Generating Conversions: Is Video Marketing Effective?

Consumers are favouring video marketing more than ever, but is this channel effective for driving quality conversions at an effective rate? The answer is absolutely, and here’s why:

High Quality, Engaging Content

Dynamic content is far more effective than static content when it comes to capturing user attention. A well produced video will always outperform a wall of text or a display banner when it comes to brand recall, so why aren’t most businesses capitalising on this opportunity?

There seems to be a common misconception that video ads are expensive and complicated to produce. When in fact, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Modern technology available on consumer-grade laptops is more than enough to deliver effective marketing videos. All you need is a bit of time, and a clear vision of the video to be produced. 

Another common roadblock is not knowing where to start, that the whole process seems too daunting. Our advice for this is to outline the goal of the video before proceeding. Every piece of content needs a clearly defined goal, and this can usually be attributed to one of the following

1. Reach A New Audience Segment: Brand Awareness is the aim of the game
2. Drive Engagement: Create a consideration video, outlining business USP’s (unique selling points)
3. Sales: Clearly outline product/service benefits
4. Loyalty: Post-purchase - entertain and educate customers. Excite them about their new purchase, and offer upsell opportunities if available

Once the goal has been outlined, creation is relatively easy, all you need is a laptop and a phone with a decent camera. Here are a few free and intuitive video production tools:

• Apple/Mac - IMovie is the king on Apple devices, and there are thousands of video tutorials available on Youtube to guide you through the production process
• Windows/PC - Blender is a great free tool on Windows, or you could use the free 7 day trial for Adobe Creative Cloud, which is an industry leader in the production space

After production, it's always a good idea to share the video internally, and let staff/friends/family provide valuable feedback before deciding to promote it online.

Once the video content is ready to promote, it should be shared and promoted in three distinct areas; Owned, Earned and Paid. 

1. Owned - This is your website, what better way to engage potential customers than by showcasing your product/service in an easily digestible video format?
2. Earned - This is your Social following. Promote the video across Instagram and Facebook, and make sure it gets in front of your loyal follower base.
3. Paid - This is where advertising dollars are used to push the video out to new users across the big two video networks - Google and Facebook. These two networks alone provide access to over 95% of all internet users. 

Always remember, return on investment for video ads are cumulative, it's likely you won’t immediately generate profitable results. However, if you continue to refine your creative and improve the quality of your content, you’ll be surprised how quickly the results justify the effort.

If you need any help along the way, the team at Sprocket Digital can guide you through and ensure your marketing dollars are spent as effectively as possible.

Author: Josh Sexton – Digital Performance Director at Sprocket Digital