Business Marketing Videos: Get More Than Just Views

Marketing Videos & Video Content

We answer the following questions about marketing videos in order to help you decide whether you need video content to promote your business:

1. Why should I create business marketing videos?
2. How is video content marketing similar to social media marketing and how can it benefit me?
3. How can I get the 3 Cs from my promo videos – more Conversations, Connections, and Conversions?

Imagine Amy’s Vintage Furniture is a furniture shop known for beautifully renovated home furnishings.

In order to reach more prospects, Amy decides to create a series of marketing videos that gives furniture renovating tips and tricks – featuring the best pieces of furniture from her shop, of course. She hopes that she’ll be able to amass views which will bring more interest in her brand.

Amy finds an online video platform that’s very popular with her customer base. She then proceeds to create a channel for her brand, and uploads her videos to it. Is that all she can do?

Benefits of Video Marketing for Small Businesses

Actually, the answer to the above question is no. What can Amy use her videos to do? The answer is very simple:

• Start conversations with people,
• Make long-term connections with people,
• Convert viewers into customers.

Business owners shouldn’t think of their video marketing as a passive effort that’s only valuable for getting views.

Business marketing videos can get you conversations with potential clients, connection and conversations – AKA the 3 Cs. You’re probably asking how?

To create videos that encourage your audience to take action, you need to get your mind into action mode. That starts with how you view your online video channels.

Instead of thinking of them as just a place to host your videos, think of them as social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram.

And just like your other social media marketing efforts, your video channels need to work hard to build followers (also known as subscribers), shares, likes, and comments.

Why do any of this? Because numerous studies show that customers who engage with brands on social media are more loyal. They spend up to 40% more with those brands than other customers do.

Video Strategy

The most actionable and successful videos lead to the 3 C’s we mention earlier: Conversations, Connections, and Conversions. We’ll show you how you can help make sure your video marketing is worthy of all 3.

Subscribers Marketing

You can start conversations by describing and presenting your videos in engaging ways. Asking questions in your videos’ description text can encourage viewers to respond via comments.

For example, Amy’s description might say: “This is a unique hand-painted wooden chair. What other furniture would you like to see in my next video?”

Remember that only the first few description lines are visible before people have to click to read more, so ask your questions early. Keep them:

• open-ended,
• broad (avoid any that will result in just yes or no answers),
• positive,
• upbeat.

When people comment and respond to your questions, create a 2-way conversation by replying back. This helps both the commenters and those reading the comments know you care about your audience’s thoughts and opinions.

Along with conversations, your video marketing can form long-lasting connections with your audience by turning them into subscribers.

When someone subscribes to your brand channel, they’ll be notified anytime you post more video marketing content. This can help boost views and engagement levels on any new videos you share.

Some video platforms even let you put a logo or brand watermark on all your videos, which serves as a type of subscription button. It stays up which a video plays and viewers can click on it to automatically subscribe to your channel.

Engaging video marketing

You can also present your videos in a way that will spark more conversations – like creating playlists (that is grouping of different videos). When one video in your playlist ends, the next one automatically starts.

Instead of sending people to a single video, you can, for instance, share a link to your playlist. This raises the likelihood that your prospects will watch multiple videos. This can get you more engagement and more opportunities for comments and conversations.

Youtube, for example, allows you to add cards and end screens to your videos. This can encourage your viewers to see more of your marketing videos if they are interested in your products or services.

Call to Action Example

Adding calls to action (CTAs) in your videos can also help you get more subscribers. Your videos’ voiceovers can ask viewers to subscribe, like, share, and comment, and then reiterate these requests with visual CTAs via images and text.

You can include other messages in your videos such as “Buy now” or “Turn your old wooden chair into a fashionable, vintage centrepiece! Get 60% off with your next order!” to give your clients a little push to purchase your product.

Of course, you can have the most persuasive CTAs in the world, but it won’t matter if your audience thinks your videos content is useless or boring. So, it’s important to provide valuable, entertaining videos that will inspire subscribers.

Conversions

And now for the last, but definitely not least, C: conversions. Let’s talk about how your videos can turn casual viewers into customers.

You can use shortened URL’s in your video description text that will direct people to your brand website for information or to make a purchase, or lead them to your App Store landing page so they can download your app.

Make sure these links and your videos’ CTAs send people to the same location. Also just as you did with your questions that start conversations, keep these links at the start of the video description so they’re visible before the cut-off point.

Click through rate 

You can monitor how many clicks your links are generating by creating a ‘UTM’ link. It’s a custom URL that lets you easily track performance. This can be set up through Google Analytics.

Certain video platforms let you add interactive elements to your videos that can help drive conversions, too. Let’s go back to YouTube – it has a feature called “cards,” which are video overlays that can include photos, CTA buttons, or simple text. In order to encourage more conversions, you can have them lead to your brand site or your App Store landing page.

While you can have these cards appear at any time in your video, you should be strategic about it. Time them to happen at moments that will get you the most clicks.

For example, beauty retailer Superdrug created a series of makeup tutorial videos. Anytime one of the videos introduced a new beauty product, a corresponding card popped up with the product’s name and a “Buy Now” button.

Self-Assessment 

We’re now going to find out how close you are to the 3 C’s.

Do you know what…

• Kind of video content your target audience likes?
• Types of videos you want to create (entertaining, how-to, etc.)?
• Actions you want viewers to take after they watch your video?
• Have you already created a brand channel on relevant online video platforms?
• Do you have a brand website or App Store landing page you can send people to?

If your answer is yes to all of the above, then you’re ready to create actionable videos to help spark conversations, connections, and conversions.

A simple next step is to write a sample video description that includes questions you’d like to ask your audience and appropriate links.

The ‘Key Takeaways’ from this blog are:

1. 1. While views on your online videos are important, you can get even more engagement by making your marketing videos actionable.
   2. Like social media marketing, your videos and brand channel should work hard to encourage shares, like comments, and subscribers.
   3. Start conversation by asking your audience questions, create connections via subscriptions, and drive conversions with links and interactive elements.