When it comes to buying products online, your customers want to see what they’re getting.
You might have invested in high-quality product images, written irresistible descriptions, and even gathered reviews of your products, nothing tells the story quite like an engaging video.
Potential customers are more likely to fall in love with a product if they can see how it works and why other customers are raving about it.
Creating eCommerce videos may seem like a big investment, but the payoff is always worth it. In fact, it’s projected that by 2020 videos will make up to 80 percent of all internet traffic. You want a piece of that digital pie, don’t you?
Here’s why you should use video marketing for your eCommerce business to sell more of your products online and increase awareness of your brand.
Why Should I Use eCommerce Video Marketing?
The statistics on video marketing speak for themselves.
Marketing blog Hubspot found that 78 percent of people watch online videos every week and 55 percent watch them daily.
Did you know that next to Google, YouTube is the second most trafficked website on the web?
What this shows us is that the majority of people watch videos online regularly..
There’s no doubt this shapes the way that customers interact with content, absorb information, make buying decisions, and share content across the web. Those are eyes that you want to see your eCommerce brand and products.
Not only does video content receive a lot of traffic, it can also play a role in conversions. Landing pages with video content have been shown to experience an 80 percent increase in conversions. For email campaigns, even the mention of “video” in the subject line shows a 19 percent higher open rate.
Video content is no longer a “tactic” for showcasing your products online — it’s an entire strategy. Video marketing is especially effective for eCommerce businesses. Here’s why.
What Makes Video Marketing So Effective?
Video marketing allows you to tell a story about your products and engage your potential customers in a unique way. Videos bring your products to life.
While a still photo and a short description give an idea of what your product is about, in a video, you can demonstrate all of the benefits and features.
You can show what it’s like when other customers use your product, what they love about it, and what makes your brand better than the rest. You can use humor, tell a story, or even create a music video.
Benefits of eCommerce Video Marketing
With video marketing for your eCommerce business you can:
- Explain how to use your products
- Describe all of the features and functionality
- Share happy customer reviews
- Create a story around your product
- Tell customers about your business mission and values
- Show your product in action
- Compare your product to your competitors
- Instill more confidence in potential customers
- Drive home the benefits and what makes you stand out
Video content helps your potential customers become more comfortable about your product. They can see with their own eyes the quality of the product.
It also makes it easy for users to share your content on social media, increasing brand awareness and broadening your reach.
Creating viral video content could mean major business benefits for your eCommerce business.
What Types of Videos Can I Create?
The potential for your video content ideas is limited only by your imagination.
As an eCommerce store, you likely offer a range of products, and each one could be marketed differently, in many types of videos.
If you have a solid understanding of what your potential customers want and need and what your existing customers love about your products you can brainstorm what type of video content will resonate with them most.
Here are a few types of videos that you can create to engage potential customers and increase online sales.
Short Marketing Videos
You don’t have to have a fancy camera or video production team to make great marketing videos. Today it’s easier than ever to make high-quality videos from your computer or smartphone.
You can address common questions that customers have, talk about what makes your brand unique, or announce the release of a new product. Just as you would plan out your content marketing, you can plan out your video content with a script, an offer, and plan for where to share your content.
Sometimes short, concise, authentic videos work best for getting potential customers to trust your brand. No need for all the bells and whistles. Just put your best foot forward.
Product Tutorial or How-To Videos
Current and potential customers can both benefit from product tutorial videos. You can show a new customer how to use a product, the benefits, and address any questions people may have.
Animated Product Videos
If you don’t want to be in the video yourself or hire an actor to be in the video, animated videos are also an option. You can find digital animators online to create fun and colorful videos that are sure to catch a potential customer’s attention.
Set-Up/Installation or Product Manual
No one likes to read a lengthy manual. By creating product set-up and installation videos, you can better explain to customers how to set up their new product.
Users are constantly searching for information about products they are already using. Having videos around their common questions is great for search engine optimization (SEO), which will drive more traffic to your eCommerce store or YouTube channel.
Product Reviews & Testimonials
While there are many places where users can check out reviews of your products, nothing is quite as convincing as a video testimonials.
For one, it’s much harder to fake video testimonials, so potential customers are more likely to trust the reviews as authentic. Further, videos are much more engaging than reading reviews online. Once users see those smiles on your customers’ faces, they’ll feel inclined to shop at your online store too.
Expert Interviews
Interviewing experts, either about your products or a topic that is of interest of your audience, is a great way to build authority in your industry. People love to learn new things and hear about upcoming trends from the best-of-the-best.
Plus, you may even broaden your reach if the expert shares your video with their own audience.
Facebook or Instagram Live
With the emergence of live video, such as Facebook Live and Instagram Live, there’s no need for your videos to be pre-recorded.
Simply log into your social media account, plan your message, and go Live. Not only can you talk to your followers in real-time, but you can then share your video on social media or upload it to YouTube to be repurposed into more content.
Live video is incredibly interactive and is a great way for followers to connect with your brand.
