Overview
Videos are engaging and we all love a good video. But once you have your promotional video what do you do with it? How do you use it to create sales?
Statistics
- Having a video on your landing page can increase your conversion rate by 80%.
- Our brains process video 60,000 times faster than text. -Psychology Today.
- Facebook generates 8 billion video views on average per day -Social Media Today.
- YouTube reports mobile video consumption rises 100% every year -Hubspot
I have produced videos for a variety of clients and noticed that many of them were not using their videos properly as a means to generate sales.
The following tips will help you to use your video to convert potential customers to new clients.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
A free means to drive traffic is through search engine optimization (SEO). Over time SEO done correctly will bring you leads. If you have a good sales funnel those SEO leads will automatically convert to hot leads and sales.
The definition of the sales funnel (also known as a revenue funnel or sales process) refers to the buying process that companies lead customers through when purchasing products. A sales funnel is divided into several steps, which differ depending on the particular sales model.
-ringdna
Sales Funnel = Facebook Ad –>Customer Click–>Landing Page–>Follow Up and Convert
If you manage your search engine optimization properly over time you can literally sit back, sip a cup of coffee and watch the leads roll in. Have patience.
As more and more businesses implement search optimization strategies it is becoming harder to be listed at the top of searches and can take up to 2 years in competitive industries.
All of your online real estate and content needs to be search optimized including:
- Websites
- Blogs
- YouTube
- Videos
- Images
- Press Releases
- Social Media
One of the easiest ways to rank higher in search engines like Google is to place your new video on the home page of your website.
Be sure to search optimize your video. Make sure that the title is clear and explanatory. Some web platforms like WordPress allow you to add search tags, captions, and alt tags. All of those will boost your SEO.
Publish your video to social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. You will also need to search optimize the videos that you publish on social media sites with keyword tags and clear titles. I produce (a video) once and publish it everywhere.
Note the keyword tags. They are in the text area and begin with a hashtag (#).
I used the following text including the keywords in the description of one of my own promotional videos.
This is a link to one of the Lewis Group videos.
This is a link to a client video, DC Trails.
Use Your Video in Email Signature Lines
Another guerilla marketing tactic is to place your video in the signature line of your email. This is excellent, free advertising. I use Gmail and my signature line looks like this.
Best Regards,
All email packages are different but the steps tend to be similar. In Gmail:
- Open Gmail.
- In the top right, click Settings. (The round gear looking thing)
- In the “Signature” section, add your signature text in the box. If you want, you can format your message by adding an image or changing the text style.
- This is where you place a link to your video. (You will need to publish the video to YouTube first, grab the link from YouTube and it here).
- At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes.
Screenshot Video – Upload Video to YouTube
Save the changes and be sure to create a new email to check and ensure that you see the new signature line. Also, check the link to the video by clicking on it and make sure that it works properly.
This leads to the next section which is active advertising with your video. Up until now, I have focused on relatively simple, and free options.
Paid Advertising
- Social Media
- Television
- Email Blasts
Overview
Paying for advertising is a great way to reach a lot of people and will generate sales over time. However, you need to have patience and take a long-term view for paid ads. Big business spends millions of dollars on paid advertising because it works.
By far the most money for ads is still spent on television advertising. Spending is increasing on social media which is priced right for smaller businesses but is also being utilized by larger firms as well.
Social Media Advertising
Social media ads can highly target your audience in a very detailed way which was hard if not impossible to duplicate prior to social media. For instance, I run ads for clients based on zip code (or nationwide, and even country-specific) and can include:
- gender
- interests
- and even lifestyle
I reach an average of 8,000 highly targeted viewers in a week with paid social media ads and search to optimize the ads as well for a double benefit to my clients. Using more than one method of advertising, for instance, radio and social media in your campaign increases the viewer retention of the ad by 20%. If they remember your advertisement they are more likely to make a purchase.
You will begin to see a significant increase in sales after approximately 3 months of aggressive advertising for as little as $600 a month. The rule of thumb for online advertising is that a viewer needs to see your ad 7 times before they will click to buy.
Cable Television Advertising
Cable television ads cost a lot more and also reach many more viewers by exponential factors. My clients pay approximately $12,000 a month, a minimum 3-month contract (because that is when businesses start to see significant sales conversions) and reach 6 million people and 90% of the homes in the DC Metro area.
Washington, DC is the premier location for large business advertising because this area includes 5 of the richest counties in the country, virtually every government agency, many large and small businesses, and almost all of the business associations.
Tips: Converting Sales Using Video
- Send Personalized Videos to Prospects.
- Convert Opportunities to Customers: Video Calling.
- Include your contact information in the video.
- Include a sales generation lead. For example “15% off if you mention this video”
- Make clickable videos that send viewers to your landing page.
- Get the SEO right.
Video Production Tips
- Use a Custom Thumbnail
- Make Your Video Short and Immediately Entertaining
- “How-To Videos” are popular
- Don’t stuff the video with too many details (KIS) – Keep it simple
- Produce the video with the target audience in mind
Email Blasts
Utilizing email blasts is old school these days and is much harder to successfully implement with the advent of strong firewall spam protection. However, they are an effective part of your advertising arsenal when deployed correctly.
Spamming the world with cold lists you purchased does not work anymore. Successful campaigns should only be sent infrequently and absolutely not daily or weekly unless you are perhaps a local restaurant with an opt-in subscriber list. Daily contact is better managed by a text blast instead of email.
If this is a first for you remember that you have to have an Unsubscribe option at the bottom of any and all email advertisements.
Video is just as engaging as an email advertisement so be sure to include your video in your next email blast. Your business email provider or CRM should allow you to embed video directly into your mail.
I have tweaked Gmail for my email blasts, or you can use Constant Contact which is probably the simplest to use and which is great for small and medium-sized businesses. HubSpot is a popular enterprise CRM if you need more robust capabilities.
I wrote this article to benefit several of my clients but am glad to share the knowledge and hope that it benefits you and helps on your road to huge success. Please feel free to contact me with questions, my door is always open.
Need a promotional/advertising video? Click Here.
Richard Lewis, Chief Marketing Officer
Lewis Group
Lewis Group Video
lewis.richard@lewisgroupconsulting.com
https://www.lewisgroupconsulting.com