Why Adding Video Content to Your Strategy Will Increase Marketing ROI

By Tyler Sprunk, Chief Marketing Officer at Simple Strat

If you’re a small brand, you have an incredible opportunity to improve the return from your marketing by adding video. Many people think of video marketing as a luxury only the big brands can afford, but I’m here to tell you that small brands have a bigger opportunity to generate ROI from video than those big brands do.

Because of a small brand’s size, the people featured in the videos are often the actual people a customer would engage with, even including the owner of the company. When that happens, the videos quickly create trust and authenticity with current and potential customers. Since people buy from people they know, like, and trust, this can have a huge impact on the return from your marketing efforts.

But don’t take my word for it, just look at the data. Businesses using video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users and including video on landing pages can increase conversions by 80% according to a study by Eyeview Digital. Those are just two of a long list of stats demonstrating the power of adding video to your marketing.

Okay, so now we know video can provide a return. But how do you get started with video and generate a high return if you’ve only got a small budget? I put together 8 tips for doing just that - let’s get to it!

1) Start small and cheap

Remember what I said earlier about videos helping to create authenticity and trust? The videos that do that best are the ones that feel authentic. This means that going live on Facebook from your smartphone can actually work better than paying thousands of dollars to a video production company using a bunch of high-end equipment.

You should always strive for videos that are stable, have good lighting, and sound great. But there’s a ton of inexpensive video equipment you can use yourself to make that happen. You don’t always need expensive cameras, fancy animations, and highly polished editing.

2) Repurpose the content you already have

Whether your brand runs an active blog or just has a few pages on a website, you’ve already created content that you want your target audience to see. The easiest way to get started with video is to look at that written content and think about ways you could easily turn it into video content. This can be as simple as recording your owner talk through the company story that’s on your “About Us” webpage.

3) Add video to your current marketing tactics

Remember that stat about increasing landing page conversions by 80% when you add video? There’s similar statistics for almost every other marketing tactic too. People spend more time on webpages with video, organic social posts get more reach if they include video, email click-through rates go up when video is added to your email marketing, and on and on.

With that in mind, think about how you can add video to your current marketing tactics. This will be much cheaper and easier than rolling out an entirely new campaign around video and it works well if you’re starting off by repurposing content you already have. For example, if you’re already active on social media, think about ways you can easily incorporate video into your social media strategy.

4) Create customer testimonial videos

Many small businesses survive off of referrals, and in an increasingly connected world, they need more opportunities to establish credibility during the sale. Customer testimonial videos are the perfect way to do this. Just make sure to keep them to 60 seconds or less, and focus on the benefits or results that came as a result of the product or service. Bonus points if the video is user generated or unsolicited!

5) Record speaking engagements

A lot of small business executives and employees are frightened by the idea of presenting to the camera, but they're not as shy when it comes to group presentations. Kill two birds with one stone! Hire a local videographer to capture a group presentation and then have them cut it into 30 to 60 second promos or thought leadership spots. These make for great content on LinkedIn, other social networks, and promotional pages on your website.

6) Demonstrate knowledge through screencasts

Walk your audience through a tip that they would find valuable as you record what’s happening on your computer screen. This might be how to place an online order on your site or how to use a certain software to plan their day. These little tips are easy to record since you simply talk through the tip as you perform it on screen. Plus, it can be done with no additional equipment. One of my favorite video hosting companies, Wistia, recently released a tool called Soapbox that does just that (and it's free!).

7) Don’t forget about your sales funnel

Remember that when customers buy from you, they go through a journey. This usually starts with doing some research about the problem they’re experiencing or opportunity they’ve discovered, and ends with research specifically about your product to see if it’s right for them. To generate the most return from your videos, you’ll want to create videos for each stage of this buyer’s journey.

This means you’ll need some educational videos that help prospects understand and solve their problems, some educational videos about how your type of product or service helps to solve their problems, and some videos that prove your solution is the best for them. For example, you might start by creating a how-to video related to their problem, a high-level product overview that talks about how your product solve their problem, and a testimonial video demonstrating how well your product works.

8) Track the right analytics

Peter Drucker told us, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” In the days of digital marketing, measuring things is easy. In fact, it’s too easy. We have access to way more data today than we ever could’ve imagined even 10 years ago. Today, the issue is measuring the right things.

For video, this means tracking more than just the number of views you get. Figure out which metrics are leading indicators for revenue, and start there. Things like click-through rates, number of video shares, and audience retention metrics are a great place to start.

Conclusion

Video is one of the closest things you can get to a silver bullet in marketing. Add it to your strategy, and it’s very likely that you’ll see returns go up. Just remember to start small, leverage your current assets and activities, and track the right metrics so you can improve over time and you’ll be set up for success.