With the advent and popularity of social media, video marketing is booming now more than ever. As more marketers pivot towards video inclusion in their advertising efforts, it’s essential to understand how it works so you can build successful video marketing funnels for your business.
What is a Video Marketing Funnel?
There isn’t much difference between a video marketing funnel and a content marketing funnel. Technically, they both work the same and have a similar goal. The only major difference is the mode of disseminating the advertisement, where content marketing generally uses text and other non-visual materials, and video marketing uses video content to shape and build branding.
The video marketing funnel aims to guide your target audience throughout the buyer journey from the first point of contact with your business to the time they make a purchase and become a repeat customer.
In other words, video marketing funnels work to:
- Attract
- Educate
- Convert
- Retain
… customers.
Types of Videos to Use in Your Sales Funnel
Sales funnels have different stages that guide customers through the funnel. While specific video types work best for specific stages of the funnel, there are several types of videos that work wonders when incorporated strategically into a video sales funnel.
They include:
- Educational videos – these are excellent for the top of the funnel where the goal is to build brand awareness, increase interest, and generate leads. Typically, rather than talk about your brand, these videos should highlight the industry in general, which shows your expertise and knowledge in the field and helps you build trust.
- Explainer videos – As you move further down your sales funnel, you can now introduce explainer videos. These introduce your audience to your brand and products, including how the product works and the problems it solves. Suppose you’re coupling video marketing with other forms of marketing like email campaigns. In that case, explainer videos are a perfect complement as you can collect your audience’s email addresses in exchange for explainer videos.
- Webinars and live video events – Today’s standard businesses have a global audience, which makes convening in-person events harder. Fortunately, live video events make broadcasting easier by breaking down geographical boundaries, allowing you to access a broad audience. They not only help you deepen your relationship with your audience, but they also help you market new products and features at a fraction of the cost of in-person events.
- Testimonials – as your target audience moves closer to purchasing your product, they want to know whether they’re making the right choice. Few things work better at convincing new leads than testimonials from happy customers. These social-proof assets feature previous buyers talking about your product and how it has helped them.
- Onboarding videos – Typically, these are videos that take your customers through the features of your product and how to use them. This increases retention by showing your customers the product’s value and flattening their learning curve.
- Product feature videos – Explainer and onboarding videos give an overview and introduction of your product. On the other hand, product feature videos go into the nitty gritty, expounding on each feature to maximize customer benefit.
Now that you know which types of videos work best as part of a marketing funnel, it’s time to get into the stages of a funnel. Like content marketing funnels, video marketing funnels have four stages, each with KPIs to determine effectiveness. These stages are:
Awareness stage
As the first stage of the marketing funnel, the goal is to show your product’s value and how it solves the customer’s problem. This is where you attract your customers, so they want to learn more about your brand.
Consideration stage
At this stage, your goal is to convince the customer that your product has the edge over any other competitor, making it the best option for them. Typically, while the customer will be considering your product, they’ll also be looking at your competition as they try to determine which product solves their problem while offering the best bang for their buck.
Decision stage
This is also known as the conversion stage – you’ve already proven you offer better value for money. You only have to reel in your lead and convince them to make a purchase. The best way to convert a lead once they’re at the decision stage is to highlight the features of your product or service as a benefit, so the customer understands how it will impact them.
Retention stage
The final and arguably most important part of the marketing funnel is the retention stage, where you ensure your existing customer stays loyal and becomes an advocate for your brand. Over time, retaining customers proves to offer more value for money for a business than converting cold leads into buyers.
The KPIs at all the stages above are views, time spent watching, sign-ups/sales, and audience retention, respectively.
Ready to Partner with a Production Team?
Now that you know how to build a successful video marketing funnel, it’s time to take the next step – partner with a production team that understands funnels and has the experience and expertise to create videos that complement every stage of your funnel.
The only thing left for you to do is tell us what your project is about, and we’ll develop a concept to share with you. In the meantime, you can watch our demo reels to get a feel of what we can do as your video production partner.
