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For years, we’ve heard about the power of SEO and how words matter to make the connection between your customers and you, your products, or services. The right phrase and a photo used to be enough to connect with online shoppers, but as the space gets more competitive and mindsets are changing, more often than not videos and authentic reviews are how businesses are sealing the deal.
SHOW ME MORE
Have you ever been handed a phone and thought “OK, sooo who is going to show me how to use this thing?” We live in a world where we’re expected to know how to use everything that hits the market. But the reality is that “how to boil an egg” is searched for every single day on YouTube. More and more, product/service videos are transforming from traditional commercials to customer comfort tools. Whether it’s a 15 second-long fashion video that shows how a dress falls and swooshes when a model walks or a how-to video about charging and storing batteries for a new device, customers want to know and be comfortable before they buy. Smart businesses use videos to problem-solve through the entire process of selling and retaining a customer.
Businesses aren’t acting alone in digitally displaying their products, and videos from outside sources can be the greatest sale tool or the death of a product line. Giants, like Amazon, are relying on customers to provide customer satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) reviews and have been expanding to allow for more pictures and longer videos. YouTubers have long been monetizing unboxing videos and the concept is popular for nearly every niche. Businesses can get ahead by creating great videos that take out the mystery or solve “issues” for customers before bad reviews can even be created.
Live videos have their place, too. Facebook Live stores, for example, are raking it in with their mini-QVC-esque productions. Customers want to see items glitter under the lights. They want an up-close and realistic review of the size and quality of a product, how complicated something is, and any tips that can make their lives easier. You know you’ve watched a hack video or two and thought “wow, they are geniuses.” (Or maybe you asked who ties their shoes in the morning… we’re looking at you 5-Minute Crafts.)
In Q4 of 2020, YouTube reported that it has an active 30 million watchers per day, watching a billion videos per day, with the average mobile viewing session lasting approximately 40 minutes. The point is people watch videos. They consume them. They will go out of their way to find a video rather than read a manual that is in the box in front of them. Buyers want you to SHOW them your product, the options, the quality, and alllllll of the functions. Much like how a staged house sells a home faster, videos can sell a product faster.
SEO IS NOT DEAD
SEO is still very much alive and important, maybe even more so with video. Think about a basic product and how many ways you could make a video — what is it, how many colors does the product come in, what’s it made of, how do you use it, how do you clean it, what’s the best way to maintain it, how do you install it — just that small list has the potential for seven videos and they can all have value. The phrasing of “how to clean” is very much different than “how to maintain” and that matters to consumers who want to know they are doing the right thing. Answering both questions instills consumer confidence, which is by no means a new concept but accessibility to videos is changing the approach. Video titles, page titles, headlines and descriptions all work together to connect buyers with the “right” videos.
One way to win the SEO game is to pay attention to how your customers search for answers. Do customers search for “how to fix my phone screen” or do they type “phone screen repair”? Vastly different phrases, and one may get you way more views than the other. Search engines recognize these behaviors and are getting smarter but using the correct phrases for your customers now provides solutions today. Does that mean pick one and *fingers crossed* hope it’s the best? No, it means taking the time to create duplicate pages and adjusting each page to match a searched phrases. We’ve talked about this before in previous AMM articles, and it remains true. Don’t fight the process, remain flexible and adapt to how SEO and consumer behaviors modify.
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH VIDEOS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT TO MAKE?
That is a million dollar question. Maybe more, depending on who is making your videos. Branding videos matters, capturing your target market’s attention matters, absolutely, but, at the end of the day, how many videos do you really need? Start by checking your industry and see what’s trending. It’s a good foundation to learn how many videos are consumers watching. Pay attention to reviews and see if there are videos related to the discussion. Next, do market testing. Testing panelists can help ultimately answer “what do you want to know about this product/service?” Once reviews start appearing, videos can be created or modified to be solution-providers and maximize SEO.
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A Media Marketing has been helping our clients for over 50+ years in the Tampa Bay Area. We are a full-service marketing agency specializing in all aspects of media from social, video and web, as well as education and training for our clients. Print and ad specialties are still a valuable component in any marketing campaign and are also available to our clients. From Strategy to Implementation to Measurement, we have you covered!