Lights! Camera! Action! To get the most from your ecommerce product videos, it's important to make them engaging. Take a look at these important tips to help your online business boost conversions with your product videos.
It’s time to pull out your director’s chair and make some killer product videos for your ecommerce site. Regardless of your experience or access to technology, follow these tips to make your videos a selling machine.
First, keep your videos short. No one wants to sit and watch an epic telenovela about why your products are so amazing. Keep it less than two minutes and try to make it flashy.
Next, demo your product. Remember, you’re trying to sell with these product videos. The goal here is to essentially turn your product description into an interactive and engaging video. Thus, make sure that you’re showing off what the product can do and why customers should purchase.
Along the same lines, it’s important to show the benefits of the product within your video. Don’t sit there and go through a laundry list of technical features. Instead, explain why those features are beneficial to the user and put them into a lifestyle perspective so customers can see how it will enhance their lives.
Fourth, include product close-ups. Have you seen those restaurant commercials on TV where they have extreme close-ups of the food? You know, the ones where they splash the lemon juice that makes everything fantastic? Your job is to do the same thing – your product video will complement your product images, so make sure that you zoom in and show your products in a good light.
Last but not least, always, always optimize your product videos when you post them to YouTube or distribute them elsewhere. Make sure you have a keyword-rich, engagin headline. Also be certain to include your tags and relevant keywords.
Following these steps will help your videos appear higher in organic search results and help more people find them. Hopefully this is helpful in making your ecommerce product videos a selling machine! If you have any questions, we’re always happy to help.
YouTube is not only a popular website for individuals to share their favorite videos; it has also emerged as a marketing tool for businesses. Many businesses actively promote their products or services by creating a YouTube channel that includes a company's branding, video advertisements and interviews with executives and employees and ways for customers to interact with them. A YouTube channel, effectively used, can help a business improve its search engine rankings and increase awareness of its products.
One of the major business benefits of creating a branded YouTube channel is that YouTube can help generate traffic to a company's website, which can help increase sales. According to Alexa, a Web analysis company, YouTube is the third most popular website in the world (following only Google and Facebook), with about 490 million people globally visiting each month, watching about 2.9 billion hours of video monthly. Businesses that create effective, compelling videos and upload them to their YouTube channel, including links to their business' website, can drive traffic from YouTube to their site.
Search Rankings
Building an effective YouTube channel, frequently updated with fresh and interesting video content, can also help a business improve its search rankings, according to a July 2011 article by Search Engine Journal. Specifically, video content that uses the right keywords and tags that are relevant to that company and its products can help a company's "organic" search rankings, which are the results that appear in a search engine because they are the most relevant to the terms a person is searching for, not because of paid advertising. In addition, YouTube is the Web's second largest search engine -- trailing only Google. Companies with YouTube channels can pay to have their videos ranked higher in the rankings when a person searches for videos using specific keywords.
Thanks to social media, advertising online is a piece of cake.
Well, maybe not a piece of cake, but it’s a nice, easy and cheap way to market to your current clients and possible future clients. While sites like Facebook and Twitter are easy to use for marketing purposes, other outlets available can seem more difficult to market through.
As popular as YouTube is, it can be somewhat difficult to market through, especially if you’re not t he best videographer or even like to be on camera.
Video Blogging/Tutorials
Using YouTube to market to your followers is like riding a bicycle: you may fall the first couple of times but once you get the hang of it, you never forget how to do it.
Blogging through YouTube has become an incredible way to send messages even for people who aren’t interested in starting their own business. Not only is watching videos a preferred method of communication, but this allows the reader to listen to your content or promotion without even having to be at their computer.
Creating videos for your followers to see can relay messages ranging from new products to just simply sharing an experience with a product.
The great thing about YouTube is that you don’t have to only use it to market your product or business. People like to see videos about anything; even if it’s you making a fool of yourself trying sushi.
Tutorials are also a great way to market new products. If you use constantly searched keywords in your video title to help promote your product, this is a great way to get people to watch your video as well as market your new product.
Linking Accounts
After making an initial video explaining who you are and what you do, it’s important to link all of your accounts to your YouTube channel.
If you’ve ever watched a video, sometimes a link will appear while hovering over the video or even at the bottom in the description of what the video is about. This can give users easy access to whatever their next step must be.
It’s important not to place too much information inside of the description area below the video. Not only is it distracting, but the chances the user is going to read it are slim to none. YouTube is intended for videos only – nobody wants to have to read there.
Gaining Followers
Gaining followers via YouTube is where many marketers find their difficulties. Unfortunately, unlike the other outlets of social media, when you post a video, unless the user is subscribed to your channel, they will probably not see it unless they are searching for it.
