Let’s face it. Producing text is quicker and less expensive than producing high-quality video. But if you’re not including video in your touchpoints with customers and prospects, you need to ask yourself if there are gaps in your marketing. What opportunities – what sales – are you missing?
Where words can fail you
Maybe the copy on your company website does a great job of capturing who you are and what you offer. But people don’t read web copy the same way they read printed pieces. Most online readers tend to just skim, and even avid readers who want to take in every word, get text fatigue online. So, you can bet key messages and important details are not reaching all your visitors.
Plus, your online presence and image extend beyond your website and often beyond your control. Tweets, Facebook posts, competitor blogs, and customer review sites all influence – for better or worse – how you’re perceived.
Video puts you in control of your image
Video is an antidote for these issues. Because it appeals to multiple senses, it captivates viewers across all communication and learning styles and makes content more memorable. It also conveys a lot of information more succinctly than text. (Compare the time it takes to read The Da Vinci Code versus watching the movie.) It puts you in control of the message you convey and the image you project to an engaged audience.
Ways to use video for better marketing
- Product Demos: Seeing a product in action beats just reading about it – hands down. Video can showcase how easy your product is to assemble or use; all the ways it can be used; how effectively it works.
- Focus on Details: Is there something novel about your offering? Maybe it answers an unmet need, performs better than other products or services in its class, or uses new technology. Telling that story with words can overwhelm a webpage and the readers. But with video you can capture important nuances vividly, making your story accessible and clear for your audience.
- Overviews and Add-ons: A basic overview of your product or service is a great addition to any proposal. A video that brings your offering to life can tip the scales in your favor when a prospect is sorting through quotes from multiple vendors and when you’re upselling to existing clients.
- Testimonials and References: Seeing and hearing customers sing your praises amps up the credibility and potency in a way that most written testimonials and references can’t.
Where to use videos to find new markets, increase sales
Whatever videos you choose to make, including them on your website complements and reinforces your copy. It also casts a wide net for engaging all the different kinds of visitors to your site. Likewise, using them in social media can extend your reach in a few ways. First, a really topnotch production gets shared. Second, you can use video analytics to track who’s finding your videos and why bringing insights into your customer base and the potential to discover a market you weren’t expecting.
Finally, use videos in emails. It’s a must. Once the email is opened, chances are the video will be watched. In fact, estimates put increased conversion rates in the 200 to 300 percent range when video is part of email campaigns.
Using construction time-lapse videos
For real estate developers, general contractors, and other construction pros, time-lapse movies of construction projects are powerful tools for showcasing your work. The right construction camera system provides options for a variety of time-lapse videos that you can incorporate into your website, social media, and email campaigns, and project proposals. With a construction webcam and a well-designed construction camera user interface, you can even offer your target audience a view of active job sites and automatically generated time-lapse videos that show project progress to date.
The written word is far from obsolete – it’s just no longer the Swiss army knife of communication it used to be. Today, video is more accessible than ever, both in terms of production and distribution. And there’s every reason to include it in your marketing toolkit.
