This is a guest post by our friend Mike Marani.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur just getting your business up and running or a well-established business, if you haven’t been offering product videos to your audience then you’re potentially leaving quite a bit on the table.
If you have been considering creating product videos but haven’t made the leap, now is the time.
There are plenty of benefits to highlight, some obvious and some not so obvious. However, I’ve decided to focus on just a few and back them up with some data to make the value crystal clear for you.
Benefit #1: Videos Have an Extremely Positive Impact on SEO
Now before I move forward I want to add that though I believe SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is important, you must appreciate its power. Relying solely on SEO as the core marketing strategy is a dangerous game because as quickly as that traffic can come, a change in Google’s search algorithm can stop it dead in its tracks.
If we agree that it is a secondary strategy (of primary importance) then there is plenty of traffic to be gained from adding product (or company) videos to your site. It’s well-known that our audiences these days are comprised primarily of mobile users, so you should know that back in 2014 global mobile video traffic amounted to almost 1.4 million terabytes per month. This number was expected to more than double to over 4 million terabytes per month by the end of 2016! If terabytes isn’t in your vocabulary, then allow me to decode: Tons of people throughout the world are watching tons of videos on their phone. 🙂
If that that doesn’t do it for you, then also consider the fact that video results have appeared in almost 70 percent of the top 100 search listings on Google since 2011.
Benefit #2: Videos Are an Effective Way to Educate Your Audience
Unlike the written word and audio formats, 60 percent of consumers will spend at least two minutes watching a video that educates them about a product they’re interested in. In other words, consumers are looking for videos to help provide more in-depth information.
So if you offer product videos and your competition does not, you’re at an acute advantage. Let’s take that one step further, because we should assume that your competition is publishing product videos already (or will be very soon.) If you take your time and strategize the overall message you want to send to your audience, while making it clever and entertaining, you’ll more likely have an edge over them.
Before we move on to the third benefit, let’s quickly recap the power of product videos:
- A ridiculous amount of people are watching and searching for videos.
- The majority of consumers are looking for a video to help inform them of the product they’re about to purchase
Picture your potential customer coming across your product, doing a quick google search of it, and coming up with nothing more than words to read. They might still make the purchase, but if there are other options for other products that are more engaging, and they’re not yet completely sold on you, they will most likely look elsewhere. A product video does not guarantee a sale, but I believe lacking one severely limits your sales potential
Benefit #3: Product Videos Drive More Sales
According to a B2B video content marketing study, 73% of respondents state that their videos are having a positive impact on their marketing results, and 56% are feeling that it has positively impacted their sales results.
Let’s put all three benefits together to truly understand the opportunity product videos present. We know that people are coming across videos more often than not when googling keywords. We know that people become more captivated and typically watch video content for about 2 minutes.
Think about that for a second. 2 minutes of consumer attention. That is as if you had a potential buyer watch four standard length commercials for your product in a row, while only being a couple clicks away from making the purchase.
Then to top it all off, companies that have tried this already are saying that it has had a positive impact on their marketing ROI and sales. Not to mention 41% of respondents from the same study planned to increase their budget on video marketing. That’s right. When marketing budgets are typically the first to get cut, those investing in videography are actually increasing their spend!
It is our responsibility as entrepreneurs to look at the data, and at the very least begin experimenting with the convincing conclusions. The data is telling us that companies who use videos within their marketing strategy continue to do so, which in turn also tells us there is quite a bit of potential, and they already are saying that it has had a positive impact on their marketing results and sales. Not to mention 41% of respondents from the same study mentioned above planned to increase their budget on video marketing.
If you’re not convinced yet, I’d like to end with a bonus benefit.
Bonus Benefit: Making Product Videos is Easy
So if you’re excited about integrating product videos into your marketing strategy but you have no idea where to start, check out this Practical Commerce article that provides some simple steps to do it yourself, or if you have a small budget then check out Animoto.
You have the reasons and you have the resources, now go make some product videos! If you want help, fill out the form below and we’ll be happy to help market your products or organization with videos!