Story-Based Videos
The most effective type of video content is story-based videos. These videos don’t just describe your product, they create a narrative around it that your potential customers will remember.
Think of Nike shoe ads. They don’t just describe the features and benefits of the shoe. They show someone playing sports, enjoying their life, and connecting with friends, all while wearing Nike shoes. With that approach, the enjoyment on the actor’s face is all users need to see to be convinced that Nike products will improve their life.
With story-based videos, you can create that sense of connection with your potential customers.
Best eCommerce Product Video Examples
Looking for some examples of eCommerce videos to get you inspired? Here’s how Magento eCommerce clients are using video marketing to increase sales.
Helly Hansen
Read the full eCommerce Case Study.
Cabinets.com Tutorials
See full case study here.
The Little Lovely Company Marketing Video
More about the Little Lovely Company.
Soak&Sleep Product Video
See the Soak&Sleep eCommerce case study.
Learn how to create your own high-converting eCommerce videos to increase online sales and drive brand awareness.
Here are the best video marketing tips for eCommerce stores.
10 Video Marketing Tips to Increase Online Sales
Creating amazing, high-converting eCommerce marketing videos takes work, but the return can be highly beneficial.
Video content can work wonders when it comes to attracting more traffic to your eCommerce website and converting users into paying customers. Even if you have never made a video before, it’s worth it to try your hand at this effective form of marketing.
To create eCommerce videos that are sure to increase sales through your website, follow the steps and video marketing tips below.
1. Know Your Audience
Before you jump into making product videos, we recommend conducting market research to test some concepts. If you’re going to invest time and energy into high-quality videos, you want to be sure they are set up for success.
Make sure you know what your potential customers are really looking for in a product. What are their biggest struggles with solutions or products they have tried in the past? What problem are they trying to solve (if any)?
You can also ask happy customers what they like about your products. All of these can be addressed as benefits and selling points in your videos.
2. Know Your Goals and KPIs
What are you trying to achieve with your videos? Do you want more subscribers? Social shares? Direct sales? Knowing your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will help determine your approach and how you plan to measure success.
For example, if you want to raise brand awareness, you may choose to create a more “viral-worthy” video that’s highly engaging, as opposed to an interview or product tutorial.
If, however, your goal is to drive more traffic through SEO, you may choose to create videos around the keywords “best [product] online” or “[brand] vs [brand] review”.
3. Set a Budget
It’s easy to drop a pretty penny on video marketing, especially when your brain is overflowing with creative ideas. But like with every other form of marketing, you need to consider your potential ROI.
Having a budget will help you keep a reasonable margin and set a limit on how much you are able to invest in video creation.
4. Invest in High-Quality
Your budget will determine how much you can spend on video production, but this is also not a place to cut corners. Since your main goal is to make more sales through your eCommerce website, it’s worth it to invest in high-quality video.
You can also look to your competitors to see where they have set the bar. Then you can decide how you can create videos that will stand out from the rest.
5. Keep it Short
As a general rule, shorter is better. You want to drive home the main benefits of your product and not distract viewers from the main point. Include too much filler content and the main objective may be lost.
6. Create a Script
Whether you are creating a pre-recorded video or ‘going live,’ you will want to create a script to keep you on track. Again, this will ensure that you don’t veer from the main point or spend too much time rambling.
Much like copywriting, your video will need a “hook”, to appeal to your audience, and a call-to-action. It’s recommended that you work with a video marketing professional if you aren’t sure how to cultivate a narrative that’s made to sell.
7. Include a Call-to-Action
Once viewers are done watching your video, it should be made very clear what action they are supposed to take next. Be sure to ask them to visit your website, give you a call, click on a button, or take some kind of action to engage with your content.
It may seem like a no-brainer, but users can get confused if your video is left open-ended. Make it easy for them to find you and buy your products online.
8. Use the Right Equipment
Even if you don’t have state-of-the-art equipment, you can use a smartphone camera to record videos for your eCommerce store. However, if you have the means to invest in better equipment or a production team, you will surely reap the rewards.
The right equipment will create a clearer quality video, reduce background noise, add effective lighting, and much more. These things can make all the difference.
9. Edit and Add Music
After you have recorded a video, you can then edit it and add music and other features. You can remove awkward moments, reduce background noise, improve quality, and add subtitles and captions.
Proper editing will make your videos more aesthetically pleasing and engaging. If you don’t know how to edit videos yourself, work with a professional video editor to help you.
10. Share Across Platforms
Since you have invested the time, money, and energy into creating amazing video content, you will want it to have as wide of a reach as possible.
You can repurpose your videos to be featured on your website, shared on social media, and incorporated into your email campaigns. You can do a blog post and embed the video to generate even more organic traffic. If you created product videos, feature these on your product pages.
Remember that video marketing involves marketing, so it is best that you have a plan for how to market your content in multiple ways. This will help you generate the best possible ROI through online sales on your eCommerce store.
Source: business.adobe.com