One of the easiest ways to allow your following to grow is to comment on other people’s videos. Instead of making a promotional comment about your brand, simply post something kind of positive about the video they posted. Not only does this pique their interest but they will probably visit your page to pay you a comment as well or just see what your video content is about.
Not only does this get your product and brand out there but it gives users the opportunity to see a few videos you’ve created and one day, gain their loyalty.
Creativity
Creativity is an absolutely requirement when it comes to creating videos. If you’re concerned that you’re not funny enough to make a video, put somebody on there that is.
But seriously, that doesn’t have to happen either. If you have hired a copywriter or someone who writes your content, once the creative content is written, it’s easy to repeat it on screen for your followers. Using videos can help them put a face to your brand, so using yourself can be more beneficial than using an actor or actress.
Uploading one or two videos a week is enough – don’t get too video crazy. If you’ve got that friend who posts 5 or 6 selfies a week, you know how annoying that can be. One video a week would show your followers that you consistently have more information to share but it doesn’t overwhelm them with content.
As more of you expand your efforts invideo content marketing, you undoubtedly know (and have been told) that a call to action (CTA) is an absolute must have. That all-important prompt encourages someone to actually dosomething and it offers an opportunity to evaluate your video’s effectiveness.
Advice on how to weave an engaging and tightly integrated CTA into your video is much less decisive. Create a funny and personal or slick-motion graphic? Incorporate in video or description? The fact is that there is no single answer. The secrets to crafting a great CTA depend on your unique circumstances.
This guide focuses on YouTube because the CTA design is more direct and easier to measure than on other platforms. (Vimeo, for example, is a popular tool because of its visual clarity and compression for crowd-funded campaigns like Kickstarter, but those initiatives often have different goals.) In a medium where there are no one-size-fits-all solutions, access to information is key for successful content marketing.
Step 1: Assess your goals
Your CTA is the nudge you give viewers so that they will do something. So what do you want them to do? Take stock of your business goals in both abstract and specific terms:
What do you want to achieve with this video? Be broad. Evaluate how the video is designed to contribute to your goals. Do you want viewers to buy a product, install an app, or subscribe to your channel?
How can your CTA support those goals? Be specific. If you want someone to purchase a product, does the CTA allow them to click through to the sales funnel? If you want more YouTube followers, does it encourage them to subscribe to your channel? If you want viewers to visit an affiliate, is the affiliate identified with a clear link?
After you’ve nailed down exactly what you want your CTA to achieve, your next task is to create something that meets these goals as effectively as possible.
Step 2: Identify the best options
At this point you have two decisions to make: How should you craft your CTA stylistically and which tools can help you meet the goals.
How does your CTA fit with the video content? Think thematically. Let’s use Dove’sReal Beauty Sketches as an example. The video is pensive, introspective, and emotionally charged. As such, the CTA on the screen at the video’s end is thoughtful, restrained, and unobtrusive. Dove didn’t use brightly colored annotations or loud noises. In its description, Dove simply included a hashtag and link.
Now look at Cartoon Hangover’s Bravest Warriors episodic cartoon’s CTA end card. It’s busy, colorful and energetic, just like the video.
Its visible description focuses on the episode and doesn’t include a CTA, and the full description reads like closing credits for a show.
Both Dove and Cartoon Hangover understood their videos — they matched the CTA to the video, and more importantly, they matched the CTA to their goals. For a B2C like Dove, its primary objective was to encourage viewers to further their experience with the brand, while Cartoon Hangover’s primary objective was to inform viewers about the show.
What tools will effectively communicate your CTA?
Annotations: These pop-up messages on the video don’t have to detract from the viewing experience, but if they show up in the meatier content they can. The upside is that users can interact with your CTA immediately within the video experience. The downside is that annotations have a tendency to make users bounce, and annotations don’t appear on mobile or set-top boxes. Annotations in end cards? Totally cool.
Descriptions: A video description offers two-fold viewing — a few sentences on the first screen underneath the video and an expanded version after the viewer clicks “show more.” Including CTA links in descriptions is both better and worse than annotations because they don’t distract the viewer from the video experience. They’re more versatile than annotations and engaged viewers will naturally check your description for more information. But be careful about how you use your real estate: The first three lines of your description are a critical part of YouTube SEO (YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine), and the first lines are all that appear on the first screen.
