Few things fire up viewer engagements like videos. This is understandable; after all, videos tend to form and leave lasting impressions on the mind of viewers. This is why it makes so much sense for you to have a video funnel as part of your customer experience and marketing strategy. For example, you will likely have had an experience where you saw a very convincing video about a particular item. This video would have been so convincing that in addition to buying the product, you also became a loyal customer of the store.
As a product owner or seller, this experience should open your eyes to just how much of potential funnel videos have. Even if you’re currently making a lot of sales at the moment, you can be doing significantly more. You need to develop a video marketing funnel for your products and business.
Understanding how to use a sales funnel with videos to achieve optimum conversion results requires knowing what a sales funnel is. So before going into how best to incorporate videos into your sales funnel, let’s look at what a sales funnel is.
What Is Sales Funnel
Understanding the mechanics of how a person moves from a prospective customer to an established one is important for every business. When you understand this mechanism, you’ll be able to use a sales funnel to exploit it. A sales funnel is a marketing model that mimics a consumer’s “buying process”.
Simply put, funnels are the ideal marketing “mechanism” for improving sales conversion rates. This is because they usually involve a sequence of steps designed to carefully guide potential buyers toward making a decision. You should know that a sales funnel has four main stages. You’ll be able to use videos at each stage to build a uniquely engaging customer purchase experience.
Stages Of A Sales Funnel
The four main parts or stages of a sales funnel include the following:
- Awareness Stage: The awareness stage is the first part of a sales funnel. It basically refers to the period when a potential customer becomes aware of your brand and products. At this stage, your marketing focus should focus on keeping the potential customer on your page.
- Consideration Stage: Once a potential customer knows your brand and some of your products, the consideration stage follows. In this stage, the potential customer is comparing your products or services with other similar ones to determine the most suitable one. Your marketing focus at this stage should be to showcase your products to potential customers without “overwhelming” them. You’ll need to show them enough to keep them interested and wanting more.
- Conversion Stage: Once the potential customer is at this stage, they are ready to buy something. Now you should know that you’re not likely to be the only option the customer is considering. This means you’ll need to do or offer something “extra” to ensure your products are preferred. This “extra” bit could be free shipping, purchase discount, etc.
- Retention Stage: The retention stage is the last part of a sales funnel, but it’s arguably the most important one if you want to expand your customer base. At this stage, your marketing focus will be to keep in touch with your customer either through texts or emails. This is important because it’ll help your brand stay at the forefront of your customer’s minds. So when they need to get something else, your products are the first consideration.
As you have observed, each sale funnel stage is different. They all have different “goals,” and they will require unique approaches to fulfilling those goals. As mentioned earlier, a regular, text-focused sales funnel can be effective if done well. However, with a video funnel, your chances of customer conversion and retention are even higher.
Ready to improve your marketing results and boost your customer conversion rates? Read on to learn how to create and use funnel videos to fire up your customer acquisition and conversion.
How To Create An Effective Video Funnel
As mentioned earlier, each sale funnel stage is unique because the targets are different. As such, each stage will require special approaches for video optimization. Let’s consider how to use sales funnel marketing strategies with videos on a stage-by-stage basis.
#1 Awareness Stage Video Funnel Content
The awareness stage of your sales funnel can be regarded as a “first contact” type of event. This is because it is when a potential customer first becomes aware of your brand and products. At this stage, you will want to include video funnel contents that are short enough not to bore your potential client yet long enough to keep them interested in learning more. You shouldn’t actively push any product in the face of your potential customers because this will immediately make them disinterested.
Instead, what you want to do is offer useful information about something that they’ll find important or even entertaining. If the information provided is valuable enough, your target audience will be willing to visit your site and check out your products. The types of video content you can use at this stage include:
- Paid video ads
- Video podcasts
- Social media brand videos
#2 Consideration Stage Video Funnel Content
In the first stage of your funnel, you will have created “awareness” about some things your target audience needs but was unaware of. In this stage, you’ll want to put out video funnel contents that show how they can solve these problems. Ideally, you’ll provide them with the basic framework of the things they need to solve their problems.
Video sales funnel content perfect for this stage includes:
- Webinars
- Live Q&As
- Product Tutorials
Again at this stage, you’ll want to avoid blatantly pushing products at your potential customers because trust is still being built. Pushing products on them at this stage will likely spook them and cause them to leave. If at all you’re going to allude to any of your products, you’ll need to do it with a touch of subtlety.
#3 Conversion Stage Funnel Videos
This is the stage where you’ll want to put your best foot forward. In the earlier stage, you’ve shown your customer the basics of what they need to solve their problem. At the conversion stage, you will want to include video content that helps potential customers recognize your brand as the best solution for their problems. It’s at this stage that you’ll want to really “sell” to your customers. Show them what makes your brand and products the best solution for their current needs.
Funnel video content perfect for this stage include:
- Product Demonstrations
- Video Case Studies
- Video metrics or testimonials
- Video showing reviews from previous clients
Including these video funnel contents at this stage will help convince potential customers that your products will indeed be useful to them. Now you may be thinking, “Why not pictures or text?” The answer is simple; pictures and texts will not offer you the amount of engagement or “attention-drawing” effect you need for successful conversion.
Note that after your funnel videos at this stage, there should always be a call to action (CTA) button or link. This is because you don’t want to leave your target audience unable to figure out how to access the products they need to meet their needs. If you don’t link them up with the product, they’ll likely get distracted in trying to figure out how to access it. This, of course, will mean that your funnel has failed.
#4 Retention Stage Funnel Videos
At this stage, your goal is to keep your customers interested in your brand and what you have to offer. So you’ll want to invest in video content that keeps them engaged and proves useful. A good way to do this is to conduct social media polls on what video content they would like to see.
If you are selling a product or offering a service that’s “upgradeable,” you’ll also want to set out video content periodically. These funnel videos should be aimed at reminding them that there’s something “more” they could be enjoying. You could organize live video events showcasing these upgrades. You could even do a feature or result comparison between the current package and the updated one.
Examples of video funnel content you can use at this stage include the following:
- New arrival videos
- Q&As
- Feature Update Videos
- Step-by-step “How to” videos
Your customer service efficiency is also important for the success of this stage. So you’ll want to incorporate personalized videos for this purpose as well.
Build A Video Funnel That Converts With 8MediaGroup
As you’re now aware, including videos in your sales funnels offers you so much more from for growth and visibility. However, you should know that these videos have to be properly recorded and directed before they’ll have the effect you need. Don’t know how to record a quality video? Or maybe you don’t have the equipment or skill required to produce premium-quality videos. Relax; with 8MediaGroup, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.
8MediaGroup is a five-star rated video production company passionate about creating video content that moves and inspires. We have the equipment and know-how to bridge the gap between your ideas and your target audience. So if you’re ready to smash those growth goals and enjoy fantastic funnel conversion results, reach out today and let’s help you!
