How to Drive More Sales Through Video Marketing

Generating sales is a delicate balance for many companies. It requires building relationships with prospective customers, creating brand touchpoints that are memorable and informative, and ultimately giving your audience assurance that your product or service is the solution to their needs.

Video marketing plays a crucial role in each one of these instances. The dynamic nature of video makes it more attention-grabbing than a wall of text or a static image, and the visuals allow for a more personal connection. Don’t believe us? Here are a few stats about the power of video for driving sales:

• Video ads were the #1 way consumers discovered a brand they later purchased from. (Animoto)

• 78% of marketers say video has directly helped to increase sales. (Wyzowl)

• 93% of brands got a new customer because of a video on social media. (Animoto)

• 84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. (Wyzowl)

When it comes to attracting new customers, video’s combination of attention-grabbing media and a clearly explained concept is key. And depending on the video type you choose (e.g., an explainer video, branded content, a testimonial video, etc.), you have the opportunity to educate and entertain. This is great for driving purchases.

Plus, if your salespeople are using video for direct outreach, these benefits are amplified. Video helps to streamline the efforts of your salespeople, giving them an additional asset to sway the prospective customer without investing too much time in chasing down leads.

It’s never too late to launch a video production strategy, and you might be surprised at how effectively video drives sales for your brand—especially considering that it’s a relatively low lift up-front depending on the video itself and there are various factors to consider on  how to sell videos online effectively.

Ready to use video for your own sales process? Here’s how to get started.

Consider the Sales Funnel

We always recommend starting a video project by understanding your goals. A great way to assess your goals is to consider the marketing funnel—awareness, interest, desire, and action. As prospective customers learn more about your brand, they move closer to the point of sale. The goal for marketers and salespeople is to guide customers through the sales funnel as seamlessly as possible. Video can be used at any stage of the marketing funnel, but it’s important to understand your strategy before you dive into production. A video that you make for the awareness stage of the funnel will look different than a video for the desire stage, and you should know what you need before you get started.

Here are some ideas of videos you might create for each stage of the funnel.

Awareness:

The awareness stage usually involves the initial interactions with your potential customer. The goal is to make them conscious of the problem they face and introduce them to your brand. Generally, these videos are not focused on finalising sales or detailing your product or service. Simply capturing your audience's interest and sharing some essential insights about your industry or brand is considered successful.

During the awareness stage, commercials, promotional content, educational videos, and before-and-after videos are particularly impactful. Regarding distribution strategies, videos targeting the awareness stage typically perform effectively on social media or as video advertisements in search engines, OTT platforms, TV, and other digital environments.

Interest:

In the interest phase, the customer already knows you exist but may not have any intention of making a purchase. Your role is to demonstrate how your product or service addresses the issue identified during the awareness phase.

This is an excellent opportunity to share product specifics, offer a background on your brand's origins, and elaborate on your industry and mission.

Effective videos for this stage include brand videos, explainer videos, crowdfunding videos, and product videos. Distribution typically involves owned channels such as your website and social media accounts, email marketing, and paid advertisements.

Desire:

The decision phase slightly overlaps with the interest phase. At this point, you are convincing your customer that your solution is the one they need to address their problem. They transition from being curious about your product or service to genuinely wanting it in their lives.

It's often beneficial to showcase your product or service in action during this phase. Videos such as product demonstrations, customer testimonials, FAQ overviews, and UGC compilations are effective. The more you can help your viewer envision their life with your product, the more likely they are to convert.

These videos frequently originate from sales representatives, particularly for B2B companies. Additional distribution channels encompass your e-commerce product listings, email marketing, social media, and your website.

Action:

Finally, the action phase is when your customers make a purchase. All your efforts up to this stage finally convert into revenue—though you might be amazed at how swiftly this can occur when video is involved. After all, 94% of video marketers see video as a crucial part of their marketing strategy for a reason!

In this phase, you employ every tactic in your video content. Include success metrics, case studies, testimonials, and any final details that might persuade your audience to make a purchase. By now, they’re already convinced of your brand’s value, so you just need to give them the final push to make buying an obvious choice.

These videos often work well as personal follow-ups with your most engaged leads, but they also lend themselves to other distribution channels where you have a captive audience, like your email lists and social media channels.

Test, Adjust, and Repeat

Lastly, unfortunately you can’t just create a single video, publish it to your distribution channel, and wait for the sales to roll in. While you will likely see a boost from that strategy compared to having no video content at all, the best way to maximize your efforts is to treat your approach like a science experiment.

Monitor the results of your videos (and any subsequent impact on sales) and get curious about the findings. Would another distribution channel work better? Are viewers dropping off in the middle of the video? Is your video driving newsletter signups more effectively than it’s driving sales?

Every published video is a gold mine of information to study about your audience and their digital habits, and the insights you gather from analyzing the video data will help you adjust your approach for the next production.

The good news? It’s never too late to launch a video production strategy, and you might be surprised at how effectively video drives sales for your brand—especially considering that it’s a relatively low lift up-front (even more so if you outsource the project to a production company).

If you need support or just want to talk through your potential strategy, book a free video strategy session below and our experts will work with you to get started. social@launchfactory.co.za