Many people love YouTube. Why? Because they can watch almost anything from funny cat videos to instructional car repair videos for specific makes and models. Although funny videos are a nice break from reality, we are going to focus on the benefits of using video in your marketing strategy.
Recently, we added a new section on our website called Resources. On the Resources page, you will see keyboard shortcut cheat sheets for MS Word, Outlook, and Excel. You will also find instructional videos for our CRM. We want our customers to be able to use our CRM efficiently and productively, so moving forward we are going to be regularly adding how-to videos for our CRM.
There is great benefit to creating and adding videos to your marketing strategy. You can use them on your website, social media and email campaigns. Here are four benefits of using video in your marketing strategy.
- Video lets your audience see your company personality –People instinctively are relational. People connect with interaction. Video helps you to connect with your audience through instruction, humor, and commentary in a way that makes them feel like they are in the same room with you. You want to avoid monotone dialogue, but rather engage with genuine expression and tone. Let them see your personality instead of the perfect scripted presentation.
- Video increases your reach –When you create a YouTube channel or put your videos on Vimeo, you are already increasing your reach. Video helps with SEO because you can put it on your website and other video platforms. Not only are you increasing your reach, but you are strengthening your brand awareness.
- Video helps your audience interact with your product or service –How many times have you subscribed to a service or downloaded software only to be frustrated because you can’t find adequate documentation beyond the basic FAQs? If you sell a service or product, create an ongoing series of short how-to videos to help your customer be efficient and productive. Start with how-to videos on your top FAQs and then go to the next level with intermediate and advanced how-to videos. Creating video is much easier now than a few years ago. You can shoot videos with your iPhone and then use a service like ShortKlips to have it professionally edited at the fraction of the cost of a video production company.
- Video increases return visits –Unless you have a blog with a strong following, return visits to your website are much lower than new visitors. Why? Because the visitor found what they needed and moved on. There is not a compelling reason to come back. Videos give them a reason to return to website, follow you on social media and open your emails. Create consistent videos and let your audience know that new material will be released. Whether it be bi-weekly or once a month, your audience will begin to expect new video content and will begin to return to your website and social media. After consistent releases of video, we bet you will see the percentage of return visitors rise in your analytics.
If you do not have video on your website or social media, it is time to consider how to integrate video into your marketing strategy. In an age of short attention spans and on-demand content, you are missing opportunities and sales if you are not taking advantage of the power of video. If you have any questions about integrating into your marketing strategy, contact us. We love to brainstorm and want to see you succeed.
