Three reasons why you should stop thinking about video and start doing!

You would have to have been hiding under a log or sunning yourself on a beach on a Fiji Island not to have noticed how easy it is to watch video on demand these days. Laptops, tablets and smart phones all allow us to watch programmes and video clips when and wherever we chose. Watching video on demand has become a way of life, and there are no signs that it will change or slow down anytime soon!

No.1: Video is the preferred choice

We are becoming video hungry: think clips on YouTube of cute kittens, funny dogs, even kids biting their brother’s finger. It’s easy, that’s why. A simple click or pressed finger and it’s there for us to watch. On a more useful level, YouTube is excellent for research and learning. Only the other day, I learned how to make puff pastry from a video online, impressed? No? Well, okay let’s just say that now video has become in integral part of online life, and THAT makes it a powerful tool for business.

How often do we do some research or check a business out and end up on a website? We have become so impatient that unless the information is in plain sight we tend to move on, often leaving the website entirely. 

If someone did that when they research our websites it would be a customer lost, yes? It would be like a customer walking into a shop and immediately turning around because they didn’t like the way it was laid out or maybe even the look of the sales assistant.

One of the most valuable marketing lessons I learnt from a professional marketeer was to put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a moment. If you were looking to do business with a business like yours, what would you expect or want to learn about that business? What would you expect to read or hear that would encourage you to give them business? How focused or clear is the sales message? What would it take to make us stay on a website to learn more and what would we chose to research to collect information quickly and concisely?

Providing an easy platform for someone to learn about your business, the products you sell or the service you provide will encourage prospective customers to spend time learning about you. We all want to follow the path of least resistance don’t we? Using video to convey your message will be the preferred choice over text on the majority of occasions.

No.2: Video builds trust

We all want more clients don’t we? How do we get this new client? Face-to-face meeting and referrals are probably the most productive form of gaining new clients agreed? What happens when we are face-to-face? We quickly can assess a person’s personality, their confidence and their knowledge. These are the elements that help build trust, the one major persuader is feeling comfortable to do business with that person.

Text in brochures, on websites and in leaflets do not encourage trust to that same level, because it doesn’t deliver personality, engagement and passion as readily. Three elements widely considered persuaders in selling face to face. So, what can possibly be better that using video to tell someone your pitch or sales message, even demonstrate your product, when you can’t do it in person?

Cisco estimate that more 85% of new purchases happen after an internet search of some kind. At a time when online patience is receding, captivating online buyers is becoming the number one criterion when that business has a web presence. Video has become the preferred tool of choice, especially that given a choice, watching a video is easer that reading blocks of text.

Video on the home page of a website will have two immediate benefits in attracting new customers. First, it will immediately introduce you and what you do to a prospective customer on an emotional level. By watching it increases the chance that they stay on your website longer, they get to meet the face of the business and they see more of what you do. The watching and listening process will start building trust and encourage the customer to contact you. Having video on your web site will give you the leading edge over any of your competitors that don’t. 

No.3: Video helps directly with SEO and social media

It’s not just a case of making a video, uploading it to a hosting platform then embedding it into your website. Once it’s up on the internet, there are many things that you can do to promote the video and it turn promote you and your business. Video brings a massive search advantage to your website as Google loves video. When a video is uploaded to YouTube, or any video platform for that matter, there is an opportunity to add a title, description and search tags to it. These will support search engine optimisation (SEO) and if there is a link to the business website the back-link will act positively in Google ranking as well. Gobbledygook I know, but the process is quite simple during the upload process. There are plenty of YouTube videos about it too!

YouTube itself has become a social media site. Posting a video will create social chatter the minute its uploaded through subscribers and comments. Facebook is a very powerful place to list your video and chat about it too. You can even upload video to your business page Facebook too.

Together with your website, with systematic uploading and sharing it’s possible to place the video on several very powerful social media platforms. All creating chatter, referrals and back links to your website. Chatting, tweeting, sharing and blogging about the video will attract customers to your website through indirect routes. When people see it from these platforms they are encourage to engage with your business. 

Of course to get the full benefit of video, it should be part of an ongoing marketing strategy that incorporate the overall tone of the business message. So stop thinking about video and start producing it to directly promote you and your business effectively to attract new customers.

Watch a 1 minute film on successful engagement here https://haxmedia.com/create-engagement/

Hax Filmmaker

Hax is the owner and founder of Hax Media. An avid filmmaker, he’s driven to support businesses of all sizes to embrace the use of video to develop successful campaigns and grow their business by building their audience.