10 Ways You Can Influence Customers Through Video

influence customers

Video is addicting.

So addicting that people watch over 1 billion hours of video every day. That’s on YouTube alone.

That figure doesn’t account for the video content available on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or company websites.

Videos are a feature people and customers have come to expect.

The benefit for businesses is that video is a powerful marketing tool that can be used to influence customers. Video marketing is so popular that 60% of marketers used video in their social media efforts in 2016.

If you’re interested in learning more about video marketing and how it can influence customers, check out our article below.

Increases Your Credibility

The internet is full of misinformation and fake photos. Especially today, the credibility of most pieces of information and images are questioned.

However, video has not been so affected. After all, it’s not possible to photoshop a couple of inches off your waist in a video. Thanks to this “real feel,” media consumers have subconsciously given more weight to video and trust it more than images.

When you create videos for your company, you effectively give your company more credibility. Video allows your company to authentically reflect its culture and mission and puts a face to a voice.

Product videos can also build trust and credibility because consumers trust that a video cannot mislead them.

Tell Stories

The thing about written stories is the reader has to be patient long enough to read through the entire thing. Video, on the other hand, can convey a story in less than 90 seconds.

Depending on the purpose of your company’s video efforts, you can tell stories about your employees, your company’s mission, your products, or how your product can improve your customers’ lives.

The other benefit of video storytelling is you can tell the story in so many ways. Your video could have no speaking parts and only background music or you might have several speakers. The sky’s the limit.

Elicit Emotions

Video not only has the power to tell you a story. It can also take you through a series of emotions in a short time span.

Consider the Budweiser puppy commercial from the 2015 Super Bowl. In 60 seconds you feel love, separation, anxiety, sadness, distress, worry, hope, fear, friendship, and love.

That’s an emotional roller coaster! But that commercial is now iconic in pop culture.

While your videos don’t need to take customers on an emotional rollercoaster, they are powerful enough to elicit certain emotions that you think will help them in the buying process.

Show, Don’t Tell

Video is a flexible tool and can convey any message really. One of the most powerful ways to use video is to show, not tell.

Product videos can heavily influence customers to make a purchase decision. In fact, online shoppers who view a product demo or video are 1.81x more likely to purchase than non-viewers.

You can easily assume that someone who watches a product video is trying to learn more about it. Product videos enable you to show that your product works and in what kinds of situations it works.

This type of video can go beyond a product demonstration to show how the product could benefit the customer and how they can use it.

Find Favor With Google

Another reason to invest in video is that it can help your search engine rankings. Search engines, particularly Google, love video and see it as high-quality content.

Of course, you might be wondering why invest in video if SEO algorithms keep changing? Video has incredible staying power and can only make your site rank better from here.

When you rank higher in Google, you’ll have the increased ability to reach more potential customers.

But you can’t just put a video on your website and hope you’ll rank higher. You need to optimize your video for SEO so search engines understand what’s in the video.

Increase Your Visibility

Even though putting video on your website can help increase your visibility on Google, that doesn’t mean that those searching on YouTube will find it.

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world with a separate set of searcher intentions and criteria. That’s why you should also post your videos on YouTube to capture a whole new audience.

Many marketers ignore YouTube because of its reputation as an entertainment platform. However, YouTube is a perfectly viable business channel and will continue to be more popular for businesses in the future.

Match Customer Expectations

At this point, customers expect videos. They want to know about your company, process, product, and service.

They want to know how your product or service will solve their problems. They want to know your company has integrity.

Customers expect to see videos throughout the sales cycle. Having video can be the difference between making the sale or letting the sale go to your competitor who does have video.

Build Brand Awareness

Video is a powerful tool for building brand awareness. Having strongly branded videos can influence customers in deciding to go with your product or service.

Building brand awareness through video makes you walk through the steps you might not normally do with your other marketing efforts.

Because video is visual, it will cause people to make snap decisions about your messaging. That means you have to be spot on with targeting your audience.

You can also use different types of video to increase awareness for your brand. Product videos, employee interviews, and industry guides or how-tos are all great ways to put your branded stamp on information.

Convince and Convert

In most cases, the main way videos influence customers is by convincing them that they have a problem and that your company offers the solution to that problem. If you can do these things, you can then convert them into a sale.

As we mentioned, product videos are a go-to resource for customers. But what about services?

Guided walkthroughs of a software service or intangible service can help a customer visually understand what to expect from your company. That additional aid will convince and convert the customer.

Go Viral

Going viral isn’t necessarily a good strategy for every company. However, creating viral video content can assist you in spreading brand awareness and telling your company’s story.

Think of Dollar Shave Club’s tongue in cheek commercial about how their razors aren’t good, “they’re f*****g great.” Or even Old Spice’s commercials which don’t seem to make sense at all, yet they’re hilarious and highly shareable.

Videos don’t need to be funny or odd to go viral. Even sweet or sad videos can go viral on social media.

Masterfully Influence Customers with Video

Video is one of the easiest and most effective ways to influence customers. When done correctly, you have the capability to reach a broader audience and connect with them in a meaningful way.

To learn more about video production or hiring a video production company, check out our How It Works section.

Leave a Reply