When it comes to communication, there are few mediums more powerful than video. Video is now the most shared type of content on Twitter–no surprise, since it’s so engaging. Video is especially powerful in a business context. It lets companies market their products concisely and express their brand identities in a rich way.
As a consumer myself, I prefer seeing a product in action, rather than reading about it. Video just feels more compelling than the alternatives. But the advantages of video go even further and can drive serious business growth. Let’s take a look at why video can impact your bottom line. Video can really boost your site’s SEO.
Keep in mind that there’s less competition in the video SEO world. Because there are fewer video results than there are regular (non-video) results, you’ll rank higher for your videos. Google likes seeing video on websites, so make sure they can find it! Your robots.txt file (which is what the Google bots use to index your pages) should include a sitemap entry for your video. Hosting companies like Wistia make it easy to set up and implement your robots.txt file.
Video will help you gain and keep site traffic.
There’s plenty of data showing that people will spend more time on your page if you have video. Video is also a good way of getting people to visit your website. If you’re sending emails, consider sending one with a video call to action. We’ve found that people are more likely to click on your call to action and visit your site than if you’d sent an email without video. We found a 3x difference when we A/B tested different emails!
Video helps you scale your people.
For many companies, salaries and benefits represent the largest cost category. Get more out of your people by scaling their efforts. If sales people spend an average of one hour talking with new prospects, make a video where the sales team covers the main points. If this allows them to spend just 30 minutes with each prospect, they can talk to twice as many people! The same holds true for the support team: if the onboarding process takes an hour, try covering the FAQs in video format and cut your onboarding time in half.
Video drives more sales.
At Wistia, we found that a video on our pricing page increased conversion by 15%. For physical products, especially, a video makes people more comfortable buying because they get a more complete picture of how the product works. By putting video directly on their product pages, medical device company Universal Medical increased product sales 300%. The videos showed how a given product works and allowed customers to envision how they might use the product themselves.
Video builds rapport, trust, and an emotional connection with your audience.
Research suggests that when people experience a positive emotion, they think in terms of “we”, rather than “me”, which makes them more likely to accept a deal from you, and more likely to act as evangelists for your company.
