We’re breaking down each stage of the buyer’s journey in this four-part series.
Building brand awareness is usually one of the top goals companies have when they come to us for a video. “We want more people to know our name,” they say, “and when they visit our website, we know they know our name.”
Makes sense, right? Today, you can’t do anything without attracting the right people to your website. It’s the most crucial stage at the very top of the sales funnel – if you haven’t attracted visitors, you can’t engage them, nurture them into becoming leads, or close that final sale.
So, how do you attract the right people at the right time? It all comes down to video marketing! Video more than any other medium engages users and captures their interest. Video ads from brands on social media are the number one way consumers find out about brands, even beating out recommendations friends and family. On top of that, 93 percent of businesses reported gaining a new customer as a direct result of a video.
It’s no coincidence! Today, we’re taking a look at just why this first stage of the buyer’s journey is so important and what you can do to optimize it using video.
How to Engage New Visitors with Video
How Video Helps You Nurture Leads into Customers
How to Delight Past Customers with Video
So, you know you need to attract new visitors, whether it’s to your website, your social media pages, your brick-and-mortar stores, or more. That much is certain. But what exactly happens during this stage and how does that help you convert a sale?
As the top-most stage of they buyer’s journey, establishing brand awareness and attracting visitors is crucial to the sales process. Here, you set the right tone for the relationship you establish with your contacts. Think about it – if you take one misstep with one potential customer from the start, you’re likely taking the same misstep with many more, meaning you could be losing tons of sales without even realizing it.
Let’s take a look at how to get it right from the start.
Introduce your brand to new people.
You’ve got to start somewhere, right? During this stage, you make first contact with your potential customer – except, at this stage, they’re not even a visitor yet. They don’t know your company and they don’t know what you do or why you’re relevant in their lives. In making first contact, it’s your job to establish yourself as a credible, relevant brand. Paid ads are a great way to do that, along with publishing strong content a user may search for online.
Identify a problem for the user.
Next step is identifying the main problem your user faces. Are they struggling with logging their hours accurately at work? Not sleeping well? Do they struggle to find clothing in their size? Introduce a problem, but do so in a natural way. If they’ve found you organically through search results or saw one of your targeted ads, chances are high they’re dealing with the issue you solve. Be as informative and helpful as you can.
Introduce your brand as the solution.
Don’t introduce a problem and leave your visitors high and dry! Your product or service solves their problem, so present your brand in a genuine way. Don’t be pushy. Don’t be obnoxious. Be helpful, sincere, and informational or educational. This sets the stage for brand consideration and places you at the top of their purchase list (even if they do have to do some research before fully committing.)
Attracting the right people is more important than anything. You could attract one million people to your website in a given month, but if none of them are interested in what you’re selling, you’ve probably wasted your time – and theirs.
Because video communicates messages so much more effectively than the written word, it’s a great tool for attracting the right type of visitor. Someone could begin watching one of your Q&A videos, for example, and if they stop within the first 15 seconds, they likely aren’t interested in what you’re sharing and won’t click through to your website. This is a good thing! Your goal is to attract visitors who are more likely to convert; if they aren’t interested in what your sharing in the first place, they aren’t likely to purchase in the long term.
Enjoyment of video advertising increases purchase intent by 97% and brand association by 139%.
Of course, you can’t publish a long, serious expert lecture video in an ad and expect that to attract the right audience right away. You need video content that matches the users’ expectations. Short, fun, informative videos are best. Hit them with something they’ll remember so they’ll come back for more.
Commercials provide the perfect opportunity to showcase your brand’s personality, humor, and passion. Not only are commercials great first-time introductions to who you are as a company and what you offer, they’re also engaging and give users a good sense of how you can help them solve their problem.
This is one of the most straightforward types of video and can cover just about everything, including more generic how-to information about your industry, to more specific topics, like how to use your product. The user may or may not know about your brand, so this is the perfect video to introduce yourself and provide more information about your company or product.
Whether you post organically or as a paid advertisement, these videos should be eye-catching and in line with your company’s mission. Keep these videos short and bold. Feature your product, feature someone using your product, or include a few fun clips of leftover video footage that would make a good montage. Be creative! But be sure to include plenty of branding, including your brand logo and colors, so it leaves the memorable impression it should.
Have some interesting information about your industry or some special industry know-how? Share it in a video! These shouldn’t necessarily be the most branded videos you create, but they should answer a definitive question and help you rank higher in organic search results – a great way to introduce yourself to someone new.
How do you know if you’re actually attracting as many visitors as possible? This is where data comes in! Although gauging the right metrics so far up the funnel can be difficult, there are a few numbers you should keep an eye on in order to measure whether or not your video marketing efforts are effective.
Keep in mind, there are other variables that can affect these KPIs, so make sure you’re taking a holistic approach when analyzing your data and accurately tracking your attribution.
Views/Impressions – Views or impressions shouldn’t be the only metrics you look at; they can be superficially inflated numbers and don’t tell you much as far as engagement goes, but they can still give you a good idea of general video performance and reach.
Unique Users – This can be a great, reliable number that gives you insight into how many actual people your video reaches. If possible, take a look at how many people view your video more than once, which can show a high interest in your brand or product.
Awareness/Ad Recall Lift – Lifts in brand awareness or ad recall can be hard to measure, but are the best metrics to use to gauge how many new users you’ve attracted. You typically need to do some consumer research to find these numbers, but the insights you gain can be well worth it. Past studies have shown the longer a video is watched, the higher the ad recall lift, so aim longer watch times!
Video Styles
Video Types
Video Marketing Strategy
Social Video