Verbal (speaker mentions) vs. (direct host): A CTA during the video that comes from the narrator or host can carry more emotional weight than an end-card CTA. It also requires you to lock into a single CTA, so make sure the CTA is sufficiently attractive or powerful to engage viewers. Unlike an end card, which can be changed and updated easily, a speaker mention cannot be changed without significant production overhead. Many Kickstarter videos use this technique because viewers are likely already on the campaign page, making the next step obvious.
In addition, if your videos involve multiple speakers or subjects, the person speaking may not be in a position to deliver a meaningful CTA. In those cases, consider filming a separate end card with a familiar host that can be shot and edited separately.
In this edition of its Ripple Effect videos, Red Bull opens the video with its general web address then uses Red Bull.com/Surfing on the opening credit slide. The CTA returns 14 minutes 30 seconds later in the end credits. Note the lack of annotations in the video, though.
End cards: CTAs on the end cards can work, but it’s a risky move given that a good portion of your audience may not still be viewing. That means you should explore all CTA options, but don’t give up on end cards. The 40+ percent of your audience that may still be watching is probably interested and looking for more information.
As we’ve seen, there are pros and cons to every tool and stylistic decision you make, but this can be mitigated by combining CTA styles. Make sure they all support your goals so that you don’t risk overcomplicating your pool of results and possibilities.
Step 3: Test, measure, and iterate
After you implement your CTAs, the evaluation begins. What happens with your CTAs? How you measure your CTA depends on what goals you’re trying to hit, but since many marketers are ultimately trying to push YouTube viewers off site and into their own funnels, we’ll focus on three critical measurements:
Measure in-video CTA viewership: If you click on Audience Retention in YouTube Analytics, you can see at which points viewers are dropping off, and this information can be used in multiple ways. For example, a significant drop-off that coincides with an annotation is a good sign that viewers do not think the CTA is too disruptive to the experience. Perhaps more importantly, these analytics allow you to see what percentage of users even makes it to your CTA. You can calculate a CTA viewership number by multiplying the number of total views by the percentage that made it to the point in the video with a CTA.
Measure click-throughs: Other than clicking the universal “X” in the right corner of a page to cease viewing, there are only two ways to click out of YouTube – through annotations to your verified website (known in YouTube parlance as Associate Website Annotations) or through links in the description.
Ultimately, you want to extrapolate the conversion rate of your CTA by dividing the number of views by the number of out-bound clicks. This CTA conversion rate is a really handy way to compare variations in your execution.
Tip: Further track your CTAs by using custom links through shortened-URL sites like Bit.ly, which can bring in demographic and easy-tracking data for each CTA.
Measure your annotations: You can see how well an annotation is performing by visiting the Annotations page under Engagement Reports in YouTube Analytics. Enter the name of your video and not only will you get your number of clicks, but also the close rate (the number of times a viewer closed the video when the annotation appeared).
Conclusion
This three-step video CTA process can help you create a goal-oriented CTA, pick the right delivery avenues, gauge each CTA’s effectiveness, and adjust and use analytics to evaluate what you should continue, change, or stop. It will likely take a few tries before you’ve developed an effective style, but once done, you will have a systematic approach to engaging your audience, increasing retention, and in turn, boosting the number of people responding to your CTA.
Finding a way to unleash the power of video in social can be essential to your brand's long-term success. In fact, according to Cisco, social video will account for 69% of consumer Internet traffic by 2017.
However, cracking the code to video success on social networks can be mind-boggling: from allocating budgets to measuring results, to finding the right audience on the right platforms.
So what might be helpful for you to know before your next campaign? Here are some tips to help you win in one of the most competitive advertising landscapes.
Apply traditional planning principles. With more than 1.3 billion Facebook and 271 million Twitter users globally, social can deliver as much scale as traditional reach channels. Combined with industry-standard audience insight, this provides brands with the unique opportunity to effectively distribute their video content and connect with potential new customers. Planning your social campaigns on reach & frequency (as you would in other channels) will ensure cost-efficient delivery vs. traditional video channels.
Go native. The ultimate driver of your video advertising should be to deliver the best possible experience to your audience. The new Facebook and Twitter video solutions provide high-impact premium video experiences in native environments. As a result, advertisers that use native video formats are seeing campaign performance up to 5X better then many leading VOD channels.
Personalize content. As marketers and advertisers place more and more emphasis on how to engage with their audiences, a one-size-fits-all communication strategy is convenient, but not always effective. Instead of sending out just one video to a broad audience, experiment with bespoke messaging for specific audience groups. Test lessons provide scope for future creative and targeting strategies.
Tell a story. A brand’s narrative is not limited to 15” or 30” video spots, and social video solutions allow for improved storytelling through depth of content and lasting customer experiences. Engaging content and use of sequential messaging delivers best results.
