Videos have taken the marketing world by storm over the past few years, and it’s not hard to see why—they’re a highly versatile form of content. Consumers enjoy watching videos because they’re more engaging than written content, and marketers enjoy creating videos because they have the potential for a significant return on investment.
If you haven’t embraced the trend of video marketing yet, it’s time to start. Research suggests that videos will account for 80% of all internet traffic by 2022, compared to 67% in 2016. It’s clear that videos are only becoming more popular, and incorporating them into your sales strategy can help you stay ahead of the curve.
Are you unsure where to start when it comes to video marketing? Keep reading to learn how you can use videos to increase your sales outcomes.
The Benefits of Using Video in Sales
If you’re used to using written content for your sales strategy, you might be wondering why videos are a worthwhile addition. After all, it takes more time and money to produce a product explainer video than it does to write a blog about your product. However, it’s easy to justify the extra investment when you consider the benefits of using video in sales.
Here are a few reasons why videos are such a powerful sales tool:
- Videos keep users engaged: No matter how clever and readable your written content is, you can’t guarantee that your potential customers will read it. Reading long paragraphs of text requires work. Video content, on the other hand, requires minimal effort from the viewer, and it appeals to different types of learners.
- Videos give credibility to your claims: You can tell potential customers that your product is easy to use, but they have no way of knowing if your claim is valid. However, with video, you can demonstrate your product and showcase why it’s so much better than the other products on the market.
- Videos make complex topics understandable: Some concepts translate well to writing, but others don’t. Because videos add visual context to written descriptions, they can effectively teach viewers about even the most complicated topics.
- Videos help establish trust: If you want to develop a relationship with customers from a distance, videos are one of the best ways to do so. You can add a face to your content and humanize your brand, which helps you build trust with viewers.
Video is the perfect bridge between in-person and digital communication. It takes the informative nature of written content and adds a visual element that makes viewers feel more connected with your brand.
How To Generate More Sales Using Different Types of Video Content Marketing
There are countless videos you can use to grow your business, and they each have a different place in the sales cycle. Here’s how you can generate more sales using the most popular video types.
Product Sales Video
Whether they’re individual consumers or businesses, most buyers won’t blindly purchase products without seeing what they look like or understanding how they work. They want to ensure that the product will fit their needs and do everything you claim it does. However, it’s not always feasible to try out products in person, especially when most of the sales cycle takes place digitally. Product sales or explainer videos are the next best alternative when you can’t bring your product to prospective customers.
Product sales videos aren’t just a great way to move existing leads through the sales cycle—they can also help you attract new leads altogether. You can post product videos on your social media profiles, video-sharing platforms, and web pages and use them to generate organic leads. For example, a random social media user could spot your product video on their feed, press play, and decide that they’re interested.
If you want your product video to increase sales, you need to produce high-quality content. Your video shouldn’t just showcase your product and its features; it should address common issues your buyers might have and demonstrate how your product can solve them.
Additionally, you should share your video across multiple platforms to ensure it reaches as many potential customers as possible. You can include product videos in email marketing campaigns, instruct your sales team to include them in personalized emails to leads, and embed them on your company website.
TV Commercial
Marketers have been using TV commercials to sell their products and services for decades. Even though streaming services have changed the way we consume media, commercials haven’t become obsolete, and there’s a reason—they work. Commercials are an excellent way to increase brand awareness in your area and reach a huge number of potential buyers.
That being said, not every TV commercial works. It’s unlikely that a forgettable, low-quality TV commercial will make an impact on sales, and it could even hurt your company’s reputation. For your TV commercial to be effective, you need to catch viewers’ attention and leave a lasting impression. These best practices can help you create a TV commercial that generates sales:
- Be brief: Most ad slots are only 15 to 30 seconds long, so you don’t have much time to get your message across. Don’t try to stuff too much information into a short commercial.
- Share critical information first: You only have a few seconds to capture someone’s attention. If you want viewers to keep watching, you should share the most important and impactful information immediately.
- Focus on storytelling: When viewers can connect with a story, they are more likely to stay engaged and remember your message.
- Stick to your message: You should have a goal for your commercial, and your message should fit that goal. Viewers won’t remember your message if you bombard them with information, so keep things simple.
- Stay on brand: Branding is a key component of TV commercials. Your tone, content, and images should fit your brand image and stay consistent across different videos.
Once you create your TV commercial, you can broadcast it in your area and post it on digital platforms to get the most visibility.
Case Study or Testimonial Video
Case studies and testimonial videos may not be the first things that come to mind when you’re brainstorming how to increase sales, but they can have a surprising impact on your marketing strategy. Potential customers want to partner with brands they trust, and testimonials demonstrate that you’re a trustworthy business with a stellar track record. Buyers trust other buyers more than they trust the companies they purchase from, and testimonials let your satisfied customers do the talking.
Case studies and testimonial videos are most effective when they come across as authentic. If it looks like your past customer read off of a script listing generic positive phrases about your business, viewers won’t trust what they are saying. Additionally, effective testimonials should include a narrative element explaining how your products or services solved a common pain point for your customer. Viewers with the same issue will be able to see that your business delivered a solution to a similar customer.
Once you have a completed case study or testimonial video, you can incorporate it into your sales process. When interested leads ask if you have ever dealt with their problem before, your sales team can send over a testimonial from a similar customer. Additionally, you can include testimonials in sales emails, social media posts, and your website’s testimonial page. A good testimonial can shorten your sales cycle and increase your chances of making a sale, so don’t be shy about posting it on various channels.
Company Profile or Culture Video
Testimonials aren’t the only video type that helps build trust with buyers. Company profile and culture videos also give your potential customers the chance to connect with your brand. By sharing an overview of your company history, differentiating factors, main offerings, and values, you can demonstrate why leads should purchase from you and not your competitors.
Like testimonials, company profile videos should be authentic, personal, and informative. You should show leads why you’re a trustworthy brand and highlight the factors that make your company unique. Be concise and emphasize the points that would appeal most to your target audience.
A professional company profile video is helpful throughout the sales process. You can incorporate it into your website’s “About Us” page to give potential customers an impactful first impression of your brand. You might also link your video in your social media profiles so new visitors can quickly learn about your brand. Additionally, you can send your company profile to new leads in your pipeline to show them why they should move forward.
Though your company profile might not immediately lead to a purchase, it can help keep leads interested in your brand and increase your probability of making a sale down the line.
Partner With a Sales Video Expert and Watch Your Revenue Grow
Creating a corporate video isn’t easy. Creating a good corporate video that has a noticeable impact on your sales is even more challenging. You need the best equipment available and an experienced team to make sales videos that are worth the investment. If you need outside help producing impactful videos and incorporating them into your sales strategy, Abstrakt Studios can help.
Whether you need a corporate video, a TV commercial, a sales collateral video, or a completely custom creation for your business, our video production experts can create a finished product that will fit seamlessly into your sales process. We use a proven process and world-class equipment to create award-winning videos for companies across the St. Louis region.
Get in touch with our team today to learn how our video production studio can help you reach your sales goals by incorporating one-of-a-kind video content into your process.