How video can boost customer engagement

The right video can boost customer engagement far better than any ad copy, infographics or other digital media. Most people prefer watching videos to reading books. Videos will increase your email opt-in rates, increase conversion and ultimately boost sales.

An analysis by Treepodia revealed that visitors that watched videos on products converted better than those that did not watch the videos in every niche. Stacks and Stacks revealed that those that viewed videos on their website purchased products more than those that did not.  

Why customers prefer videos.

Customers prefer videos for the following reasons.

1. Videos are self-explanatory: A short 2-minute video can easily explain what two pages of text cannot explain. A video tutorial on how to use a product will be more helpful than written text on using the product.

2. Videos are more believable: Customers will rather see a product in action than read about it. Videos can give you a level of authenticity that other media cannot provide. When potential customers see your product in action via a video, they will be more willing to make a purchase.   

3. Videos are easier to digest: A lot of people find it hard to read long blocks of content today. But, they can watch hours of videos. There is a reason why video tutorial sites are getting more popular than books.

How you can use videos to boost your customer engagement

1. Video calls: Some companies now use video calls as opposed to voice calls for communicating with customers. Video calls put a more humane face to a company and help to pacify agitated customers better.

2. Behind the scenes videos: Companies like Ubisoft use behind the scene videos to show how their staff work on various products. You can show your production line rolling to make a video. Behind the scenes, videos showcase a lot about the day-to-day running of a company and make customers better appreciate the products made by the company.

3. Testimonials: You can have video testimonials instead of the usual written testimonials that companies have on their websites. You can be sure that some satisfied customers will be willing to make video testimonials of how well they enjoyed your products. You can offer discounts and other incentives to satisfied customers that make video testimonials.     

4. Origin videos: Create videos that tell stories about how your company was created and why it was created. Explain your mission statement, your vision statement, goals and how you evolved from where you were to where you are now.

5. How-to-use videos: Create good how-to-use videos that show your products in use. Make the videos as explanatory and as useful as possible. A lot of companies now do this.

6. Creative video competitions: Hold contests and giveaways where customers tell others how they put your products to use in creative new ways. Reward the best videos. This will spurn out the creativity in your customers and surprise you with great innovations that you never even thought about. These innovative use case videos will boost customer engagement and help you gain a lot of customers.    

7. Staff interviews: Staff interviews are great. They show what it’s like to work for a company. As the CEO, you could even be interviewed and explain what it’s like to run the business and the challenges that you face while running the business. The video could be in the form of ‘a day in the life of -------- staff.’

8. Customer interviews: Hold customer interviews where you interview customers about their backstories, where they come from, their problems, how they discovered your product, how your product or services were helpful to them, their observations and other useful things. If you can’t interview the customers one-on-one, you can hold interviews via Skype, Google Hangouts and other platforms.

9. Live streams: Hold live streams for events product unveiling and other major announcements. Major video and social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram now have live stream features. Use this feature to give your customers live updates.   

Best practices for videos

1. Consistency: if your business has a YouTube channel, you should upload videos consistently so that your subscribers do not lose interest in your YouTube channel. You might also need to have a regular posting calendar for better engagement. A regular posting calendar will keep your subscribers checking your YouTube channel intermittently for the latest videos.

2. Add special effects: You might need to add some special effects to your videos to make them more interesting. Use good video editing software to add these effects. Green screen also comes in handy. You can check out some green screen tutorials to learn how to use green screen to enhance your videos.     

3. Conciseness: Keep your videos concise and only add what is necessary to them. You do not want to bore your viewers.

4. Avoid flashy videos: Videos that are too flashy will displease your viewers and even trigger epileptic bouts for those that are epileptic.

Platforms for sharing videos

1. YouTube: YouTube has become the number one destination for videos on the planet. Every company worth their salt has a YouTube channel. YouTube will provide you with a wide reach and make a lot of people watch your video. Create a YouTube channel today and start to upload your videos there.

2. Facebook: Facebook now allows people to share longer videos. You are no longer restricted to sharing short, few minutes long videos. Post relevant videos on your Facebook page.   

3. Instagram: Instagram has now created Instagram TV which is a kind of competition to YouTube. If your business has an Instagram page, you can now upload long videos to Instagram.

4. Twitter: Twitter is also a good platform for sharing videos. Thanks to the retweeting feature of Twitter, the right video can go viral and make your sales explode.

5. LinkedIn: LinkedIn allows companies to upload videos on their page. You can upload nice short clips to your official LinkedIn page for better customer engagement.

6. Vimeo: Vimeo is a good video sharing platform that rivals YouTube.     

7. Email: You can embed video clips in your email. This will make your emails more engaging and increase the chances that customers will read them.

Conclusion

Videos should be included as much as possible in your blog posts, landing page, social media platforms, and other necessary platforms. Videos will increase customer engagement, improve conversion rates and ultimately boost sales. Videos will also boost your search engine ranking and increase visitors to your website.