As we’ve highlighted many times before, video marketing is a highly potent marketing tool. Statistics and video marketing trends leave little room for doubt, as most industry marketers now embrace them. Key among these industries is eCommerce; the benefits of video marketing for eCommerce are well-established, and the industry needs to leverage them now more than ever.
That said, like most marketing tools, video marketing comes with both universal and industry-specific benefits. While everyone can reap the former, increasingly more marketers focus on the latter. For them, entertaining a new tool comes down not to its general appeal or performance but to what it can do for them. If you’re among them or otherwise involved in the eCommerce industry, this article is for you.
Key benefits of video marketing for eCommerce
Since video marketing comes with an array of benefits, here we’ll highlight the seven most notable ones for the industry. In no particular order, our picks are the following.
#1 Higher conversion rates and more sales
Starting with the ultimate metric of success, video marketing directly increases conversion rates and final sales. Many web professionals and Website Design Companies would vouch for the fact that video marketing improves conversion rates. In turn, more sales improve customer lifetime value (CLV). Notably, using CRM alongside it also has the potential to be quite valuable toward this same goal. Delivering valuable, relevant video content throughout the customer journey is exactly the goal video marketing seeks to achieve, after all.
The impact of CRM on customer lifetime value would warrant its own article to cover thoroughly, but simply consider video marketing’s standalone benefits to conversion rates:
- Using video on landing pages can increase conversions by 86%
- Websites that use video have a 4.8% conversion rate, compared to 2,9% for those who don’t use video
- 44% of potential buyers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it
There’s no doubt about it; video marketing boosts sales.
#2 Better customer retention
Conversions aside, video marketing also directly enhances customer retention rates. As outlined above, it finds applications throughout the sales funnel, including:
- Initial marketing, e.g., social media video content
- On-page experience, e.g., product videos
- Post-sale engagement, e.g., tutorial/how-to videos
In combination, these applications significantly improve the user experience (UX) and help foster loyalty. This is among the key benefits of video marketing for eCommerce, as it’s a vital metric for the industry. To illustrate this, simply consider the following:
- It costs 7x more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one
- Despite being 21% of one’s customer base, loyal customers account for 44% of total revenue and 46% of orders
- Existing customers are 50% more likely to try out a new product than new customers
In turn, loyal customers often become brand ambassadors, raising your brand awareness.
#3 Better search engine visibility
That said, conversion and retention begin with lead generation. A vital series of practices in this regard is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as it boosts online visibility.
If you’re unaware of the practice, SEO optimizes content and pages for search engines. It does so by adhering to search engines’ ranking criteria, primarily including page authority and content quality. In turn, it allows businesses to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more traffic.
In this regard, too, video marketing shines through. Websites using video are 53 times more likely to rank on the first page. In addition, the average user spends 88% more time on pages with videos. Time on page is a key user engagement signal which enhances SEO – so the more you satisfy customers with video, the more likely you are to attract more customers through a better SEO score.
#4 Improved lead acquisition
Once you’ve attracted the attention of potential customers, the next step comes in lead acquisition. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the benefits of video marketing for eCommerce also extend to this phase.
As the above sources show, video marketing directly enhances engagement and facilitates lead acquisition. Examples of relevant statistics here include:
- Adding a video to marketing emails can boost click-through rates by 200-300%
- 50% of online consumers start considering a purchase after seeing a product video
- More than half of social media users engage with brands after seeing a video
These types of interactions all constitute an engagement with your brand. Whether you’re using video marketing on TikTok or email, many marketing channels stand to benefit from it – and acquire more leads.
#5 Raising brand awareness
Still, before all marketing optimization efforts can begin, your brand needs to become known. Through robust SEO, word-of-mouth marketing, and other means, all businesses’ first and most crucial goal is to generate awareness. Almost half of all marketers cite brand awareness as their campaigns’ primary goal.
There are two primary ways to generate brand awareness; SEO and social media marketing. And as we highlighted above, the benefits of video marketing for eCommerce make it a perfect fit for both:
- Pages with video rank higher in SERPs. They allure visitors to stay longer and often incite engagement. All of these factors reassure search engines of a page’s quality and boost its SEO score.
- Social media marketing thrives on video. Most platforms are strongly visual, and video attracts the eye; Facebook alone has more than 8 billion video views per day. Video incites engagement, often generating leads – which is why influencer marketing is thriving.
- On-site video content caters to both crowds. Whether visitors make it to your website through search engines or social media links, videos will keep them engaged and make their visit memorable.
No matter which way you go about it, video marketing can be an invaluable asset for your brand awareness campaigns.
#6 Building credibility and trust
Beyond first impressions and positive initial awareness, businesses need to establish themselves as credible. Search engines value credibility, and so do customers. Here, too, video marketing can help immensely.
Consider such types of trust-building and trust signals as:
- Showcasing your expertise on video. Use educational videos, as they best demonstrate that you’re an authority in your field, and customers appreciate them dearly.
- Offering customer testimonials as trust signals. Most customers read reviews, and customer testimonial videos are a highly digestible form of trust-building.
- Proving your professionalism through video production quality. No matter the type of video or its use, high production quality speaks volumes about a business all on its own.
Once you establish your credibility, customers and search engines alike will prefer you over the competition.
#7 Future-proofing for mCommerce
And finally, rounding up the benefits of video marketing for eCommerce, we can conclude with its affinity for mobile devices. After all, this is a highly notable perk for the eCommerce industry regarding future-proofing.
Indeed, mCommerce seems set to make a sizable impact on the industry. As increasingly more consumers use mobile devices to make purchases, in many ways, it already is:
- This year, it’s expected that 8% of all retail transactions will take place on mobile devices.
- Since 2017, mobile traffic has consistently surpassed desktop traffic, according to Statista.
- Shopify forecasts that social commerce will rise by 5.2% this year, reaching $101.1 billion.
In specific cases, this trend may be even more notable. In 2016, for example, Google outlined a shopper who saw 89% of all her e-commerce retail interactions occur on mobile devices. If this is indicative of where consumers are heading, mCommerce will indeed emerge shortly.
What this trend outlines is the need for businesses to better cater to mobile users. Thankfully, video marketing aligns itself perfectly with this need. More than 60% of YouTube’s views are on mobile devices, and studies show that users prefer to consume video on mobile devices. For them, video marketing produces higher view completion and engagement rates, driving brand awareness to success.
Conclusion
In summary, leaning into video marketing today is, arguably, the best way to future-proof eCommerce. It’s a powerful marketing tool with an inherent affinity for both SEO and social media marketing. The benefits of video marketing for eCommerce expand to brand awareness, lead acquisition, customer retention, and more. While brief, we hope you found this article informative and, hopefully, inspiring. If you have a video marketing project in mind that you’d need specific help with, please feel free to contact us today. Our teams are available seven days a week and will be more than happy to assist you.
Description: From higher engagement rates and credibility to enhanced SEO, discover the most vital benefits of video marketing for eCommerce.
