5 types of video content perfect for each stage of the customer journey

Juan Mendez of the Content Marketing Institute gives great insight about the type of video content that can help get more prospects through your sales funnel. According to Juan, we need to consider the thought process of a consumer when they need a product/service that’s in "our" market space. The first thing they would do is realize they have a problem that needs to be solved, and then they will seek out the cheapest and easiest solution for that problem. Video is an excellent tool to explain something complex that could turn away many consumers in the form of a chunk of text to read. According to Media Post, video content can increase purchase intent by 97% and are an excellent tool for sharing on social media.

Top of the Funnel

The top stage of the sales funnel is the ‘Awareness’ or ‘Interest’ phase for customers, who are seeking knowledge and not to purchase anything at this point. An educational video is the best option here because it instantly gives something of value to potential customers, and they appreciate no blatant promotion of your product/service at this stage. This could result in generating additional leads through social media sharing and help with SEO rankings.

Middle of the Funnel

After understanding their problem and the potential way to solve the problem, consumers will naturally seek out and compare alternative options for solving the problem that they now understand better after watching an education video. Explainer videos come in handy here to move customers along your sales funnel. They must know what solutions your brand provides, and you must demonstrate trustworthiness by demonstrating your brand’s solution in an engaging way. There needs to be trust built up for them to continue to seek your solution. The video itself needs to explain how (not just show) how your product or service solves their problem, and the use of storytelling and animation is widely used here. This makes explainer videos, along with educational videos, ideal for sharing on social media. Both should be no longer than two minutes, and a call-to-action should be clearly visible with the explainer video.

Bottom of the Funnel

This is the place for content like demos and testimonials. You have earned enough of their trust to get them to subscribe to your newsletter or download your e-book, but there is a good chance that they already did the same with your competitors. This is where they want to see evidence of which brand is the best in their mind. They are now willing to invest more time to figure out if your brand has the right features and want to know the advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, a length of ten minutes is acceptable for a demo video. The screen-cast technique (with narration and/or subtitles) is a very popular and low-cost option for demo videos.

Testimonials are also perfect for the “Action” stage at the bottom of the funnel. Because these are endorsements of a third party, they have the power to generate a lot more brand trust. They do require a higher budget as it involves people explicitly saying on camera why your brand is the ideal option over the competition. ‘About’ videos are another great option to showcase your company’s leadership and how their team works to solve each customer’s problem.

Conclusion

It’s very important to mindfully choose the format and content of videos along each stage of the sales funnel. It may not apply in every scenario to use this type of content and in the same sequence, however, it’s worth considering the thought process of potential customers and how they may be affected by video content sharing on social media platforms. As Juan explains, videos are probably the best choice for content marketing these days when good choices are made at each stage of the customer’s journey.

american consumers and social media

Recently, Marketing Charts summarized some key points from a report by SUMO Heavy Industries based on their survey data of 1,003 U.S. adults (52% female). Here are the interesting bits of data that KMG members may find of interest, personally or professionally.

90% use social media
40% said they have bought something they saw on social media
23% use social media for specific information such as learning about a product
Fewer than 20% have purchased something directly through social media, though up from 10% in an earlier survey from 2016
45% have said that social media has had some influence on a few of their purchasing decisions, with most influence coming from posts by family and friends
83% would share their excitement about a purchase on social media (mostly Facebook, Pinterest in 2nd)
Largest concerns are security (76% of respondents), privacy(65% of respondents), and legitimacy of purchase (64% of respondents)

Insight: Social media is clearly not a strong marketplace for actually buying and selling goods, however, the volume of users and their data combined with the ad targeting algorithms simply means that social media can't be ignored. Platforms such as Facebook and Pinterest are very useful for a company to receive earned media; consider that 83% of adults surveyed would share a happy purchase decision with their friends, colleagues, and family members through social media. (SUMO, 2016)

For a company like Facebook to successfully compete in online retail, they would need to seriously improve the users' perceptions of their social marketplace's security, privacy, and legitimacy. Perhaps Craigslist and eBay may need to be weary of a future threat from the Facebook Marketplace if these issues are significantly mitigated in minds of their huge user base.

5 Types of Video Content Perfect for Each Stage of the Customer Journey