your ecommerce website or brand store to attract more customers? Focus on brand and product awareness with online video. To us that means discoverability and one of the best ways to get discovered is via search engines — good thing Google loves video. Having video content on key product pages will help push those pages up the search rankings where video is a best match for the searcher’s intent and display an engaging video thumbnail in the search results that will entice buyers to click through and makes purchases.
Create videos that capitalize on the industry-related topics your audience actively searches for. We call these types of videos “Awareness Videos.” Awareness videos help you take advantage of common search queries and draw in visitors by using SEO friendly terms that describe each video’s value. Successful awareness videos take into account keyword and video metadata in a big way. Outside of basic metadata consider video transcripts, subtitles, and captions which are all crucial for SEO. Adding these elements to your videos will make them more discoverable, not only on search engines but also internally within your organization. Deploying SEO-friendly videos throughout your ecommerce website and integrating them with the website’s will enable audiences to easily find videos that show how to assemble, use, and maintain your products for example.
Reaching buyers on social networks
Video has emerged as the most popular type of content across the board on social media networks. Today it’s the best way to educate and inform potential prospects.
When you consider your audience, think about where they are spending their time on the web and what social networks they use regularly. You don’t have to have video on every social network, just the ones that your buyers and their social connections are using.
Once you’ve established which social media networks are best for reaching your target buyers, then consider the content you’re going to create. Each social platform has its own unique context for what type of video works best. As an example, videos using Facebook’s native players will auto-play, typically without sound. Adding an engaging video leading with movement, text, and other visual cues can substitute for music or voice overs. Creating videos with these characteristics ensures your message doesn’t get lost in a chaotic newsfeed and keeps prospective customers from scrolling past your video. The content that stirs emotion has the best chance at being noticed, remembered, and shared with more viewers (potential customers). Social sharing is one of the highest indicators of both engagement and sentiment from your audience.
Reaching buyers at home watching TV
Today buyers are engaging with video content on almost every screen, at home, in the air and on the move they are shopping on their laptops or mobile devices including watching TV. Is your brand placing content on smart TV apps? If not, it’s something to consider. With the rise of AppleTV, Roku, Amazon and others the bar to entry on TVs has never been lower. If you’re thinking “TV is not for my brand,” think again. Your video should be accessible across all devices and destinations. Successful retailers are doing just that by bringing the shopping experience into the living room and TVs and not just the web and mobile. With branded apps on popular set-top-boxes such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku, these retailers are now reaching into areas previously inaccessible for online video marketers. They’ve grabbed the attention of audiences who were in a passive lean-back mode, but who can now be encouraged to sit up, interact, and shop.
Conclusion
It’s important for ecommerce companies to leverage video as a primary tool for generating demand and awareness. Awareness video content is a great way to do that. Creating video that answers common questions and topics enables better SEO, which will result in more visits to your ecommerce store and ultimately more sales. And, don’t forget the rule that your content should be accessible wherever your buyers are, including TVs.
Helpful resources related to video for ecommerce:
- 5 Free Video Ecommerce Tools and Software
- The Best Video Platforms For Product Marketing and Ecommerce
