Did you know that Amazon spent over 13 billion U.S. dollars on advertisements in 2022? Is it possible for a local business to spend even 0.001% of that amount? In a market where 595,000 small businesses fail each year, local brands must adapt to ever-changing consumer behaviors and leverage high ROI marketing strategies in order to survive. Video marketing is the perfect low-cost option to reach large audiences. Crafting compelling videos and uploading them into the right platform can give your business the reach you need to take your brand to new heights.
Why Video Sells: The Science Behind It
- Engagement: Unlike static content, such as text and images, videos are highly effective at holding the viewer’s attention for longer. Since they’re capable of conveying emotions through facial expressions, tone of voice, music, and alluring visuals, they can make the audience feel more connected, which is the key to strengthening longterm engagement.
- Impressionable: It’s common knowledge that the human brain loves information presented in ‘visual format’ like videos, infographics, and presentations. Our brain is capable of retaining information up to 80% more effectively when it’s presented in video format, compared to only 20% with text format and 10% with audio format.
- Google Approved: Google is all about helping the people find the most relevant and reliable information on the internet. It amplifies content that users find engaging and informative. Since video formats enhance user engagement and encourage them to spend more time on site pages, it’s more likely to improve your SEO rankings and organic visibility.
- Trustworthy & Credible: Videos are capable of humanizing your brand, helping you connect emotionally with your audience. It allows you to visually illustrate your product’s features and service benefits, which is a great way to demonstrate transparency and authenticity. Additionally, showcasing video testimonials of real customer experiences allows you to build trust in a more personal way.
How Videos Can Be Used To Drive Sales
- Showcasing products and services: Unlike text descriptions or static images, a video demonstration of how a product works provides a clear and practical visual representation, showing the customer that the product is genuine and delivers as it promises. Such illustrations can help potential customers understand why your product is uniquely better than the competitor’s offer and may result in conversions.
- Promoting special offers: Videos can be used to promote time-sensitive offers and discounts. They can capture the viewer’s attention quickly and encourage them to act fast by creating a sense of urgency. Videos promoting time sensitive offers must have elements like a countdown timer, eye-catching graphics, a strong call-to-action (CTA), and social proof to demonstrate how others have benefited from the offer.
- Building community connections: How sustainably a local business performs depends greatly on how positively it’s perceived in its neighborhoods. By allowing you to showcase your businesses’ active participation in various community initiatives, videos enable you to foster a sense of belonging among the local population. In turn, this could help establish a loyal customer base and encourage repeat business.
- Sharing customer testimonials: The actions and behaviors of an individual can guide others to make decisions accordingly, especially in uncertain situations. Social proof is the term assigned to this psychological phenomenon. It’s no surprise that video testimonials from happy customers are a powerful form of social proof. By acting as endorsements, they may make it more appealing for potential new customers looking for inspiration and reassurance.
Common Misconceptions About Video Marketing
- It’s too expensive: Many small business owners think that video production is an expensive and time-consuming endeavor that only large companies can afford. While they are not entirely wrong since high-end video production does require a lot of resources, creating engaging videos that truly drive meaningful results within a very small budget is also possible.
- Videos only work for B2C businesses: Video marketing is as effective of a tool for B2B businesses as it is for B2C businesses. B2B companies can use videos to build trust with other businesses, explain the services they offer, how they helped their previous clients, etc. This visual format can also help acquire new clients, therefore leading to multi-fold profits.
- Videos are too time-consuming: It’s true that video production is a complicated process involving scripting, shooting, and editing the requires a significant amount of time. However, you can avoid the stress by outsourcing video production to an agency that has all the resources and manpower required to craft engaging videos.
Is It Just Hype, Or Does Video Marketing Deliver On Its Promise?
A Statista study found that, in 2022, people watched an average of 19 hours of online video content per week for all sorts of things, ranging from entertainment to researching products before planned purchases. Nineteen hours is no small amount of time ― highlighting just how much time is spent consuming video format. While many video sharing platforms will come and go, the concept of videos themselves will remain a cornerstone of how we consume information.
Final Thought
It’s evident that videos are here to stay, at least until something more engaging and immersive comes along. So, if you want to improve online visibility and increase your sales, we recommend to start incorporating videos into your brand’s marketing strategy today. With this in place, we assure you that it won’t be long before you see the results.