Today I’m going to talk about building an effective collection of sales video for your marketing funnel by presenting your viewers the right content at the right time. The biggest change I’ve seen happening in the video production industry lately is a move from presenting one-off videos to a series of videos. In the old days people would create essentially a ‘brochure’ on video. A one size fits all approach to cover every possibility and do nothing well.
Why you should be using sales video
These days companies have realised that it’s all about creating a series of sales videos that work together to target particular areas. You could call them ‘objections’ but I don’t really like that way of describing it because it’s a bit ‘old school sales’. Each video has a job to do and it doesn’t have to make the sale. It just had to answer the question, provide the proof, be a touch point, build authority and so on.
Each video that you present should build on what you’ve shown in the last one. Over time you should start to amass a library of videos that you can show clients at different stages of your relationship.
It’s not an uncommon scenario for clients to contact my business and say something like, “we’re redesigning our website, and our web designer said it was a good idea to include video. So we’d like you to make a video for our home page.” There’s nothing wrong with having a home page video and in most cases it makes sense. But there’s a preoccupation with concentrating on your ‘top of the funnel’ videos. You’re better off taking the time to understand your whole sales funnel and then create videos for the different parts of the funnel. Once you do this you’ll be in a far better position to make an impact on your sales.
Top of the Video Sales Funnel
So what does the ‘top of the funnel’ look like? Well these are the videos that people will watch when they first encounter you. These videos are about educating people, helping them solve problems, and getting to know you, rather than make sales. This part of the sales funnel is also about grabbing interest, inspiring people, and making them hungry for more.
You should add a call to action at the end of these videos too. Here the aim is deepening the relationship rather than asking for the sale. Your call to action might be to encourage people to subscribe to your newsletter or download a guide or white paper to capture their contact details.
The crucial part is establishing yourself and then opening a line of communication.
Formats that work well at this part of the funnel are ‘How to’ videos, animated explainer videos, video content marketing, screen capture video, blog video.
Middle of the Video Sales Funnel
The next stage is the middle of the funnel. This is where your audience moves more into the ‘evaluate and justify’ part of the sales funnel. By this stage they’ve indicated their interest and they qualify for your service or product. They may be evaluating your offering alongside others. So they’re looking for proof that you can actually deliver what you are promising.
Videos like case studies or customer testimonials can be very powerful at this stage. They address any concerns that clients might have and they demonstrate the quality of your work. You can take a look at this post I wrote about how effective case study video can be here.
The important part of this stage of the funnel is to show the audience what makes you great at what you do and what separates you from your competitors. Take a look at this case study video we made for Innercode.
The End of the Video Sales Funnel
This is the last part of the funnel and these are the videos that you use to help you close the sale. Here’s where you can use something like a nurture campaign. A series of short videos that are designed to drive action. Or a livestream broadcast to an audience of interested potential buyers. This is also where you can make follow up offers, customer check-ins, follow ups to reinforce peoples buying decision, and give rewards, gifts or free samples.
By this stage your other sales videos have done the leg work so the production value at this end of the funnel doesn’t necessarily need to be as high. A piece to camera from your company director can work really well here. At this end of the funnel, you’re asking the customer for the sale.
If the previous videos have done their job then this part won’t be uncomfortable or awkward, it will simply be the natural final stage of your conversation with the audience.
So there you go, an outline of the right sales videos to build an effective marketing funnel. Just like every business is different, every set of videos for a sales funnel will be different too. Its important that your videos suit you and your business but it’s crucial that they grab attention and resonate with your prospective clients.
If you want help building the right sales videos for your marketing funnel then get in touch with DreamEngine today.
Ryan Spanger is one of Melbourne’s most respected and sought-after video production professionals. Ryan founded Dream Engine in 2002, and specialises in helping medium to large corporates, government departments, and the non-profit sector to connect with their audience more effectively by using video.
