Marketing has been around since businesses started, but video content marketing is a more recent phenomenon. Unlike text and image-based methods, video content marketing emphasizes visual content over text. This emphasis means increased interest in your brand and a higher conversion rate.
Since everything you need to make good video content is more accessible to business owners than ever, it’s easier to try.
What is content marketing in e-commerce?
Content marketing consists of two parts: creation and posting. Creation is crafting blog posts, videos, or anything else under the content umbrella. Posting isn’t just about pressing the “post” button in your site manager. It’s also about strategizing where to post and when to link back to posts on your site.
It sounds like a mouthful but just think of content marketing as a measure to get your brand out there and have it connect with your current audience.
To set yourself up for success, make sure that you have a strong brand voice. This foundation makes it easier for you to research your audience and understand their expectations. Once you have this information, you can make strategic marketing decisions to get more traffic and boost conversions.
Why video content marketing is beneficial for e-commerce
Video content marketing can take your marketing strategy to the next level. By incorporating various types of videos, such as skits, product demos, tutorials, customer testimonials, and brand stories, you can easily reach a wide range of audience segments. There are many places to post video content to tap into new segments.
Here are some of the biggest reasons to make a video content marketing plan.
- Attract your ideal audience: Video connects you with audience segments interested in your product. Since video content is so shareable, it’s more likely to reach valuable leads. Valuable leads set the stage for conversion success. While you want many people to see your videos, you’ll always want quality over quantity.
- Build trust and loyalty: There are many ways to build audience trust, and video content marketing makes it easy. The right videos will raise brand awareness. Collaborating with influencers and experts in your field to come up with video ideas will give your business social proof.
- Boost SEO and visibility: Video marketing goes hand in hand with SEO, so don’t forget about it. Incorporating search engine-optimized text on your site will help you rank higher on Google’s front page, which means you get your business in front of more potential customers.
- Drive conversions: Good video content can be what pushes people to click the “checkout” button. Explainer videos can answer questions, and brand story videos can forge connections. Videos foster audience connections, which leads to the next benefit of video marketing for e-commerce.
- Increase customer engagement: Customer engagement often leads to higher conversion rates. More than that, it’s invaluable information. Customer feedback can let you know what you’re doing right and what audience segments need more attention.
It may seem like reaping the benefits of video marketing is a time-consuming process. While it’s true that video content can take more time than standard social media content or blog posts, artificial intelligence (AI) tools can be a big help. Saving this extra time means you can hone in more quickly on what video content strategies work best for your business.
Impactful video within your budget: how to create video content marketing for e-commerce
When considering your business’s budget, you may not have as much to spend on video content marketing as you’d like. You can execute your marketing plan without breaking the bank if you have the right roadmap. Here are some steps:
Research and understand your audience
Go for visual appeal tailored to your audience’s findings. People like content that resonates with them and meets them where they are — make sure you know what that content is. Also, understand that it may look different for different businesses. What works for a company dealing with hot sauce will differ greatly from that for businesses offering light fixtures.
With video content specifically, ensure your aesthetics are tight and cohesive. Pay attention to your title and description, and make your brand’s mission very clear. It’s easy to lose track of some of these things, especially for busy small business owners, so review everything a few times before posting.
Keep the buyer journey funnel top of mind
You can’t research every nitty-gritty thing within your audience. When it comes to safe bets in terms of targeted marketing, you can’t go wrong with the buyer journey. Reaching your audience at their place in the buyer journey means they’ll be more likely to take another step. For example, they may be more likely to convert if they’re lurkers or repeat buyers if they’re current customers.
Reaching your audience at their place in the buyer’s journey means diversifying your content. The strategies geared toward making people aware of your brand won’t be the same as reaching buyers in the decision stage.
Create a variety of content types
You want to have different kinds of video content — we’ll go over examples in more depth later. In addition to creating different kinds of videos, you’ll also want to be mindful of your non-video content. Focus on email marketing, social media content, HD product graphics, and even innovative formats like flipbooks to cover all your bases.
Having a variety of content types means that you’ll reach more segments.
You can also use shoppable videos to streamline the shopping journey on your eCommerce site. This will make it easier for customers to discover, explore, and buy products while engaging with dynamic video content. Keep your other content marketing efforts in mind, too. Good video content and solid social media marketing will always go further.
Take advantage of AI
There are many ways in which AI can be a time-saver when it comes to writing and producing video content. The most obvious way to use AI is to generate the video using AI tools. Using AI video generator to create your video streamlines the process exponentially. Just be sure to screen it before posting it on social media or your website.
If you want to keep the video creation process more hands-on, don’t worry.
You can still leverage AI to hurry production. AI can help at the very start by generating and expanding ideas for the video itself. Or you can use AI to create the script for your video. Additionally, an AI subtitle generator can quickly and accurately add subtitles to your video, making it more accessible and improving viewer engagement.
Prioritize storytelling
Customers remember a story — studies show this.
Video content is the perfect way to tell a story, especially since you can incorporate memorable visual elements.
Regarding what story to choose, the sky’s the limit. Consider telling your company’s or your founder’s story to personally connect audiences to your brand. If you’re trying to tell new, fresh stories, consider the story of a buyer persona incorporated.