The combination of sight, sound and motion, with the addressability, measurement, and scale of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, means social media has the potential to be the most powerful brand-building medium yet, delivering as much scale and performance as any other traditional reach channels.
One of the most critical components of your Advisory Marketing plan is to stop chasing clients and start attracting them.
Today, we will show you a simple 3 step strategy on how to do just that.
There are two types of consultants and advisers : attractors and chasers.
Attractors do things differently than chasers and as a result, have a boat load of ideal clients in their lead generation funnel. Not surprising, they almost always make more money than advisors who follow the chaser model. Chasers spend the majority of their time on the hunt for new clients. They are often desperate for their next deal. Even though they spend the majority of their time chasing clients and attempting to close the deal, their closing rates are rarely better than their counter parts who use an attractor model. The chaser business model is like a roller coaster business – going from feast to famine and back again to repeat the never ending cycle.
But don’t worry, these 3 simple steps will show you how to stop chasing clients and start attracting them.
Step #1: Become an Attractor-
To become an attractor, you need to create a business that attracts your ideal prospects and clients. First, you need to find out what your ideal prospects and clients want, need, value and even fear. Once you find out what your ideal client wants, you simply need to deliver it. Chasers, on the other hand, are too busy selling or trying to sell that they don’t have the time to find out what their ideal clients want. Chasers generally believe they do not have the time to find out what their clients and prospects want, need, value or fear- nothing could be further from the truth. If they knew just how valuable it is to find out what their clients and prospects want, they would find the time to start asking questions.
Step #2: Find the Answer-
One of the biggest insights shared by Socrates was to never assume or tell but to ask, ask, ask. By asking your clients, prospects, centers of influence and reciprocal referral partners exactly what they want, you will know exactly what you need to do and offer to have a boat load of clients lined up wanting to do business with you. The best news about asking anyone and everyone who has knowledge of your ideal client, is that they are almost always willing to help you out by answering a few questions.
Some great questions include:
What keeps you up at night?
What is your top objective?
What has to happen in 1, 3, 5 years for you to be ecstatic about your financial situation?
What do you love about your current advisor (if they have one)?
What would you like your advisor to do differently, if anything?
How do you want to be remembered?
Do you have a plan to ensure that will happen in your estate plan?
Before you begin asking questions, take some time to create a questionnaire that includes all the questions you need to know to best serve your ideal client.
Step #3: Deliver it-
Once you have interviewed the people tied to your ideal client, you need to create a plan to deliver it. Your plan ideally includes the inner game, game plan and outer game. From your 12 month plan, identify the to-dos from most important to least important. Then determine who will complete each action. If you do not have the staff to ensure you complete the plan, hire another part or full time employee who can assist you execute the plan. The worst thing you can do is to start a plan and then stop it because you are too busy to execute it. To ensure you follow through on your plan, you need to plan for contingencies and do the upfront work to make it a reality.
The best advice is to understand that our actions produce our results. Consistent, right action produces consistent, right results just as inconsistent action produces inconsistent results. To ensure our actions are consistent, take the time to create a plan and do what is necessary to complete the plan to ensure you get the results you desire.
Video, an online marketing platform that has seen a sharp rise in use and effectiveness, is an often overlooked means for driving relevant traffic to your site – and generating interest in your campaign. An effective video initiative can also bolster your other marketing strategies.
Galactic Café, developer of the recent narrative-driven game The Stanley Parable, got it right.
Galactic Café sent customized preview builds of The Stanley Parable to well-known YouTube users who participate in Let’s Play videos. These users have a tremendous following that tune in for their first impressions of new games.
The developers engaged these YouTube users directly through dialogue in the game. The result: Plenty of organic, viral interaction about the videos that boosted traffic for these YouTube users’ Let’s Play video as well as sales for Galactic Café.
A recent B2B Benchmark Survey revealed more than 90% of marketing respondents used video on a site, second only to the learn more/contact us option (nearly 100%). Video topped white papers and case studies (84%) and even live demos with company representatives (just less than 80%).
We’ll discuss ways to blend video marketing into your online presence, and how easy it is to measure engagement and see results from it. With the proliferation of mobile devices as our primary means of Internet access, and bandwidth and speeds increasing with fiber-optic Internet, it’s prime time for video.
1. Crunch the numbers
Video content is easily subject to behavior analytics. Because video content is also tagged with keywords and ranks in Google search, you can use a video-hosting site such as YouTube to track interaction. Online retailers such as Amazon and Dell report an increase of as much as 35% when video is incorporated.
