Your future buyers all go through a journey that starts when they become aware they have a problem, and it ends when they buy a solution to the problem and become loyal customers.
During this process, it’s our job to help them solve their problem, not shove our solutions down their throats. Yes, the end goal is to sell, but if you do it without helping them first, you’ll lose their trust and the sale.
Instead of selling, you want to guide them. You want to help them understand their problem so thoroughly that they trust and want to buy from you.
The best way to do this is to make a human-to-human connection with the video.
Determining which type of video to make for your small business involves identifying which marketing stage needs help.
Primary stages of the buyer’s journey:
- Awareness – Strangers to Visitors
- Consideration – Visitors to Leads
- Decision – Leads to Customers
- Loyalty – Customers to Promoters
In this article, I will show you how to determine where you should put your video-creating efforts. I’ll also share video types and help you decide what video to make for your small business.
The Visitor
When someone has a problem, they search the internet for a solution. They’re in the awareness stage and a stranger to you and any tracking pixels associated with your marketing.
Once they engage with your video or visit your website, they’re visitors. They’ve entered the consideration stage and can be tracked and retargeted with additional helpful content. While these visitors explore your content, they discover new insights and develop questions.
If your content is good, their simple search has become a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of their situation. An explainer video is an excellent way to go deep while simplifying a complex subject.
👨🎓️ 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. (wyzowl)
If your content is excellent, the visitor has not only learned what they knew they didn’t know. They’ve become empowered and now understand what they didn’t know; they didn’t know.
Based on this engagement, the visitor is now a qualified lead.
Each stage of the buyer’s journey provides excellent opportunities to build trust and create a human-to-human connection.
But only if your content empowers visitors to understand their situation better. If your content isn’t helpful and easy to consume, they will go to your competitor’s website.
Does your Marketing funnel match up with your buyer’s journey?
If not, which stage do you need to improve?
You’re the Expert, so Share Your Knowlege
A traditional marketing approach would focus on selling products and sharing the achievements of your company.
But this approach would ultimately fail because visitors don’t care how great you are. Visitors searching for a solution want your help and your knowledge presented in an easy-to-consume form.
You’re an expert, after all. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have been capable of creating the best solution. Your customers are hungry for the insights your knowledge will provide.
I once worked for a guy who would say, “I forgot more about (fill on the blank) than they will ever know.”
That’s you.
You and your team are probably walking encyclopedias on specific topics related to their situation. It’s time to share your knowledge.
Meet Them Where They’re At
Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes and experience the journey from their point of view.
You provide hope and a new perspective when you help visitors better understand that there’s a path to a solution. Unique insight can be a game changer for someone who’s only seen their situation from a “problem” point of view.
Focus on making content so valuable that it would be silly not to do business with you.
Think of Your Video as an Employee.
Before you hire a new employee, you determine the following:
- Where within your operation would they work
- What tasks would they do?
- If their attributes and skills are a good match
Before making a video, ask:
- Where will your video work in your marketing funnel?
- What tasks will this video perform?
- How will this video empower your customer to understand their problem better?
After hiring an employee, you do performance reviews. If they need improvement, you provide guidance and continuing education.
Performance reviews are critical.
You must hold your new video to the same standard you would hold a new hire.
Never place a video on your website or Youtube channel and forget about it. A well-placed video will work 24-7-365. No vacations, no sick days.
Video Marketing Statistics
- 68% of marketers claim a return on the investment of a video is better than from one of Google Ads. Biteable
- 52% of marketers say video content has the best ROI. HubSpot
- 73% of B2B companies claim video content positively impacted ROI numbers. Tubular Insights
Awareness Stage
Suppose you need more new visitors to enter your website. In that case, you’ll want to increase traffic by making video ads that attract cold audience prospects. They don’t know who you are and don’t care.
New prospects will contact your video in one of three ways.
- By Paid Ad – Targeted on social media, Youtube, Google, and Broadcast
- By Search – The prospect searched keyword phrases
- By Chance – Someone shared a post. Youtube recommended it.
At this stage, the performance goal for your video is to attract qualified prospects.