Distribute across multiple channels
It sounds like a no-brainer, but forgetting this part of the process can be easy. With each video content you produce, have a clear plan on where you’re posting it and when.
When it comes to the timing of your posts, it may be trial and error to see what works. It may be best to drop your video across all your channels simultaneously. Or you may find that engagement times vary.
For instance, Instagram’s peak activity time may differ from that of Facebook or other social media sites. Experiment and tailor your strategy accordingly.
If you’re engaged in ecommerce website development, optimizing your video content for your site’s audience is crucial. Incorporating videos into product pages or establishing dedicated video sections can significantly elevate user experience and boost conversion rates. Additionally, consider using an animated background video to create a dynamic and visually appealing atmosphere on your site, further enhancing the user experience.
In addition to using different channels, consider localizing your marketing content. Localized and translated content will help you reach an even broader audience.
Utilize SEO tactics
SEO, or search engine optimization, gets your business in the top Google results. A good SEO strategy works wonders for building your brand and proving yourself against the competition.
Your SEO and video content strategies should look similar. It’s possible even to take some pointers from SEO and incorporate them into your video content marketing strategy.
For instance, take keyword research. Keyword research is the first step in an SEO strategy because it leads to a higher Google ranking.
Business owners can use words that reach a wider audience by understanding what people are searching for. It’s part of audience research for content creation. Understanding your audience helps you to better reach them.
If you don’t have a lot of experience with SEO or lack the time to effectively implement these strategies, considering hiring an SEO agency can be a pivotal step. An agency can provide expert guidance and execute sophisticated SEO strategies to enhance online visibility and audience reach.
E-Commerce video marketing examples
There are many different types of content to explore for video marketing. Consider some popular examples if you still need inspiration for your video content. Remember, you don’t have to make every single one of these videos. Start with the one that resonates the most with you, find a process, and then expand accordingly.
- Explainer videos: Walkthroughs and product demonstrations are both forms of explainer videos. These are great videos to start with if you’re new to video content marketing. Explainer videos showcase your products, which puts those products in front of a bigger audience. Keep these videos short so they’re sharable and digestible.
- Behind-the-scenes: Behind-the-scenes videos give your audience a glimpse of your business from behind the counter. Examples include product creation, brand story videos, or day-in-the-life videos.
- Unboxing: Unboxing videos can go two ways. Typically, they show audience members what to expect when they order a package from you. Or unboxing videos can be behind the scenes when you receive a new batch of items. You can do an unboxing video or collaborate with an influencer for more reach.
- Hidden features: This is like an explainer video, but it showcases “hidden” features that your products may have. For example, say you produce serving bowls. Customers say your bowls also make great centerpieces when filled with flowers. So, create a video featuring that. This video will showcase a new way of thinking about your product. A video like this will intrigue audience members and make your bowls memorable.
- User-Generated content: When you use user-generated content (UGC) in your videos, you connect with your target audience. Customer stories are powerful and can be why your potential audience converts. Examples of feature-able UGC include product reviews, customer testimonials, and contest submissions. However, be sure to ask permission before sharing any pictures of audience members.
- Music videos: Music videos can be a dynamic way to engage your audience, especially if your brand is associated with the music or entertainment industry. You can showcase original music that aligns with your brand’s identity or collaborate with artists and musicians. These videos can create a strong emotional connection and enhance your brand’s visibility through the appeal of music and visuals.
- Livestream: Livestreaming puts you right in front of your audience live. You can livestream on Instagram, Facebook, or other social media platforms. Hiring an event videographer can elevate your livestreams, ensuring high-quality production that captures and engages your audience effectively. Livestreaming empowers you to connect with prospective customers and chat with loyal customers. Also, livestreaming can create spontaneous, memorable moments for your brand.
- Ask the Audience: This is an excellent way of getting to know your audience one-on-one. Feedback from Ask the Audience videos provides rare and specific insights into your audience. Regularly engaging with your audience with these videos can help you learn what they’re looking for and what you might create next. Other feedback-gathering gestures like polls or social media posts can collect more insight.
These are just a few examples of video content marketing for e-commerce. As you create and post videos, you’ll get more of a feel for what works for your business and what doesn’t. Remember that climates often shift, so don’t be afraid to revisit strategies.
Measuring video marketing success
Keep an eye on your metrics. The most obvious metric is your view count. The view count on a piece of content will let you know how many people have seen a video. Not every video will go viral, but knowing the average view count for a certain type of content is crucial. When you have your averages in mind, you can see if your video was successful.
One of the most important metrics is your video click-through rate. This metric indicates how many people clicked the link in your video. Knowing this metric gives you an idea of how successfully your video interests audience members in your business. Videos with good click-through rates are valuable content. You’ll want to emulate valuable content as you continue with video marketing strategies.
Remember, even if you’re productive, you won’t see video marketing success overnight. If, after a while, your metrics aren’t where you want them to be, consider making changes. Make your videos shorter, post them at different times or on different platforms. You can also try collaborating with an influencer.
Conclusion
If you’re getting your feet wet in video content marketing, you’ll need a roadmap. Grasping the customer journey is vital in building a strategy. A good plan means higher conversions and a broader audience.
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