A few weeks ago, I divulged the fact that Google is actively using video as an SEO variable. Today people are hungry for information, but want it fast. So they’d prefer to spend 2-3 minutes watching a video than spending 15-20 minutes reading some text. As a result, video content is the most important thing you can do both for search engines and for people visiting your site. It turns out, it is also the most important thing you can do to generate sales.

One of the biggest advantages of video marketing is that is helps you in reaching out to millions of people within a short time, and without spending too many of your marketing dollars. One of the best advantages of video marketing is that it increases the duration that a person spends on a web page. Your target audience will remember what they saw and heard unlike other marketing methods. This is the best way to present your products, service and explain how they work.

Benefits of product videos

• Studies show that people are more likely to share videos than text pages.
• Consumers stay longer on pages with videos.
• Videos help boost consumer confidence.

But what makes a video more likely to be watched? Why do some videos go viral and others don’t? And more importantly, why do some videos make a significant impact on sales while others don’t get viewed for more than a few seconds?

In today’s article we are going to uncover some very important aspects of why some videos are more effective than others. There are 3 critical factors in getting someone to click on a video and keep watching it. They are:

• The Title
• The Thumbnail Image, and
• The Opening Scene

The Title

A catchy title is important, but how do you come up with something that will grab people’s attention? Several months ago I wrote an article about “Click Bait” and how to create headlines by mimicking what news sites do to get people’s attentions. You can also build up your own swipe file by saving email subject lines that you like or researching what top videos on YouTube use as titles. Follow this advice to create video titles that are more likely to get clicked on.

The Thumbnail Image

YouTube creates a thumbnail automatically from your video, but it is never as good as a custom thumbnail you create yourself. Just like your title, your thumbnail image should evoke shock.The recommended size of your custom thumbnails is 1280×720 pixels.

Some of the very best thumbnails to derive inspiration from are about Elon Musk. Do a YouTube search on his name and you’ll see what I mean.

The Opening Scene

Start with an action scene and surprising statement. Once you have created a memorable opening, you can go back to your content. This is how most highly rated movies work, and it will work for your sales videos as well. Instead of showing a jar of jam, why not show a bunch of fruit being blown up and talk about how the flavor of your jam explodes in your mouth to create the most delicious jam you’ve ever tasted? Stock footage can be a great way to bring action to your opening. Once you’ve grabbed your visitor’s interest, then you can go on to explain the details of your product.

While intended for writers, this article about story openings is highly relevant for video openings as well: https://writersedit.com/fiction-writing/20-awesome-ways-to-start-a-story/, even though your products and services aren’t fictional.

Content

Now that you’ve got their attention, you want to create an emotional bond with your viewer by providing the kind of content they are looking for. If you know your ideal customer well enough, you’ll know what motivates them. There are 3 basic motivators in sales: money, sex and power. Every top selling product is driven by one of these motivators. Not necessarily in the literal sense – for example, sex can be defined as admiration and recognition, money can be described as saving time, and power can be the ability to help others.

Describe the benefits of your product or service as it relates to the motivators you’ve identified. If your video is intended to demonstrate your product or service, highlight these benefits when showing off features, specs, or ingredients.

Your video content should also include social proof. Let your customers tell other customers how they have benefited from purchasing your product or service. These third-party endorsements are a huge selling point.

Next week, I’ll provide a complete article on the content to include in your sales video. Today however, let’s concentrate on getting people to click on your video and start watching it.

Describe Your Video

Regardless of whether you are posting your video on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, or any other site, you want to describe your video by answering one basic question: What problem are you solving? Answer this question as if you are addressing your ideal customer at a one-on-one meeting. Don’t worry about keywords and other SEO tactics, just be real and answer that one question. If you have followed the other advice I’ve shared in this article, your video will do better than most. Of course if you want to make sure to rank your video, please refer to my article, Proven Method for Ranking on Page One. Just be sure to embed it on your product page and ask others to share it!

Always invest in high-quality videos

Video commerce experiences increase customers’ loyalty by educating and entertaining them at every step of the shopping process. In 2022, every merchant should have a video commerce strategy for every stage of the customer journey. Given the bias Google is showing towards pages with videos, every product and every service listed on your website should have a video associated with it. Whether you are selling a jar of jam, or selling an entire business, if you want to sell more this year, you MUST include videos as part of your marketing. But you cannot add just any video to your site, it has to be a good one too. That’s where we can help. Give us a call today and let’s get started making some amazing product videos for your website.

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GregJameson

Greg Jameson has been writing blog articles on ecommerce and internet marketing for over 10 years. Learn more about Greg at https://webstoresltd.com/about/