Let me guess: You’re the tech-savvy creative marketer, and an expert in social media. You are here because you are in a bit of a predicament. You already know that to keep up with today’s fast-paced tech trends on your website and social media channels, you need one of those eye-catching explainer videos.
The problem is your online engagement with audiences is steadily growing, albeit slowly, and your company has never made a video before. So naturally, when you run the idea by your bosses they shoot it down, and they’ll do this for many reasons: fear of the unknown, inability to understand how it would blend with the existing marketing strategy or inability to see a strong ROI. But you know that if your bosses knew the real facts about video, they’d jump at the opportunity to implement it.
The facts are that video builds engagement and loyalty with audiences, has a great ROI, and strengthens brand perception. But great results like these are not based off implementing just one video but by building a strategy around video that can become a consistent feature in your branded content. So let’s review some of the core ways you can sell your bosses on the idea of implementing a video strategy and ultimately push your brand forward.
Prove The Video Costs Are Worth It
As you know, businesses determine most of their final decisions based on the costs. You need to do your research and ballpark what this video budget is going to look like. Then remind your boss that having an online video will bring substantial value and credibility to your organization (not to mention increase sales and brand engagement — maybe lead with that). Companies using video on their website enjoy 41 percent more web traffic, entice new user engagement, and increase presence in Google searches. Bottom line: more people discovering and learning about your brand = more money.
When talking to a higher up about this topic, lead with the ROI. Videos have a high ROI in terms of getting more customers. which increases revenue. Your boss needs to understand that a video is an investment, but the payoff is high.
What About ROI?
Your bosses will want some figures to believe a strong ROI is likely so you can throw them some of these. Brainshark states that, if used in email, video can boost open rates by 20% and increase CTR by 2-3x. 73 percent of marketers have also stated that they’ve seen a positive return on investment with video marketing. Thus your company heads can take comfort in the fact that this isn’t a risky venture with no guarantee of success. A good ROI is almost a guarantee as long as the videos are of quality content.
Show Quantifiable Analytics
Social video, specifically, offers your company more information about your viewers than ever before. Due to the extensive video analytics offered on social media platforms today, you can track how many people clicked on your video, liked it, shared it, etc. But analytics don’t stop there, you can also see the demographic breakdown of your audience, how long the video was viewed, and how many people clicked your call-to-action. Utilizing all of these social analytics is the best way to learn about your customers content preferences, which helps you ultimately better curate your content towards their needs. Pitch this when discussing how important a video strategy is and you will definitely see your bosses perk up. After all, achieving a more in-depth understanding of their audience’s preferences is in everyone’s best interest.
Check out one of Tasty’s social videos on Facebook. Their clearly thought-out video strategy has given their business a virality and with that a bigger viewership that other companies could only dream of.
Is Discussing Video Format Necessary?
Do your research. It is important to understand your surrounding markets, such as competition, new startups, and anyone related to your industry. Examine your competitor’s website videos or highlights of their products and take note of the factors that you liked most. This will help you determine the type of explainer video that will suit your business best, such as a promotional video, an introductory video or even a how-to tutorial (depending on your company and products). This will be important when pitching the idea of video to your superiors because it will help paint a picture of how their videos could look. After all, if they can’t imagine what it will be, it’s difficult to get them excited about it.
Check out Dollar Shave Club’s landing page video and you’ll see why a video on a landing page can increase conversions for a company by 80 percent.
Remind Them That Trends Need To Be Acknowledged
In 2016, almost every social media platform has implemented native video. This is because brands are aware that people are attracted to the moving image more than any other type of content. Social video has become hugely phenomenal, and any business that takes advantage of this reaps the rewards.
According to ReelSEO, 500 million people are watching Facebook video every day. So if you want your company to fit into the modern day zeitgeist of digital media, it’s definitely going to be done by implementing video. If you’d rather your company sit on the bleachers for this one, you’re deciding that you’re all right if your brand seems out of touch to audiences.
These facts about the necessity for a video strategy are bound to convince your boss that the investment is worth the risk whether you’re a B2C or B2B company. Implementing an online video strategy is almost a guaranteed win, as long as you stick to providing authentic, creative video content that stays true to your brand.
