How To Convert Prospects into Customers with Video

There are many ways to think about the lifecycle of a customer.

Over the last few decades, many organizations have used a traditional sales/marketing funnel to think about customer lifecycles.

But in 2018, Hubspot introduced the Flywheel model- an approach to the customer lifecycle that takes into account how customers help you grow. The 3 stages of the flywheel are attract, engage, and delight.

The Video Marketing Flywheel helps you convert prospects into customers by harnessing the most compelling medium on the Internet- video.

To move the customer along the buyer’s journey, it makes sense that during the engage stage, we focus on fostering a relationship with prospects, not just on closing deals.

The engage stage is two-fold- convince and convert.

Since prospects in the engage stage already are aware of your company and are interested in your product or service, most activity during the engage stage takes place via website, email, or retargeting.

During the engage stage, prospects already know who you are and are interested in your product. Videos in this stage are informative and compelling.

When consumers were asked how they would prefer learning about a product or service, 68% reported short video as their #1 answer.

During this stage, many people aren’t yet ready to speak with a sales rep. Instead of forcing a sales conversation upon people too soon, provide explainer video content on your website so prospects can check it out on their own time.

Plus, even though we love our sales reps, a video is the perfect spiel every time. Video never messes up the elevator pitch.

Delighted customers become evangelists of your brand. Our society has shifted away from trusting traditional entities and toward trusting peer recommendations, making customer delight more important than ever.

A delighted customer’s story is appealing on an emotional level. People can trust other people they perceive to be like them.

Customer testimonial videos take the written testimonial to the next level by combining sight, sound, and motion.

A close cousin of the testimonial video, case study videos are a more systematic, numerical approach to how your company helped solve a client’s problem.

The rhetoric and imagery used in case study videos is less emotionally driven and more statistically driven, using logos to appeal to reason.

Videos in the engage stage are generally seen via your website, email, or through retargeting efforts.

When a prospect is interested in your product or service, they often end up on your website to learn more. Including video is the best way to keep someone engaged on your website.

The longer someone stays on your website, learning about your company and what you offer, the more likely they are to convert into a customer.

People love knowing there is a video waiting for them in an email! When sending an email to a prospect, including video can increase open rates by 400% and click-through rates by 450%.

Since we can’t actually embed video in email yet, we have a great workaround using GIFs.

Whether it’s through social media, YouTube pre-roll, or Google Display, retargeting is a popular way to drive people who have previously expressed interest to your website.

As consumers, we are trained to ignore ads unless they catch our eye and capture our attention- making video the most compelling medium for retargeting ads.

Most markets are saturated. Even if your company is the very best in your industry, you must first convince someone to become your customer. Help prospects quickly understand your company and give them a reason to trust you. Convince and convert with video.