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Summary
READ ITCreating and publishing videos for your online shop can benefit your business in many ways. Whether it's informing your customers about your products or promoting your brand, one factor that these videos have in common is that they can build trust. In today's article, we'll look at why videos will benefit your business, which kinds you can produce, and how trust can be improved through the creation of such videos.
Why videos are important for your e-commerce business
There's no debate: Videos are everywhere these days.
Social media has come a long way in the last 20+ years. X (formerly known as Twitter) is filled with videos. Facebook news feeds are almost exclusively videos. Instagram has the highest engagement with videos (rather than images). The list goes on and on.
Marketers across the globe agree that videos play an important role in their efforts. In fact, a recent survey conducted by Wyzowl shows that 96% of marketers continue to value video as an important part of their marketing strategy.
The same survey revealed that 91% of marketers say video has increased traffic to their website. 90% said they increased leads. 87% say videos have increased sales.
The numbers also show that the average person watches 17 hours of online videos per week. Companies should aim to have their own videos included within those 17 hours through original content or (video) ads.
96% of marketers who took part in this survey also said that videos increased user understanding of their products.
95% say brand awareness has also improved thanks to video.
With users often turning to videos to learn more about products and services, being prepared can make a huge difference when it comes to conversions. All these numbers show us a clear opportunity for companies to improve their brand image. Through a better understanding of their products, companies also but trust with their users.
Let's look at what kinds of videos you can produce to build trust with your audience:
What kinds of videos can you produce in order to build trust with customers?
There are lots of videos that businesses can produce. Basically, all of them can be used to inform customers about your brand and your products. With this level of transparency, you’ll also build trust with your target audience.
1. Homepage/About us videos
Depending on your shop and the layout of your website, you might want to create a video that gives an overarching picture of your company. You can create a kind of “About Us” style video. Show what you do behind the scenes. Show your motivation for starting the business. Show every side of your company and the story behind it if you think it will strike a chord with your audience.
If you work in a niche industry, showing your connection to the culture can bring you a lot of credibility within the community.
If your strength is experience, talk about the family business and how your company is run by experts in their field for X years.
Conversely, you can use your homepage to showcase your business. This can work particularly well for B2B businesses or shops that offer a service rather than a physical product. Hubspot, a CRM platform, addresses their site's visitors’ most obvious question very early on their homepage: What is Hubspot?
Either way, your homepage or About Us page can be a great way to be transparent about who you are and what you do. And more transparency equals more trust!
Official product videos
Product videos can be a great way of building more trust as well. Found on your product pages, you can implement videos into your product images section or place the video more prominently below the product description.
These kinds of videos can be created in a number of ways, but no matter how you decide to execute them, they should bring clarity and life to the product.
Zalando, the online fashion retailer, has started embedding short videos on their product pages. Seeing the model wearing the clothes while moving around gives the user an insight into how the fabric looks, feels, and moves.
Customer testimonial videos
Shop owners should already know about the power of customer reviews.
For a quick refresher:
- They build trust for your company/products
- They increase SEO for your website
- They can be used in marketing efforts (e.g. star-ratings in Google Ads)
Video testimonials can add even more value to these benefits. Seeing a real customer handling the product and giving a quick summary of their experience can be a powerful visual tool for shops that want to convert more customers. Naturally, it adds a bit more authenticity and transparency to your brand as well.
Social media videos
Videos seem to be everywhere these days, right? We touched on this point earlier in this article, but it's hard to scroll through any social media platform these days without seeing videos – that goes for user-generated content as well as advertising.
There is so much to talk about with every social media platform – but you can start by looking at some social media video marketing stats.
In any case, make sure you know your audience and which platforms they are on. Experiment with your targeting options.
When it comes to building trust, you can do many things. You can use some of the formats we've already mentioned in this article (e.g. video testimonials, product videos in action, explainer videos, behind-the-scenes activities, jokes related to the niche).
Influencer campaigns
Working together with influencers can seem more like an investment into an external marketing campaign. However, it’s worth mentioning here because there are a lot of different types of videos that can be made here.
If you are sponsoring a video, you need to work out what the influencer will say or do with your product.
Some influencers will test your products for free, but will not agree to any feedback from you. This can of course backfire if they don't like your product. However, if you're confident in your product, it could be worth the effort.
Depending on your agreement, the influencer may dedicate an entire video to your product. If we look at the tech and electronics industry, YouTubers like Linus Tech Tips have built an empire on reviewing products (among other things).
If you go with a sponsorship, then you may need to work out some scripts or plan out some collaborations. For example, you may want to publish the video (or snippets) of the video in your accounts alongside the influencer's accounts.
Unboxing & instructional videos
Speaking of popular video formats, unboxing videos have become very popular over the years. A good unboxing video can give insights into the customer journey, and you don't need to partner with an influencer to do them.
Of course, people will get insights into the products themselves through these types of videos, but there is something more at play in these unboxing videos. It is about the experience of getting a new product and getting a feeling for the care a company puts into their products.
Instructional videos can also be helpful for getting better insights into your products and seeing them in action. In a way, these types of videos make a first impression on your user base.
You can naturally publish unboxing and instructional videos on platforms like YouTube, but they might also make sense on your product pages as well.
Summary
There are many ways to utilize videos in your marketing efforts. Remember, you can also combine a lot of the formats mentioned above. For example, you can include unboxing videos on your product pages or run a brand campaign with your About Us video if you're looking to gain more followers. You can also republish your customer stories in your social media campaigns. Mixing and matching your different videos can also bring in results. There are so many directions you can go, so whether you start with a big project or a small one, you should really consider implementing videos into your marketing efforts.
