Apparently, you want to boost your marketing campaign with videos to reach your audience on a broader level. But have you thought of which stage of the customer journey, or the sales funnel, would you target? Has it ever crossed your mind that creating generic videos don’t really help in acquiring leads or converting them?
Indeed, a marketer must ensure he/she is creating the right content for the right person and promoting it at the right time. This is immensely crucial as creating engaging content for each of the stages in the buyer’s journey, will ultimately help you to bolster the leads towards the sales funnel.
But what is a marketing funnel? Let’s define that before we delve deep into the video content creation for each of the funnel stages.
An Overview of Marketing Funnel and Customer/Buyer Journey!
You see, a marketing funnel is basically the number of stages that a customer has to go through, right from learning about a brand/product, to the actual purchase. The funnel is laid with several stages that ultimately ushers a potential customer to start paying and convert from a lead into a customer.
And that’s the reason each of the stages must have video content that makes them feel more informed and decisive. This content must cater to any doubts the prospects have and are looking for an answer to.
Usually, prospects have different needs and preferences, which vary throughout the path to purchase. The names of the stages prove so. And knowing your buyer’s journey is imperative in successfully closing a lead.
A lead or a prospect moves through the three informative stages of Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. But why do you need some kind of supportive content or information in these stages? Well, that is simply because the prospects will not walk through by themselves. They would expect different kinds of content to guide and support them in their decision-making process.
And why is video considered to be the perfect medium for this information-imparting task? That lies in the research stats claiming almost 54% of prospects prefer videos from their favorite brands instead of newsletters.
Optimizing your Marketing Sales Funnel with Perfect Video Content
Videos have been the most memorable(43%) when compared to texts(18%) and images(36%). So, it is safe to say that consumers love watching engaging brand videos to fuel their awareness and purchase decisions.
Now, as a marketer, your duty is to identify these needs of your prospects and create the right kind of content targeted towards them. Because by now, hope you have understood the fact that a single video will never suit the needs of your prospects in each stage of the customer journey.
In case you are wondering as to what kind of sales funnel videos your brand must create, and which video genre works best for each step in the path to purchase, it’s time to break it down. Keep scrolling!
Awareness Stage
This is a tricky stage, which is also the beginning of the buyer’s journey. In this stage, you have to be extremely delicate with your prospects and get your brand name in front of their eyes as much as you can. Because this is the stage where your prospects are not really looking for a brand, but they do have a need. Usually, they have a volley of questions that they look for answers to.
At this juncture, your content team must produce more and more brand-oriented messages that tell about your USP/UVP, benefits, with a personalized undertone. These are the right video content for your marketing funnel that establish an amicable connection with your target audience, as well as lift your brand recognition.
These types of videos coax the prospects to continue further down the sales funnel. Also, do not forget to optimize the videos for search so that your brand gets easily featured on the top of the SERPs.
i. Commercial Ad Videos – Commercial Ads take the viewers on an emotional roller-coaster and power up the sales engine by highlighting your products/services. Think about the brand story you want to tell and engage your prospects.
ii. Educational Videos – Inform your target audience how can your services/products solve their issues. Educational videos are usually all about creating awareness and imparting valuable information to your audience, instead of being too brand-focused.
iii. How-To Videos – Retain your audience’s attention by anticipating your clients’ queries and solving them. How-to guide videos are usually made with a humorous undertone that answer certain common questions of your audience. Such as, “how to fix a broken nail”, “how to decorate a Christmas Tree”, or “how to bake a muffin”.
iv. Promo Videos – Promo Videos are excellent to get your message out and sell your product/service quickly and effectively. Make your first five seconds count, and without being too “salesy”, make your prospects familiar with the solutions you offer.
v. Research Studies – For that extra dose of authenticity, showcase an entire research process through research studies videos and documentaries. In the top-level of the sales funnel, the more you prove your authenticity, the higher is the chance of your prospects to tread forward. Adapt the research-oriented videos and see how efficiently video in your marketing can increase conversion rates.
Consideration Stage
Your prospects have safely reached up to this stage. By now, they are pretty aware of their pain-points and are desperate to find a solution. What should be your goal at this stage? To showcase your brand as the solution to their problems. You need to hammer your brand in their minds so much so that whenever they think about their problem, they associate your brand as the only solution.
And what could be more effective than marketing videos that create a long-term impression on a prospect, allowing them to consume your brand message! By creating the exact kind of videos that set your brand apart, you can usher your prospects furthermore closer to the purchase stage. These videos also humanize your brand, making the prospects comfortable in reaching out to you.
i. Testimonial Video – This is the stage when your prospects need social proof the most. Because this is when they start considering your brand as a solution. Customer testimonials are the ones that magnify confidence and brand trust in them. 77% of online consumers go through online reviews of a brand before choosing it.
