keeping leather furniture looking new.
No one likes bland, irrelevant content. Your video marketing content should be focused on your target audience at all times. You want to speak how they speak and use words and phrases that they do to fully resonate with them. If your target customer is not familiar with the retail furniture lingo you use around your store, explain what you mean in laymen terms or change your wording to resonate with your customer.
Creating and publishing video content is very important, but distributing it properly is what will give you the best chance for exposure. You spent all this time planning, creating, and publishing the content and now you need to get it in front of your target audience. Make sure to distribute the content on many different platforms and channels for maximum exposure.
Few people get it right the first time. Start small with a short video of clearance center items you’re looking to move quickly and see how that goes. From there, you may want to hire a professional to help you tell your story or you can continue to experiment and find what works best for you and your audience. Don’t give up! Consumers love videos. See our digital marketing experts talk about the importance of video marketing.
