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5 Reasons Why You Should Use Video Marketing to Drive Sales

Campaign Monitor - Jul 8, 2019

Article first published July 2017, updated July 2019

If you own or work for an e-commerce store, there are three goals you need to keep in mind:

1. Driving more traffic
2. Helping your customers buy more products
3. Helping your customers buy more often

What if I told you there’s one marketing tactic that can help you with two of those three goals?

It’s not a magic tactic or a black hat, unethical tactic.

It’s video marketing, and it works amazingly well.

Here are five reasons why video marketing is one of the most powerful tactics you can use to grow your store and drive more sales.

Reason #1: People love to consume videos

It’s probably no surprise to you that people spend a lot of time watching videos. According to Hyperfine Media, one-third of online activity is spent watching videos, which represents an average of 32.3 videos every month. It’s simple to understand why people like videos so much: They’re both fun to watch and easy to consume.

Since people are used to watching videos, Animoto found 1 in 4 consumers tend to lose interest in a company if it doesn’t feature any videos on its site. What’s more, nearly two-thirds of consumers say companies that use video know how to reach their customers. In other words, people perceive companies that use video to be more savvy and interesting than those that don’t.

The passion people have for videos doesn’t change for e-commerce: BigCommerce found 30% of online shoppers want more video from e-commerce sites, which includes product descriptions, tutorials, and customer testimonials.

To make people watch a video, you need to focus on engagement. That means, make videos that are interesting, fun, and easy to understand. This can motivate people to watch the whole length of a video, which can increase a video’s chances of influencing prospects.

Even if you create engaging videos, it’s important to create videos that aren’t too short or too long. According to Wistia, videos that are up to two minutes long get the most engagement. This is why people spend on average 2.6x more time on pages with video than without.

Finally, it’s important to make your videos load properly. Otherwise, 4 out of 5 users will leave your website if the video stalls while loading.

Reason #2: Video drives more organic traffic

Organic traffic is one of the largest drivers of visitors to any e-commerce store. Companies spend countless hours and dollars trying to get links from high-quality sites. Doing so can help businesses increase the authority of their sites, which in turn will help them increase their position in the SERPs and finally, the amount of organic traffic they receive. The higher the website’s quality appears to Google, the more it can attract organic traffic.

One way Google analyzes the quality of a website is through its bounce rate. If visitors bounce as soon as they visit a site, Google concludes that website is low-quality. Since Google doesn’t want low-quality websites ranking high, only websites that are able to engage their visitors for a good amount of time tend to rank.

That’s why it’s important for an e-commerce store to have a low bounce rate. If you can manage to reduce the bounce rate of your site, you will be able to drive more organic traffic.

Engaging your visitors with your store is one of the best ways to reduce your bounce rate. As you have seen, video has high levels of engagement. By using video, you should be able to make your site attract more organic traffic.

Before you start using video in your store, you must be able to distinguish between two types of videos. First, there are sales-focused videos, which include customer testimonials, demos, and promotional videos. They can work, but only after a customer is ready to make a purchase.

Then, there are engagement-focused videos, the goal of which is to educate people and make them aware of your company and its offerings.

According to Wyzowl, 62% of businesses who use video believe video has helped increase the amount of organic traffic they receive.

One company that has been able to drive more organic traffic thanks to video is Step2, the leading manufacturer of kid’s toys and preschool items. Step2 has been using video marketing in order to show their products in action. Since 2011, Step2 has created more than 100 videos featuring their products.

Thanks to their videos, Step2 has been able to make video viewers 174% more likely to convert than non-viewers.

Reason #3: People use videos to learn about your products

As a business-focused person, videos may not come up a lot in your day-to-day tasks. People may like videos, but how does that impact your business? You want people to think about your products and buy them, not just watch and upvote them on YouTube.

As it turns out, videos have a big impact in the purchase-decision process. According to Wyzowl, 98% of the people surveyed said they had watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. Not only that, but 90% of people interviewed said that product videos were helpful in the decision process.

The previously mentioned study carried out by Animoto found the majority of consumers find it helpful to watch a product video more than once before making a purchase. Moreover, Hyperfine Media found 64% are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video.

The reason so many people like watching videos directly correlates to the way it allows people to process information. People who watch a video retain 95% of a message compared to 10% when they read it in text. Also, according to Animoto, there are four times as many customers who would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.

Video doesn’t affect online purchases alone. According to a study done by Google, almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store.

