Videos are an important part of any content marketing mix and although they take longer to put together than blog posts, images and infographics, their impact can be well worth the effort. In this post, we’ll look at five different types of video you can create to promote your website or online business.
1. How-to videos
If you are looking for highly successful content marketing, then How to videos are one of the most effective methods you can use. As a business specialising in a niche, you’ll have in-house expertise that customers will be scouring the internet for. If you can show them how to do something successfully, this helps them to trust you as a business and makes them more likely to follow you, like and share your content and buy from you.
How to videos are useful because you can show the process of doing something as well as explaining what to do. This is particularly helpful when helping people do something physical, such as decorating a cake, repairing a car or installing a new a hard drive on a computer.
Here’s a great video showing you how to change a bike tyre like a pro.
2. Vlogs
Creating a vlog to promote your website or business can be extremely beneficial. Some vlogs are so successful that they have international influence and millions of subscribers. This is because the nature of a vlog makes them entertaining and viewers come back to watch again and again.
A good vlog often gives inside information about the company and the people who work for it, helping customers to see the human side of the business. It is also short, so it’s not demanding to watch. The tone of presentation is usually informal and the presenters chat to the audience in a friendly, personable way. This is what helps them to be so engaging and get so many shares and likes. Vlogs are also easy to produce most vloggers create them on smartphones or digital cameras and edit them with apps that let them add titles and sound clips.
If you do decide to start vlogging, you need to post quite regularly because your audience will want to see more. However, as they are short and easy to make, this shouldn’t be a problem. One of the best things about creating vlogs is that you often get comments from viewers which help you decide what content to cover.
Here’s a vlog style video from Dyson showing their employees taking part in an inventing challenge.
3. Product videos
One of the hardest things about buying a product online is that, in many cases, all a customer sees is a few paragraphs of description and a couple of photographs. Often, it’s not enough to help us make a fully informed decision. It’s one of the reasons why we have distance selling regulations, so we can send things back if we don’t like them.
By creating a video which shows the product in detail, you can give consumers a far better understanding of what they will get. This increases their confidence in buying, boosts your conversion rates and slashes the number of returns you need to deal with. It also gives you the edge over competitors who do not provide videos.
You can also use videos to compare products to others, showing customers how yours is better. At the same time, you can mention the benefits of buying from you, such as free delivery, guarantees and customer benefits.
The product video below is for an American style fridge freezer from AO. Whilst it’s more down to earth than the Dyson video above, it certainly does its job well in presenting the product to potential customers.
4. FAQ videos
Nearly every website now has an FAQ section which deals with commonly asked questions from customers about products and services. These may cover a wide range of topics, such as payment methods, service levels, delivery times, shipping charges, product installation and use, etc.
Whilst some potential customers will contact you to find the answer, the majority won’t. Instead, they’ll find a site that can quell their fears and last-minute concerns and buy from them. Creating an FAQ video is a great way to answer these questions and to reach out to those customers who would normally abandon your site.
Whilst it’s a good idea to put your FAQs in writing, too, a video can put across the answers in a more engaging and impactful way. A good example of a company working to answer customer’s questions about its products is Lidl. Here’s how they tackle concerns about the quality of its wine.
5. Testimonials
Testimonials can have a huge impact in helping potential customers choose your company. Seeing other customers who have been satisfied with your services or happy with your products can be a deciding factor. However, one of the problems with written testimonials is that not everyone trusts them. Unlike independent reviews on third-party websites, it is conceivable that testimonials on your own site might just have been made up.
With a video testimonial, however, the viewer can see and hear the actual customer making their testimonial and you can even show them with the product or the outcome of the service you have provided. If you are a builder, for example, your testimonial could show a before and after view of your work followed by the homeowner talking about how happy they are with the work.
You can also use testimonials as part of your recruitment drive by getting your current employees to talk about what it is like to work at your company and the benefits they receive.
Here is a testimonial video showing customers of a self-storage company giving their views on the service they receive.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are plenty of ways you can use videos to promote your business. You can show off your expertise with How to videos, create an ongoing and engaging vlog, promote your products in ways that increase their attraction, answer your customer’s questions and show them how well your current customers appreciate you. All these methods can help increase traffic to your website and improve your conversion rates.
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