Buyers have been sobered into making rational purchases. The two key developments that have sobered consumers globally are a shrinking wallet and a squeeze on time available to engage in frivolous activities as more demand is placed on the skills and energy of the workforce by businesses. This change in purchase behaviour calls for a strategic shift in a business’ marketing approach to generating new buys.
In a bid to boost the effectiveness of the marketing efforts businesses are now turning to visual and audio tools to adapt to the consumer purchase evolution.
Statistics made available from a global survey show that video marketing is the newest, most effective driver of consumer decision. This stat is in accordance with findings by Social Media Examiners, a web portal.
Social Media Examiner revealed that 60% of marketers deployed videos as part of their marketing and sales mix in 2016. The data obtained from the survey corroborates findings by Iulia-Cristina Uță, a Content Manager at Bucharest-based Brand Mind. Iulia-Cristina revealed these interesting facts:
– 64% of consumers say that watching a marketing video on Facebook has influenced a purchasing decision (source: animoto.com);
– Having product how-to videos available on YouTube are 9x more important to shoppers than celebrity endorsements;
– The most popular video content: How-to videos (52%), Product reviews (26%), Unboxing videos (25%);
– 59% of executives say they would rather watch a video than reading text (source: wordstream.com);
– 60% of marketers used videos in their social media marketing in 2016 (source: socialmediaexaminer.com);
– Companies that use videos in their marketing have 27% higher clickthrough rate and 34% higher conversion rates than those that don’t (source: buffer.com).
To help your business deploy video marketing successfully here are three (3) ways to make use of the strategy to drive sales conversion for your products and services:
- Invest in a high-quality video that features one of your employees or an influencer demonstrating how your products or services work – The present consumers do not have the patience to read through long text-based manuals that describe how a product or service works. But they do value and long for branded content that can deliver valuable information. The consumers use this information as a lead to make buying decisions. A Video product manual is engaging in a fun and stimulating way. It is basically experiential. With this, it is easier to educate the consumers and help lead them through the product advantages. The potential for conversion is higher.
- Provide video of testimonials of satisfied customers – Text testimonials of how a product or service has been beneficial to consumers are often emotionally blank. When consumer testimonial is captured in video and leveraged on Youtube channel and other social media platforms, it presents viewers an opportunity to see the positive expression on the users’ face. This adds believability to the testimonial.
- Include a call to action or sign-in form to help the prospect make instant action – Add a powerful call to action by adding a link to the product website and e-commerce channels where viewers can make instant purchases or fill the form to proceed to the next stage of the buying process.
