6 ways a video can drive sales

Eager small business owners already know that the best way to step up their marketing efforts is to incorporate videos. From capturing and holding attention, to compelling viewers to take action, video marketing improves stats all around. 

But why is video so effective in marketing?

Well, because it’s a win-win. With audiences hungry for high quality video content, marketers can easily provide them with what they want, while increasing conversion rates and generating more sales in return. 

How can video increase your sales?

Utilizing online videos can help your business increase sales conversions in a number of ways. The following examples illustrate how marketing videos – each with a different focus – can influence customers to make a purchase.

1. Lead generation

We’re always looking to acquire relevant marketing leads. This includes anyone who could be interested in our product, and in turn, could be likely to make a purchase. Incorporating video into your online marketing efforts can increase leads, and have even more of an effect if those videos are used in a lead-generating landing page. 

Typically, a landing page will inform the visitor of something important or useful, and ask that they provide their personal information (this could consist of their name, email address, etc.) by filling out a form. A video landing page does just that but is far more interesting and captivating than a simple text-based or image-based webpage. 

Check out this example of a great video landing page:

Why it works: This video presents an issue that you as the consumer could be avoiding, and provides a downloadable solution. Viewers are able to download a form, fill out their information, and access a tool. The presenter is authoritative, seemingly reliable, and likely able to convince viewers to take action; all characteristics of an effective marketing video.

2. Brand awareness

As a brand or business, you want consumers to have knowledge about you and be aware of your existence within the market. If a prospective consumer can demonstrate ad recall (show they know your brand off the top of their head), that counts towards your overall brand awareness. 

Especially for ecommerce businesses who thrive in the online space, having video ads or videos as part of their content marketing strategy helps to increase overall brand awareness and reach a larger, often more targeted audience. Getting more people, and more of the right people, aware of and enthusiastic about your business can ultimately lead to more sales. 

3. Storytelling

It’s not enough to just post or promote a company video. Your audience will relate most when your visual content tells a compelling story. Even with a short and simple video, it’s important to have a clear beginning, middle, and end with a straightforward message. 

Consider what your audience will find captivating, and what will hold their attention long enough to respond to your call to action. If you’re telling a story that grabs the viewer, they’re likely to stick with you till the end of the video. 

4. Showcasing the product

One of the best ways to get viewers to resonate with your product is to show them a solid product video. Product videos or explainer videos help your audience better understand what you do, and what the benefits of your product really are. Even if your audience already has a certain level of brand awareness, unless they are active users they may not truly know all the intricacies of what you do. Seeing it unpacked in a video format can be extremely helpful to drive more interest, help viewers remember and easily recall your brand, and lead to sales. 

In this product video example by Headspace, they calmly and happily take the viewer through the product journey and explain how its features are beneficial.

Why it works: This video makes a point to provide several examples of how their product is applicable to our lives as users. It told a story, provided a solution to a problem, and easily resonated with the audience. 

5. Targeted content 

Let’s think about this for a minute. You know better than anyone who your audience is and what they want to see. As a business owner and an evolving marketer, you’ve probably made some catch-all videos for your site or social media channels. But why not segment your audience into more focused, easier to target groups and target those groups with their own videos?

Because video makes people so much more compelled to take action, videos that target specific groups or appeal to a target audience can further influence your viewers and potential customers. Different groups within your target audience may be at different points along the marketing funnel, so a video that targets each group according to that positioning can produce better results. 

Look at Facebook for example. When running paid video ads on the platform, there are multiple ways to segment and target (and re-target) audiences for successful campaigns. You can also create mobile videos and content easily viewed from a smartphone or mobile device to target those in your audience who don’t watch videos on their desktops.

6. Increase conversion rate

Video has been proven to increase conversion rate again and again. Videos help drive traffic, create buzz and engagement, and finally lead to sales, or conversion. In fact, according to industry case studies, A/B tested landing pages increased conversion by 86% when incorporating a video. Video ads received 20% more clicks than images, and held viewers’ attention five times longer. 

The super-strong statistics show, using videos in your marketing campaigns leads to increased return on investment (ROI) – sounds pretty good to us!

Videos also make a real difference in conversions when it comes to email marketing. 

How many times can you recall seeing an email sitting in your inbox and just letting it…sit there? That subject line didn’t compel you to open it, and you definitely aren’t interested in scrolling through the body of the email. However, when the word ‘video’ is used in the subject line, the open rate of that email goes up 19%. The video in that email’s body helps increase click through rates (CTR) by 65%, and encourages people not to unsubscribe. In fact, unsubscribes decrease by approximately 26%. 

BONUS way video can help drive sales:

They are great assets that can get you some nice organic traffic! 

You’ve probably heard of video SEO and might have shied away a bit from applying those strategies. But you don’t have to be an SEO expert to use your video content to drive traffic and boost rankings. 

Because Google rewards strong, relevant content, when you post your videos to YouTube (the world’s second largest search engine), they have a chance of displaying and ranking higher in Google search results. So when your audience is searching for those terms and keywords that are in your video, they are more likely to be guided towards your content, improving traffic to your site, boosting brand awareness, and leading to sales. 

Use a video maker to create marketing videos that incorporate any of the above approaches into your marketing strategy can help you deliver great content, stay in the minds of users, and increase sales as you continue to evolve as both an effective marketer and business owner. 

See how Promo.com can help you reach your video marketing goals!