Generating sales is a delicate balance for many companies. It requires building relationships with prospective customers, creating brand touchpoints that are memorable and informative, and ultimately giving your audience assurance that your product or service is the solution to their needs.

Video marketing plays a crucial role in each one of these instances. The dynamic nature of video makes it more attention-grabbing than a wall of text or a static image, and the visuals allow for a more personal connection. Don’t believe us? Here are a few stats about the power of video for driving sales:

• Video ads were the #1 way consumers discovered a brand they later purchased from. (Animoto)
• 78% of marketers say video has directly helped to increase sales. (Wyzowl)
• 93% of brands got a new customer because of a video on social media. (Animoto)
• 84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. (Wyzowl)

When it comes to attracting new customers, video’s combination of attention-grabbing media and a clearly explained concept is key. And depending on the video type you choose (e.g., an explainer video, a how-to video, a testimonial video, etc.), you have the opportunity to educate and entertain. This is great for driving purchases.

Plus, if your salespeople are using video for direct outreach, these benefits are amplified. Video helps to streamline the efforts of your salespeople, giving them an additional asset to sway the prospective customer without investing too much time in chasing down leads.

It’s never too late to launch a video production strategy, and you might be surprised at how effectively video drives sales for your brand—especially considering that it’s a relatively low lift up-front depending on the video itself and there are various factors to consider on  how to sell videos online effectively.

Ready to use video for your own sales process? Here’s how to get started.

Consider the Sales Funnel

We always recommend starting a video project by understanding your goals. A great way to assess your goals is to consider the marketing funnel—awareness, interest, desire, and action. As prospective customers learn more about your brand, they move closer to the point of sale. The goal for marketers and salespeople is to guide customers through the sales funnel as seamlessly as possible.

Source: Lusha

Video can be used at any stage of the marketing funnel, but it’s important to understand your strategy before you dive into production. A video that you make for the awareness stage of the funnel will look different than a video for the desire stage, and you should know what you need before you get started.

Here are some ideas of videos you might create for each stage of the funnel.

Awareness

The awareness stage is typically the first few touchpoints with your prospective customer. It’s all about making them aware of the problem they have and the existence of your brand in the first place.

Typically, these videos aren’t aimed at closing deals or even discussing the specifics of your product or service. Just getting your audience’s attention and conveying a few key points about your industry or brand is a win.

At the awareness stage, commercials, promos, education videos, and before and after videos are especially effective. In terms of distribution methods, videos aimed at the awareness stage often work well on social media or as video ads in search, OTT, TV, and other digital spaces.

Interest

In the interest phase, the customer already knows you exist but may not have any intention of making a purchase. It’s your job to show them how your product or service solves the problem they identified in the awareness phase. This is a great time to share product details, provide an overview of how your brand came to be, and explain more about your industry and your mission.

Videos that work well for this stage include brand videos, explainer videos, crowdfunding videos, and product videos. Distribution here often includes owned channels like your website and social media accounts, email marketing, and paid ads.

Desire

The decision phase overlaps just slightly with the interest phase. Here, you’re really selling your customer on the fact that your solution is the one they need to solve their problem. They pivot from being curious about your product or service to truly wanting it in their lives.

It’s often a good idea to show your product or service in action in this phase, so videos like product demonstrations, customer testimonials, FAQ overviews, and UGC compilations work well. The more you can help your viewer picture their lives with your product, the more likely they are to convert.

These videos often come directly from salespeople, especially for B2B brands. Other distribution methods include your e-commerce product listings, email marketing, social media, and your website.

Action

Finally, the action phase is where your customers convert. All the work you’ve done leading up to this point finally translates into revenue—although you might be surprised at how quickly this progression can happen when video is in the mix. After all, 94% of video marketers consider video an important part of their marketing strategy for a reason!

This phase is where you pull out all the stops in your video content. Incorporate success metrics, case studies, testimonials, and any last info that might convince your audience to take the plunge and make a purchase. At this point, they’re already convinced of the value of your brand, so you just need to give them the final nudge to make the purchase a no-brainer.

These videos often work well as personal follow-ups with your most engaged leads, but they also lend themselves to other distribution channels where you have a captive audience, like your email lists and social media channels.

Ask Your Salespeople

Once you have an idea of which phase(s) of the marketing funnel you want to focus on, make sure to consult your salespeople. As the ones interacting with your customers every day, they know what points your videos should address, the tone that is most likely to resonate, and where your audience might be engaging online.

This is also a great way to ensure that you have buy-in from your sales team when the video is created. By having a say in the production process, your salespeople will feel more involved in the video initiative when the final files are ready to distribute. Check out our video below for more tips about successfully training your sales team on your new video strategy.

Test, Adjust, and Repeat

Lastly, unfortunately you can’t just create a single video, publish it to your distribution channel, and wait for the sales to roll in. While you will likely see a boost from that strategy compared to having no video content at all, the best way to maximize your efforts is to treat your approach like a science experiment.

Monitor the results of your videos (and any subsequent impact on sales) and get curious about the findings. Would another distribution channel work better? Are viewers dropping off in the middle of the video? Is your video driving newsletter signups more effectively than it’s driving sales?

Every published video is a gold mine of information to study about your audience and their digital habits, and the insights you gather from analyzing the video data will help you adjust your approach for the next production.

The good news? It’s never too late to launch a video production strategy, and you might be surprised at how effectively video drives sales for your brand—especially considering that it’s a relatively low lift up-front (even more so if you outsource the project to a production company).

If you need support or just want to talk through your potential strategy, book a free video strategy session below and our experts will work with you to get started.