Video product reviews on Amazon nearly always appear at the top of Google’s rankings.
Takeaway: Video content is also easy to share via social networks, and software developers have prioritized video integration in site creation.
2. Reach customers on a deeper level
Our draw to video is subliminal, too. The concept of fusiform facial area suggests the brain processes categorical data about a person by facial recognition. Basically, the idea is that a person’s face is a factor in how they understand and process the message that person delivers verbally.
The right face on your video campaign can foster trust. A voice also translates your message in an essential way.
Takeaway: A face, a voice, and most of all, emotion, convey what language alone cannot.
3. Grab attention
Words and images are static. Page viewers are increasingly scan readers. It takes notable effort to read a 300-word blog post, especially compared to a simple click of a video play button. When visitors hit that button, it gives you the chance to actually talk to your prospect. It’s your window to their home.
Takeaway: Video is an extension of the personal connection we wrote about above, but with a familiarity of having “met” you through your video.
4. Let your followers sing your praises
Happy customers are gold. You can harvest recorded testimonials at a tradeshow, and it’s best to get as many as you can – aim for at least three, maybe as many as 12. You can also hire a video crew to hold a one-day shoot. Know what key messages you’re looking for when you edit.
Takeaway: The Q&A approach will put your testimonial subject at ease, and will allow you to direct the conversation toward those key messages you identified.
5. Go forth and conquer
A marketing video on your site is just the beginning. Start a YouTube channel. Incorporate video on landing pages. Post them to social media and your blog page. They’re easily shared through these channels, and the more a video is shared on quality sites, the better your Google page rank.
Takeaway: You’ll reach exponentially more potential clients with a well-made, well-placed video than with nearly any other means of marketing.
Over the past year, we’ve noticed a stiff increase of demand for video productions, mostly for the benefit of improving our clients’ websites and with the purpose of increasing the conversion rate of website visitors. I predict that this will become an even bigger trend in the next few years, and that video will increasingly become the way of communicating key messages to clients.
According to a comScore study, released in February 2011, 82.5% of the U.S. Internet audience viewed a video online. In a 2010 report from Cisco, 30% of Internet traffic is currently video. By 2013, 90% of Internet traffic will be video. These are impressive statistics, and when looking at the YouTube statistics below, this becomes even more convincing:
YouTube is the second biggest search engine (after Google).
60 hours of video are uploaded every minute, or one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second.
Over 4 billion videos are viewed a day.
Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month.
Over 3 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube.
More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years.
In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or almost 140 views for every person on Earth.
So what does all of this mean for us and our businesses? It indicates that people love to consume video and we have to adjust to that fact and serve them with the type of content that they prefer. Yes, a lot of the online video consumption is driven by recreational and entertainment videos. However, there is clear evidence that video is equally prominent and impactful for business purposes.
Virtually 60% of respondents said they would watch video previous to reading text on the same webpage, and 22% said they generally liked watching video more than browsing text for examining business information.
75% of all executives said they watched work-related videos on business websites at least once a week, and more than 50% use YouTube to watch those videos.
65% of U.S. executives surveyed by Forbes in October 2010 visit a vendor’s website after viewing a work-related online video.
All of this culminates in the conclusion that you should start implementing a video content strategy if you haven’t done so yet. Here are the top 5 reasons why you should:
1. Your clients want it. All of the trends indicate that your clients want video from you. Not delivering on this desire only means somebody else will.
2. More content in less time Video is a unique way of communicating a lot of information in a short period of time. According to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research,watching a minute of video is the equivalent of reading 1.8 million words.
3. Branding Branding is a complex business. Videos allow you to further craft and shape your brand. Video allows you to convey emotions that you can’t bring across with text and still photos only; it provides you with an opportunity to add different attributes to your brand.
4. Multi-purpose use We have clients that use their videos not only on their website, but also push them out through all the other online channels (e.g. YouTube and Social Media). In addition, they often use the videos in presentations in offline settings, e-mail marketing campaigns or on TV in waiting rooms.
5. Website Quality Videos improve the overall quality of a website, and how the website is used.
6. Show your personality and profile Video allows you to project a better and more personal profile to your company and as well as your clients.
For example, lawyers or doctors can give videos a personal touch, which is something that clients very much respond to.
7. E-Mail Marketing Using videos in E-Mail marketing generates 2-3 times higher click-thru rates compared to static E-Mails.
8. Video prepares you for the future. Roughly 66% of the world’s mobile data traffic will be video by 2014. All smartphones and most mobile devices are optimized for video consumption. Being able to provide content in video format increases your ability to differentiate yourself from your competition.