The power video has in the purchase decision process explains why, 93% of businesses who use video believe it has increased user understanding of their product or service, which affects their conversion rates (see below for more information).

Reason #4: Video drives more conversions

Since video has a large impact in the purchase decision process, it’s no surprise to see it can also help you increase your conversion rate.

Wyzowl found 74% of the people interviewed who watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service ended up buying it. That same study found 77% of consumers say they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video. This means, not only does video help people engage with your brand and learn more about your offerings, but it also helps them pull the plug and purchase your products.

Following the previous insights, Adobe found online shoppers who view demo videos are 1.81x more likely to purchase than non-viewers.

The higher likelihood of people buying a product (because of a video) increases the conversion rate considerably: Websites that use video have had a conversion rate of 4.8%, compared to 2.9% for those that don’t use video. What’s more, a study done by the Aberdeen Group found companies that use videos in their marketing enjoy 27% higher CTR and 34% higher web conversion rates than those that don’t.

For this reason, 72% of businesses who use video believe that it has improved the conversion rate of their website while 64% of them believe that it has directly led to increased sales. Finally, Wyzowl found 76% of businesses who use video believe that it provides a good ROI.

Reason #5: Marketers find video very effective

People love videos, and video content can attract more traffic and get more conversions. But what do marketers think about video?

Actually, there’s no surprise to see 87% of online marketers use video content to grow their businesses, while 88% say that video is “an important part” of their marketing strategy.

The only problem is, according to a survey carried out by Ascend2, half of today’s marketers believe video is the most difficult form of content they create, despite the fact it’s also their most effective.

Not all videos are alike, however. The same study done by Ascend2 discovered half the marketers interviewed find customer testimonials (51%), tutorial videos (50%) and demonstration videos (49%) to be the most effective type of video marketing.

Emails that prove why you should use video marketing

Now that you’ve seen why video in email works so well, let’s take a look at some emails that execute the video-in-email strategy exceptionally.  Knowing how other brands use video in email can also inspire you to leverage this technology to your advantage too.

1. Lego

When it comes to toys, few companies have sold them as well as the Lego company. One of their marketing tactics is including video in email. So, if you’re wondering why you should use video marketing, take this cue from Lego.

Source: Really Good Emails

One thing you’ll notice right off the bat when you look at their email is the instruction on how to play the video. This is important when it comes to using video in email campaigns as at times your readers may not know the video is playable.

As for the video itself, it does one thing exceptionally well—it gives the reader an experience of the product. Giving your customers a taste of what your product can do is essential to increasing conversions, and video is the easiest way you can do just that.

Why is video marketing important?

Simple. It helps you drive sales while informing people about what to expect from your product.

2. Soapbox

Soapbox is a video creation tool from Wistia. One thing they understand about their customers is that quality and ease of use mean everything. Portraying these two benefits of their product in words is not easy. So, they decided against telling their subscribers and opted to show it instead—by using video in email.

Source: Really Good Emails

The imagery used in their video expressed, simply and clearly, the reasons their customers should use their product. You get high quality, studio-style videos right in the comfort of your home (or office). Demonstrating what your product can do has more impact than trying to describe it.

So, why use video marketing?

Simply because it helps you effectively showcase your products. Whether it’s a software or apparel, video always sells your products well in a more digestible format.

3. Foo Fighters

Source: Campaign Monitor 

Foo Fighters is an American rock band with a thriving following. When they wanted to get the word out about their new album and HBO special, ‘Sonic Highways’, they turned to video email marketing. As you can tell from their email, the copy they used was short, punchy, and captivating. They left all the heavy lifting to the video, instead of utilizing text.

Video helps tell your story in a better way, making it easier for your customers to feel better connected to your brand.

Wrap up

Throughout this post, you have found over two dozen facts that have shown you the power of video for any e-commerce store.

• First, you saw how consumers love to watch videos and engage with them.
• Thanks to the attention you can get with video, you can increase the relevance of your website and attract more organic traffic.
• Video also helps consumers learn more about your company and your products. Thanks to that, video affects their decision-making process and makes them convert more.
• Finally, you found that marketers love video marketing. A study by Social Media Examiner found 73% of marketers were going to increase their use of videos in their marketing strategy in 2017.

Right now, it makes sense why: Video is one of the best ways you can grow your e-commerce store.

For more ways to use video marketing, be sure to check out our article for 4 ideas to use video in your email campaigns.

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