Top 10 Reasons Every eCommerce Website Should Seriously Consider Explainer Videos
It is an undeniable fact that fast paced advancement of telecom technology has led to a widespread use of the internet. Specifically the manner in which buyers make a decision to purchase in general. Online shopping involves eCommerce websites which facilitates business to consumer (B2C) selling. Shoppers have adopted buying merchandise or selecting service through eCommerce websites with a great liking and migrated to this medium very easily. This is a trend that has happened across USA, Europe and many regions of Asia including India. It has given the customer an upper hand and magnifies the statement ‘customer is the king’. This has also led to increased competition in the marketplace. This pushes the online marketplace to evolve continuously accepting each new suitable digital trend.
The consumer has a variety of choices to choose from before making a buying decision. Sellers and businesses have to keep up with the digital marketing trends and the online gimmicks which will attract the customer to their website. Respective websites of the business (product) on their own domains facilitates e-Commerce in regions outside India. Within India, there are several marketplace portals which enable selling of multiple brands through a uniform platform. Eg: Amazon.in, Flipkart, Ebay.in, Myntra etc.
In Asia Pacific region projected numbers of digital buyers are expected to cross 1 billion mark by 2018. This is 60% of internet users and it might grow even more. By 2019 it is expected to increase to 70.7%. Retail eCommerce sales are expected to be around 16 billion U.S. dollars in 2016 and to grow more than 45 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 in this region. Similar or rather nearby growth can be expected in other regions too. The product website is the first point of interaction between the consumer and the company and for this reason it is important that a meticulously planned and designed website be showcased which will attract potential consumers to it. Hence knowing these stats above are important.
A digital marketing trend that is equally important is the presence of online videos or explainer videos on eCommerce sites. So, what are these? They are videos blended into company’s websites or with other commonly used internet media like user communities or online magazines or social media pages. Explainer videos are online videos made with related content having a simple humorous, matter-of-fact presentation style in 2-3 minutes. It maybe a tad longer too and can be people speaking or in animated formats delivering visual treats.
Here we look at 10 compelling reasons for eCommerce Websites to seriously start considering producing an explainer video:
1.Online Videos are personalized experiences!
Explainer videos are primarily used for promotion. It either offers a demo of your product or explains or answers queries on your product/service, sometimes you can have celebrities endorse the merchandise or it may be a satisfied customer testimonial of your service etc. The masterly tailored online video embedded on the home page of the site leaves a lasting impression in the viewers’ minds such that a viewer is prompted to share it with other contacts too. It creates easy brand identification and on an average viewer visits from 8 seconds to 2 minutes. A hyperlink takes time to read through or browse whereas it is easy and time saving to distribute content through an online video. Cisco indicates that by 2019, 80% online viewing will be video streaming.
2.Online videos are great tools to attract customer attention
Explainer videos are liked and accepted over text because today’s busy consumer does not have the time or patience to read through lengthy text or pages of product description. An apt video that explains it all either in animation format or otherwise can aid in capturing not only visual attention but the consumer’s auditory sense as well. Online videos have a great potential for gaining social shares, so it should be created entertaining and informative. Social sharing enable traffic redirection back to the product website from which conversions can be targeted at.
3. Websites with online videos are better SE optimized
Google and other search engines have started ranking websites having multimedia and videos with targeted keywords either in content or filenames. Having a video on the ecommerce website means the viewer stays longer on the site as long as he is watching it. This is the reason that roughly there is 55% chance that a website with video will gain visibility on Google over a website with only text. YouTube discloses that it receives more than 4 billion views daily. Inherently this is also one rationale behind Google procuring You Tube. Amazon uses this feature of providing videos for the respective brand’s product introductions and reviews which will tell visiting customers how it works in live!
4.Online video as a tool for story telling
Gone are the days of text only content, now video is the king of content. Hence online videos on the website can be effective tools to create an emotional connect with your brand by being educational, informative and entertaining at the same time to the existing as well as potential shopper. It is also an easy mechanism by which viewer remembers the brand’s business idea. The video should have an introduction, a story in the body addressing the consumer’s problem, a solution and a call to action as it closes. Videos are good persuasive tools which will help channelize the potential consumer back to the website for future purchase action.
5. The ‘real thing’ feeling with 360 deg view!
Among 90% of the online customers do the homework themselves online when engaging in a market like real estate, deciding vacation destinations, or making other travel planning purchases. An online video with its power of providing a 360 degree view is a perfect way to carry them around the facility, explain its features and comforts. It reduces the customer’s thinking time and probably enhances chances of selling better. For products based websites, online videos supplements what text alone cannot do to communicate about the product on the website. In better words, it is right to say it makes the whole process of selection and buying becomes easier for the confused customer.
6. Enhance brand popularity building a community
An online clothing store, ASOS has been successful in building a community around its brand by promoting online videos on their sites and YouTube channel. 360 degree views of catwalks of different products they offer under the brand umbrella help build loyalty. The command of online videos can be capitalized if the content used in it gives your brand a clear identity. It is also important to make use of other video publishing sites for promoting videos, for as long as it is online anywhere it can be accessible to any interested viewer. Online videos entice customers in learning more about of the brand and product retains customer engagement.
7. Explainer videos are direct launch pads for sales
Statistics and market information only strengthen the fact that the predicted outcome of placing an explainer video on the landing pages of the product website increases direct sales by 80%. 75% of viewers who watch them have made decision to buy irrespective of merchandise type, be it gifts, electronics, jewellery or any other. Every 3 in 4 persons who watch videos online on websites are convinced to buy the product.
8. Use online videos to be interactive
Videos on the product website can also be used to set up live streaming when required to keep up customer engagement. This can be utilized when there are events coming up, an interactive Q&A session can also be set up which will make customers feel they are also part of the business engagement. If there is a lull period in between product launches, teaser videos can be used as fillers that will keep up the anticipation to expect something new and shoppers will come back to the site to check for latest information.
9. Videos on mobile friendly websites
eCommerce website should be mobile friendly as well, for the current millennial generation of consumers are in age group 18-25 are online on smart devices than other forms like desktop. Hence it is essential to create short fitting online videos that will feature on these websites that will be mobile friendly.
10.Play around the emotions!
Understand what the emotions are that find its way into the minds of the consumers when they see a product video: one is that it builds a sort of trust around the product as they see the product in action, next is that the chances of return when they make a purchase is far less as they are already happy to have seen a trustworthy video earlier and obtained the same on purchase. Around 57-58% fall under this category for the above reasons.
40% of internet users confidently state that they consume more information by watching videos online than reading text. Internet marketers are very sure that online videos gives the best ROI over any other digital marketing tool if they are crafted using the video super powers viz., attention, emotion, perception and clarity.
Eastsource | Animated Video from Transpixel Studio on Vimeo.
FREE VIDEO CONSULTATION
