3 Reasons Why Your Small Business Should Try Video Marketing

You’ve probably heard a lot of buzz about video marketing which is simply the use of video to promote your company’s products or services. There’s lots of evidence to indicate video marketing is worthy of the hype. Here are three reasons you should give it a try.

  1. Capture Attention

If we can believe the online statistics, videos attract attention. And as marketing guru Seth Godin says, “marketing is a contest for people’s attention.” I’m not fond of citing online stats because they usually lack the details of how they were derived. But, like most people, I am a regular visitor at both B2B and B2C sites. From my own experiences, the following figures ring true to me:

  • 4x as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it
  • 90% of users say product videos are helpful in the decision process
  • 75% of executives watch work-related videos on business websites at least once a week

(Excerpted from a Hubspot blog post of video marketing stats.)

These stats are compelling but really, yours are the only ones that matter. If you decide to pursue video marketing, have your website department devise a way to measure results. Tracking the number of views and how many site visitors watched the entire video should be fairly easy.

  1. Build Relationships

These days, we hear a lot about building relationships and trust. Certainly we need no studies to prove customers will steer clear of companies they dislike and, more importantly, distrust. An online video can go a long way to establishing a prospect’s confidence in your company and its offerings.

For starters, viewing a video is a much more personalized experience than reading a webpage. If you are a business owner, for instance, you can create a simple video in which you describe your passion for helping people with the products or services you provide. Then, when site visitors view that video, they’ll feel as if you were talking only to them. It’s a one-on-one experience which is very difficult to create with only text and photos.

Second, people like to know who they are dealing with and that helps build trust. The Fortune 1000 doesn’t have this anonymity problem but a small business usually does. A video gives the small business a chance to tell the company’s story, explain its products, display its customer testimonials and convey its personality to the prospective customer. There are any number of uses of video marketing, all of which help build a feeling of ease and familiarity with your company.

  1. Boost Conversions

A conversion is the term used for someone who has received your marketing message and takes a desired action as a result. It could be a website visitor who signs up for your newsletter or better yet, makes a purchase. Another example would be an individual who receives your firm’s marketing email and clicks through to a website landing page. The conversion really depends on the goal of a specific marketing activity.

There are endless metrics claiming video marketing produces more conversions. Unsurprisingly, many of these metrics are supplied by the video production companies themselves. However, market research firm the Aberdeen Group published a study which showed companies that use video marketing have a higher website conversion rate than those who don’t. Additionally, Internet Retailer, an Internet market research house, reports 85% of people who view product videos are more likely to buy than those who do not.

Summary

It may seem daunting but these days, video production is more economical and easier than ever. But you should get some professional guidance. If you need help on this, let  me know. And remember what Mark Twain once said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

Author: Andrea Kluge

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