In this post covid world where big trade shows are still on hold and businesses are looking at cutting fixed costs – video content optimization aligned to your sales funnel could be your secret weapon in building your sales growth plan.

Video is a powerful medium that can help move your customers through the sales funnel all the while building connections and trust with your brand.  In fact, 90% of customers say that video helps them make purchase decisions and that they are more likely to buy a product after watching a video.  

Can you use the same video throughout the journey?

The answer to this is simple – no.  The success does not lie in the video alone but rather the content within it and specifically content designed to engage your customers at each point of their decision-making process – it is about optimizing your video content to work for you and your customer in the best possible lead and ultimately convert prospects into customers.

So where do you start?

To ensure that your video content speaks to and engages with the right audience, you must first have a clear understanding of who they are, what they want and need, what are their potential objections and what will inspire them to take action and become a customer.  You need to understand your different buyer persona and tap into their pain points to enable you to create the right type of video content at the right point of the buying cycle.

 

The video content sales funnel

We can divide this funnel into 3 stages.  Awareness, Consideration, and Decision.  Each stage will require different video content to address the needs of the customer at that particular point.  Each persona will be facing different concerns depending on which stage they are in and it is the job of the video to address and meet these needs at the right time.

 

1. Awareness

This is the first stage in the sales funnel where you are trying to grab the attention of your target demographic.  At this stage, it’s all about the story, not the sale.  The type of videos you may want to create at this point are:

• Brand Video

Brand story videos inform the audience who you are and why they should care.  They can set you out as a player in the industry and help build trust in the mind of the consumer.  They can take the form of big glossy productions involving models and actors or they could be behind-the-scenes employer brand content showcasing your culture, values and mission.

• Explainer Video

Animated explainer videos are an engaging way to explain complex problems in a short simple digestible form.

 

2. Consideration

So, you have engaged your customer in your brand and now they are moving further down the funnel into the consideration stage.  This is where you want to provide them with video content that showcases how you solve their problem and their potential objections better than your competitor.  The types of video content that you may want to use at this point are:

• Product videos

Showcase your product in 360 beautifully shot views focusing on the features and benefits and dive into the inner technology or research and development using animation and motion graphics.

• How-to videos?

In these types of videos, you want to show your product in action and how it works.  Paying particular focus to the special features and benefits that will help the consumer get the most out of the product.

• FAQ videos from one of your sales reps.

Using one of your own sales reps or an actor to answer the pain points and potential objections that a potential customer may have.

 

3. Decision

At this point in the video content sales funnel you really want to drive your message home and close the sale.  At this point the types of video that you could use are:

• Customer testimonial videos

These are customers who like your prospects had the same concerns and questions about your product or service and can answer truthfully and build trust with the audience. Seeing a positive personal story will make a strong case for why you should be chosen over another product.

 

So, to recap.

The key to a value-creating video campaign is knowing who your potential customers are and what they need from you at every stage of their buying journey.  It is then important to align these needs to your video content strategy and produce appropriate and relevant content that provides valuable information to the consumer at each point of the sales funnel and ultimately taking the viewer on a journey from prospect, to lead, to customer to brand advocate.