Video in the sales cycle

- [Instructor] There are two primary ways of making money using video. One group creates content and monetizes through ads. These are the well-known YouTube influencers across gaming, lifestyle, fashion, beauty and more. The next group are those that use video to enhance their business marketing for sales, leads, customer support and training. In this video, I'm going to speak specifically to businesses that are using videos in their sales and support cycle. Video is a powerful marketing tool. If we watch a video, we are likely to retain as much as 95% of the message as oppose to 10% if we read it. The combination of content, images and audio together actively engages our brain and we are able to remember information more effectively. There are a number of reasons to adopt a video into your marketing strategy. I'm going to cover the primary three of branding, sales and engagement. Here are a few numbers to consider from recent studies. For branding, 70% of consumers say that they have shared a brand's video with their friends. 52% say that watching the product video made them more confident to purchase it. And videos appear in search results. You are 53 times more likely to show up first in Google if you have a video on your website as opposed to creating a new webpage. For sales, websites utilizing video see a 27% higher click-through rate and a 35% higher conversion rate than those websites that don't. From a B2B standpoint, 65% of executives will visit a vendor website and 39% will call a vendor after viewing a video. 96% of B2B companies use video in their marketing campaigns. Of those businesses that utilize that video, 73% report positive results to their ROI. Finally, an engagement. The average user spends 88% more time on a website that uses video. 68% of users say they would rather watch an explainer video in order to solve a problem. The great things about video marketing is that you can design campaigns for every stage of a customer journey with your organization. You can target demographics and affinity audiences for branding and awareness. You can retarget your website visitors using video ads which are much more effective than display ads. Then, use video to assist the sale stage educating customers about your brand, your unique sales proposition and demonstrations of your product. You can improve the consideration stage by providing video rather than extensive documentation or manuals in moving your prospects to sales and conversion. Demos, problem-solving, FAQs, how-tos, in-action videos engage prospects and should answer the questions they have about your company. After the conversion, onboard, educate, inform and support your customers. Show them how to and how to get the most out of your product. People expect thought leadership from their vendors. So deliver it through video. One example I really like is Verizon. And they create videos on how to do a return, how to pay a bill or how to create a password. All of this content is available in text in their customer support pages. But the video can be embedded in emails, support pages and social media. Finally, engage your existing customers to provide customer testimonials, how-to videos, customer spotlights or recommendations. While these can be used in your marketing, they also feature your customers and provide a means for building advocacy for your company. Consider your customer's journey through your company. How can they benefit from videos that aren't just marketing-related but informative, educational and rewarding. By improving the customer journey, you may also find that your investment has improved your marketing effectiveness and conversion rates as well.