Like almost everyone else we know, my family loves screen time. Our house has five television sets equipped with streaming devices so we can instantly devour our requested on-demand content. We have laptops, tablets, and smartphones everywhere. Even our two-year-old knows how to spell “B-L-I-P-P-I” from all the YouTube videos he’s watched! (Hey, he’s not alone—Blippi’s channel, geared toward young children, has over 4.2 million subscribers.) YouTube streams over a billion hours of video a day—yes, you read that right, billion. Google found Americans spend an average of 4.4 hours of leisure time on screens daily, and that’s not even counting the cat videos we sneak in-between meetings at work. Video is a part of our everyday life, and it’s not going anywhere.

Using video as a marketing tool has a variety of benefits. Good videos can increase consumer engagement, give a behind-the-scenes look at your business, help craft your brand story, show how your product works, increase conversions, increase sales, and increase your click-through rate by 200-300%! Read on to find out what you need to do to make video marketing work for your business.

Use the Right Video for the Right Platform

As discussed in a previous post, you need to choose the right videos for your cross-screen marketing campaign. You can and should use multiple video formats for different social media platforms. Your Instagram followers aren’t going to sit through a traditional 30 second ad on your channel. Save the conventional marketing video ads for your TV audience. Stick to short, shareable videos on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook. Post videos that make your followers laugh, surprise them or make a project look fun. A survey conducted by animated explainer video company Wyzowl found that 76% of social media users would share a branded video if they found it entertaining.

Sharing your branded content among additional users helps build brand recognition and can lead to stronger, larger followings on your social media channels. It can also lead to increased traffic to your website. Once you’ve got them on your site, why not offer behind-the-scenes (BTS) video content? Give your visitors a sneak peek at your office, and let them see what daily operations look like for your company. Show your employees collaborating, team-building, and just having fun. Let visitors see that your business is more than a finished product. BTS content showcases your love for your team, helps humanize your company, and builds relationships and trust with current and prospective customers.

Use Customer Testimonials

Customer feedback is the lifeblood of a business. You need your customers to share with new customers how happy they are with your product or service. Think of the last time you searched for a product on Amazon: If you’re anything like me, you went right for the reviews first. Any website can add written customer testimonials, which can appear exaggerated or fake. Video testimonials from your happiest customers will show real people talking about your product. Word-of-mouth goes far for your reputation, so actual satisfied customers talking about how great your product is will have a high positive impact on your credibility. You’ll also increase your conversion rate, as websites using video have almost twice the conversion rate of those that don’t.

Contact your most satisfied customers to submit a video testimonial. Coupons for discounts on future purchases or free shipping are easy and desirable incentives to sway them to upload their video testimonials. Encourage testimonials to be brief and recorded with good lighting and backgrounds. Encourage your customers to submit footage of how they use your product. Once you receive them, compile your video testimonials and put them on your website, but keep going. Reach more consumers by uploading your video testimonials on your YouTube channel and sharing them on your social media channels (another reason you should keep testimonials brief).

Video marketing is a fantastic tool for you to use in your current and future marketing campaigns. If you’re feeling shaky about where to go with your video production from here, Little Red Writing can help you. Reach out to us to talk to us about your marketing goals. We’ll use our know-how to help you integrate video marketing as a viable strategy for your business.