Focus your messaging on the prospect’s problem and the pain associated with this problem. Convey your deep understanding and appreciation of their problem.
It’s important to remember that this is a cold audience; they don’t know who you are and don’t care. But if you make helpful content, that will change.
Videos for the Awareness Stage
Thought Leadership Videos: These videos are a great way to establish your credibility and help prospects understand issues related to their problem.
Create this video to be found by organic search or promote it with a teaser ad and social media.
How-To Videos: Break your customer’s big problem into bite-size components and make a how-to video that addresses each.
These videos can be promoted with paid ads and social media or found through Google and YouTube searches. When placed on your website and keyworded correctly, they will improve your google ranking.
Organic Search
Search engines know people researching a problem love watching videos. So, make sure you make helpful videos with titles and keywords that reflect the prospect’s problem.
If your video is helpful, a motivated buyer will find it somewhere along their purchase journey. You want them to see it early. If your content is exceptionally beneficial, they may stick with you and stop searching.
Social Media Sharing
If your video is so helpful that it blows them away, it will get shared on social media and discovered by others.
You’ll have what most people call a ‘viral video.’ While going viral isn’t a solid strategy, making helpful videos that get shared is.
Social media sharing can and should happen at all stages of the buyer’s journey.
Paid Video Ads
Online Ads: Video ads are primarily served to a cold audience at the awareness stage to attract new prospects.
Paid ads also offer the opportunity to retarget prospects at any stage.
Suppose someone has watched a portion of your video but didn’t finish or click on your call to action. In that case, most platforms will allow you to segment them and follow up with additional content. You might serve them a short educational video as part of a retargeting campaign.
Using video to segment audiences is a practice worth perfecting.
Digital video ads offer a unique opportunity to segment audiences and test messaging and visuals inexpensively. Segmenting and testing can be game changers for small businesses on a tight budget.
By strategic testing at low dollar amounts, companies can use an objective response and best pricing to verify that the ad and the audience are working. Once you’ve confirmed this, you can increase your advertising spend.
These steps take a little time to dial in, but it’s worth the effort. Spending big on a broad, unqualified audience is a waste of money.
Broadcast Ads: Television advertising can be expensive and usually left for big brands. But, if you’re a local business and aren’t afraid of a relatively high cost of entry, these ads can be a quick way to get noticed.
Unlike a digital ad with a link, broadcast ads add friction to the purchase process. Prospects must retain your contact information to inquire about or purchase.
That said, if you have the budget to be consistent, broadcast advertising is a great way to get known and stay top of mind.
Paid ads work for all stages of the buyer’s journey.
The Consideration Stage
Now that you’ve attracted a prospect and enticed them to visit your website, it’s time to turn them into qualified leads.
They’ve arrived hoping to learn how to understand better and fix their problem, so serve them an Explainer Video or an in-depth How-To Video series.
Your goals at this stage are to;
- educate
- build trust
- obtain an email address
At this stage, the prospect is in researching mode and will visit multiple websites, picking and choosing what they watch. You don’t want to hope they watch your videos; you want to deliver them to their inbox.
An email address lets you manage the conversation and stay top of mind.
Videos for the Consideration Stage
Explainer Video: Do you need to simplify a complex concept? An Explainer Video can do wonders to help people “get it.”
You can make your Explainer Video using animation, live-action footage, motion graphics, photo builds, or a combination.
Explainer videos are a fun and effective way to simplify a complex subject.
Product Video: The internet makes it easy for prospects to audition a boatload of companies promising to solve their problem.
The process can be overwhelming, so they want a quick way to eliminate you or put you in the finalist batch. So, not having a Product Video is a sure way to be left behind.
A tightly-scripted video is a great way to showcase your offer without demanding much of your visitor’s time.
Today’s shoppers expect to see a Product Video prominently featured on your website and Youtube channel.
Features & Benefits Video: Similar to a Product Video, except it goes deep into a distinct segment instead of a features and benefits overview. These videos are perfect for prospects who want more information on a specific product or service feature.
