4 Ways Businesses Are Using Video to Increase Their Reach and Engage Their Audience

Video marketing is huge, and its rise has continued in 2018. The average person watches 1.5 hours of video per day, and 81% of businesses are using video for marketing. Video has helped the majority of businesses that already use video for marketing, with 99% of businesses claiming that they’ll continue to use the medium for marketing.

Video is more engaging, and it helps keep the attention of the viewer better than text.

How are businesses using this increased engagement and attention to their benefit?

1. Customer Testimonials and Third-Party Proof

Third-party proof that a product or service is worth the consumer’s money is easier when video is involved. You need to make sure that the testimonials are real. When video is used for testimonials or reviews, it offers:

• Realistic views of a product or service
• Marketing that is more relatable to the consumer
• Believable testimonials

In one example, video testimonial was able to increase free trial sign up rates by 25%. When produced locally, these videos can also help connect the potential client with someone in the community that may have used the product or service.

Consider this: you see a testimonial from Bill, a person you know on a website.

Now, you know that Bill is a respectable, hard-working guy. When you see him giving a positive testimonial for a product or service, you’re more likely to trust this testimonial over a stranger’s testimonial.

Third-party proof is often more powerful than a company boasting about their own benefits.

Businesses can ask good clients if they’re willing to provide a testimonial, and then work on setting up a video session with a professional videographer.

2. Videos to Educate an Audience

Video is a great way to educate any audience, and it’s this medium that people prefer when learning. It’s easier to nurture leads when video is involved. You can put a face and personality to your business, and it’s far easier to do that with video.

You can educate others using video on your product or service.

But where video really shines is when trying to explain complex topics and subject matter. For example, copy trading is a difficult concept to understand through text. Video can help explain the concept through visual examples.

News and updates can also be provided in text and video.

Why does this work?

You’re offering all forms of leads to be able to either listen or read new updates. Educating the reader on industry breakthroughs or updates of a business helps form a stronger connection.

Educating an audience can be done in a multitude of ways:

• Add video into blog posts, repeating the text for people who would rather listen to the text than read it.
• Educate the viewer on how to use a product or service using video.
• Explain special use cases for a product or service.
• Introduce common problems and solutions that the business offers.

Video can be used to educate even if it’s through storytelling.

3. Educate Via Social Media

Social media connects businesses with leads every day, and it’s a great medium to reuse the educational content mentioned in the previous section. Businesses that turn their blog posts and articles into video can also use this video to educate via social media.

Post these videos, or even snippets, on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter – any social media channel you can.

Upload these same videos on YouTube, too.

The goal is to increase your reach, and since video is reusable, you’ll be able to use the content you create with video today for marketing in the future.

But you can also take this a step further on social media.

How?

• If you have a large following, you can start a live stream on Instagram or Facebook. The goal is to start with a basic concept. Perhaps a landscaping company wants to educate its readers on mint, which is a plant that will take over a yard if allowed. Educating viewers on this topic may be an option, so start the video with the concept of mint and how to handle the continued growth. Afterward, you can answer any questions people may have in the chat.
• Start a live Q&A session. This is a session that will help nurture leads further, pushing some potential leads to convert. You might not be able to answer all questions, but do your best to answer as many as possible.

Social media videos are more engaging, too. But keep in mind that a lot of viewers watch videos without sound (85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound).

Add in closed caption or text in the video, too. The addition of text will appeal to more viewers and cater to those that may have hearing disabilities.

4. Show Appreciation When Milestones are Met

Media outlets love when companies go the extra mile for their customers. When you show appreciation, you will find that your video shares increase and may even be picked up on a news outlet.

Loyalty to customers will make short-term customers long-term customers.

Showing appreciation to customers can be done as a whole with video. You can thank your entire customer base when you move into a new office, or you can thank your customers when you have your first profitable year.

Customer appreciation works well when you have a strong personal brand and creation story.

When you show appreciation, you can thank large customers or clients personally, or you can thank your customers as a collective, too. The goal is to show your customers how much their business means to your business.

It’s also possible to use this time to show off team members.

Make the team relatable, introducing important members of the team. Not only will this improve employee appreciation, but this allows customers to put a face to a business’ operations.

Trust is gained when businesses share their milestones and appreciation for customers.

If new products are being revealed soon, it’s possible to mix the product into the appreciation video, explaining how customers made the product’s development possible.

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source https://tweakyourbiz.com/marketing/online-video/increase-reach-engagement