Watching your happy customers speaking positively about your services certainly push your prospects in their path to purchase.
ii. Product Video – Showing your product and how it solves a problem has never been easy. Create an engaging product video that gives a more in-depth breakdown of your product and how exactly it works in action. This is tremendously crucial at this stage of the funnel.
iii. FAQ Video – In the consideration stage of the customer journey, the more you answer certain questions about your product, the better. Because in this stage, you cannot afford any inconsistent answers that may confuse them. These videos help in creating a trust-based relationship with your consumers.
iv. Product Reviews – Product reviews are an integral component of all eCommerce businesses for boosting customer loyalty and sales. Reviews are generally gathered from 3rd party sources that work great for your prospects. The more reviews your website has, the more your prospects are convinced about your brand.
v. About Us or Culture Videos – By now, your audience/prospects are well aware of your brand and the brand values. Despite that, you must show them more about your company and culture. That will make them like you more and more. Likeability is a positive emotion that influences new customers to work with you and stay loyal to your brand.
With an informal About Us or a company culture video, you can show the spirit of your team. You can show how the brand value that you stand for resonates with your work culture. This makes it easy for a brand to build real trust with its prospects. And this trust goes a long way.
Purchase or Decision Stage
It’s time to close your deal. If your prospects have made it this far, then you should pat your back. This is the moment of truth, where it is decided whether your leads will choose you over your competitors, offering similar solutions. This is the final stage where you can encourage your prospects with anything that instills confidence in them.
All they need is a slight push towards the “Buy” or “Make Payment” button. However, even in this phase, the prospects would need some more information and expect some last-minute concerns to be cleared, before making their decision.
That said, this stage is the appropriate time to showcase customer proof of satisfaction, stats, case studies, figures and numbers, and most importantly, discounts or reward points. Simply put, you have to do everything possible to make your prospects realize that they have made (or will make) the right choice in selecting you as a solution.
Showcase success stories through videos that create a rapport with them and prevent them from bouncing. This is where your video content marketing strategy reaps the bulk of the benefits.
i. Tutorial/Instructional Video – What is the customer decision journey that has no real-life imitation of your products! Tutorial videos are especially great with Gen Z and millennials who are majorly visual learners. With tutorial or instructional videos, a marketer can showcase how a product looks or how it actually works. And if they are done in 3D, the impact gets further augmented.
A step-by-step format give your prospects a complete idea of your product, the process and thus encourages them to give it a try.
ii. Product Comparison Videos – At this final stage, there’s nothing like visual evidence to compel your prospects in making a purchase. Product comparison videos are excellent to showcase such visual evidence of your product and give them the reason to choose it.
With a transparent, fair comparison video, you can highlight the best features and specifications of your product over your competitor’s (without naming them, of course, to avoid potential repercussions). And thus convince skeptical prospects.
iii. Before and After Videos – If you own a gym and physical fitness salon, or a health product, slimming supplements, or maybe a beauty salon that treats hairloss, skin scars, etc., then a winning “Before and After” video is apt for you! These transformation videos are great in showcasing how much convenient a person’s life has become after using a specific brand.
Well, not just for the physical appearance, though. You can also show and tell your prospects how your SEO consultancy brought significant positive changes in the conversion rate of one of your clients.
In short, before and after videos strengthen the confidence level that has been built in your prospects throughout all the stages with the supporting video content in each stage.
iv. Personalized Videos – The cool idea of targeting prospects with exclusive, personalized content is the best way to boost engagement and create curiosity in them.
Given that 27.2% of online viewers watch more than 10 hours of video on a weekly basis, capturing this large audience with personalized video content is something that all brands must do within their customer journey planning. And mostly in the Decision-making stage of your sales funnel, personalized videos that contain information relevant to the target audience, work wonders.
As the stats say, personalized after-sales videos create an earnest emotional connection with the customers, which leads to a whopping 306% higher lifetime value. Marketers can effectively build brand loyalty with your consumers using video content that are targeted and personalized.
With such videos, your options are endless. It is one of the most critical marketing breakthroughs that brands must leverage. And thanks to the automation tools at our disposal, now it takes just a click to tailor brand animations to our audience’s preferences and witness an exponential increase in conversion and lead acquisition.
v. Case Study Videos – Lastly, to optimize your decision stage, you may create video content from a case study perspective. You may use certain key points from one of your videos from the first and second stage and repurpose them into an appealing case study video.
For e.g., utilize your testimonials from the consideration stage. Showcase how your products/services have helped the mentioned customer achieving their business/campaign objective.
Case study videos mostly highlight real data from your past customers, thus making them your brand advocates. Which eventually makes your prospects find the validation they expect to find before the final purchase. This last wave of encouragement not only proves your brand credibility, but also persuades your prospects to click the “Buy Now” button.
Wrapping Up!
It is time to keep the customer journey cycle going, with relevant video content on every step. Planning the marketing funnel with pertinent Motion Graphics, Animated Videos is of paramount importance for your overall digital marketing efforts. You may also leverage video for your post-sales endeavors, solely dedicated to augmenting customer loyalty and retention and maintaining your brand image.
Along with elevating loyalty and retention, also improve your customer experience with data-driven videos that match users’ interests. So get started, and let your video marketing goals have a positive impact on your inbound marketing. Start creating an informative video for your potential customers’ awareness. An impactful and crisp explainer video to help them understand your brand. And ultimately, a genuine case study or testimonial video to help them decide in your favor.
Turn your customers into esteemed brand advocates for the long haul with your unusually good user experience. Just remember to create the right type of video for each of the stages. If you ever need any help creating a collection of brand video assets for your marketing funnel, we are just an email away. Incorporate video into the customer journey and keep bolstering your conversion rates! Good luck!