Product Demos: Everybody would like to demo a product before they buy, and the next best thing is a product demo. Demonstration videos help people understand how easy it is to use your product.
The viewer will want to see how all the parts work together and the details. So, a helpful demonstration video must include both wide and close-up shots.
There’s something comforting about seeing a person using the product in real-time or as close to real-time as possible. These videos should be lite on the editing. Different angles of a process are good, but there is a better time for fast edits or fancy editing. Save that for teasers, ads, and highlight videos.
Decision Stage
At this point, the prospect has reached the decision stage of the journey. The trust you’ve built and the quality of your solution have made you a finalist.
Your videos have helped you develop a human-to-human connection and open your prospects to a path for solving their problem.
They see you as a trusted guide.
By now, they’re convinced that your solution is at least as good, maybe even better than the competition’s offer.
It’s finally time to double down on selling your offer. And if you haven’t already, pull the curtain back on the human side of your business.
Introduce your team and share a look into the culture that makes working with you unique. Company culture videos and customer testimonials are great ways to do this. Get creative and have fun with this. It’s time to get a little vulnerable.
Your visitor is now a qualified lead, you’ve gained their trust, but they’re looking for a reason to close the deal.
People buy with emotion.
Visitors have engaged their logical brains in analyzing products, but they’re not quite ready to say yes. They need an emotional nudge.
Almost all of us get stuck when asked to make a final decision. The limbic part of our brain is looking for something it can “feel” something about.
Here’s a fascinating article if you want to dive deeper into this.
Selling With Neuroscience: How the Brain Influences Consumer Behaviour
Once a prospect reaches the decision stage of their journey, they’re not only open to soft persuasion; they’re looking for a reason to buy.
Videos for the Decision Stage
About Video
Go behind the scenes and capture an authentic look into why and how you do what you do. These edited moments can speak volumes about your organization’s core values and mission.
Company Culture Shorts:
Client Testimonials
Customer testimonials can help differentiate your business from competitors. When potential customers see that your solution has helped others, it can make your business stand out in a crowded market. Video testimonials provide social proof that your company is trustworthy and that you deliver as promised.
A customer describing a transaction in their unique words can break through any remaining trust barriers a prospect may unconsciously hold.
Additional Video Types to Consider
Hybrid Sales Presentation Video
Separate yourself from the crowd or present a customized solution to a global prospect with unique needs.
Think of this as a blend of live demonstration, meet-the-team, and a customized features and benefits video.
Individual team members can speak to their roles and show customers who will handle their needs.
This could be a single or multi-camera webcam presentation or a professionally shot video infused with graphics and b-roll.
When you know your prospect’s specific needs match your solution, this video will help you close the sale with a personal touch.
Employee Training Videos
Training employees is essential, and instructor-led training is best for employee engagement. But you have to question how cost-effective it is.
You could save money using handbooks, PDFs, and PowerPoint presentations, but how long is your workforce willing to read?
But, today’s employees would rather watch a video.
Training videos can incorporate an instructor guide or use voice-over modules. A training video can take viewers on a journey with close-up shots of processes and insightful words from co-workers.
They can also incorporate a bit of humor. You don’t have to make them belly laugh, but breaking up dry information with fun moments is essential. It can be easier than you think.
Suppose you can’t find a way to bring in some fun, break it up with questions & answers or short quizzes. Just be sure to break it up.
Onboarding Video
Welcome new hires into your organization with a friendly, comprehensive orientation that includes:
- the company’s mission
- the company’s vision
- the company’s values
- a facility tour
Keep your video simple. Or, take it to the next level using self-recorded welcomes and footage from your company culture video.
An onboarding video can be a creative way to make people feel connected.
Recruiting Video
An employee recruitment video for your small business can be an effective tool for attracting top talent.
Your video should resonate with your company’s culture. If your company is very style oriented, your video should reflect this. The tone of the recruitment video should mirror what you’re looking for in your best employees.
Start the video with a brief overview of your company, including your mission, values, unique benefits, and what makes your company a great workplace.
The best recruiting videos focus on employee testimonials and include photos and video footage of:
- team building activities
- social events
- location attractions if appropriate