The face of online marketing is changing. Traditional marketing is out as customers have adopted a ‘sharing is caring’ attitude, making content generated and shared by users the new king. Thousands are sharing their best and worst ecommerce experiences with fellow customers through reviews, recommendations and social media. So what can you do to encourage users to positively share your content, and why is it so important that you do?
The answer is simple:
Product Videos are Limitless
A recent report by Forrester found that a video is worth a massive 1.8 million words.1 That means that you, as a merchant, have the opportunity to tell a story, captivate your audience and engage with them as they take in 1.8 million words worth of information about what you’ve got to offer them.
Take a moment to consider that 96% of customers find product videos useful when shopping online. With product videos, you have the potential to captivate the minds of 96% of customers as you engage them with your 1.8 million word story. Wow.
Now think back to user generated content being king. It’s not just about getting your video seen, it’s about it being trusted. User generated content is 50% more trusted than other media, meaning that if a customer sees your video after it’s been shared by someone they know, they’re 50% more likely to take it seriously.2 So through encouraging happy customers to share your videos, you’re not only increasing the number of viewers who can engage with your 1.8 million word story, you’re increasing the level of trust that they have in your brand too.
Get your Product Videos Shared
Videos are shared 1200% more often than text and links combined.3 But there are steps that you can take to make sure that your video is shared by happy customers so that it goes as far as it can, to reach as many internet users as possible.
Video Compatibility
According to Invodo, 92% of mobile video viewers share video. Mobile users love video because it allows them to digest large amounts of information that may be difficult to read in text form on a small screen – so don’t exclude your biggest sharers! It’s really important that your product video can be played on a broad range of devices, including mobile. By using a video integration platform, you can be sure that your video can be easily played on all of these devices – thereby including everybody in the sharing revolution.
Engaging Content
It’s important that your video is something that users will want to share. DemoUp’s data shows that on average, customers will watch a video for between 30 – 120 seconds before their attention wanes. But time isn’t the only thing to consider: a really engaging 3 minute long video is going to have a much higher attention span than a boring 30 second video. It’s important to find a balance between these factors, so that the videos content is remarkable enough for users to want to share, but short enough that they maintain interest.
An example of a product video worth sharing is this one, created by Reer. The video works by evoking strong emotions in the viewer through the telling of a story – which wouldn’t be nearly as effective if it were told through text. The video tugs at the heartstrings of those who engage with babies and children – encouraging them to share the video with friends with children, who they believe that the video would benefit.
The SEO Bonus
By giving customers video content to share and recommend, you’re not only boosting your brand image and gaining customer trust – you’re impressing search engines. One of the key considerations in Google’s algorithms is how much authority your page has, and a big factor in determining the authority of your page is how many times other users have shared links to it. If your users are sharing links to your videos, it’s going to significantly improve the authority of your domain.
An important consideration if you want video shares to boost your SEO is that you embed a video so it’s linked to your domain name. A video that’s being hosted on YouTube will give all of the domain credit to YouTube and not to your own page – it’s something to bear in mind. A video integration platform will ensure that the video is properly embedded into your product page, helping your SEO efforts.
So in conclusion, it’s vital that you don’t underestimate the importance of user generated content. If you’re not already using product videos as an ecommerce merchant then it’s worth considering, because users are playing a huge role in your online marketing strategy – and what users want are product videos!
1. Forrester
2. Mashable
3. shmuelhoffmansblog.com
4. Image 1: Social Media Icons Copyright Sean MacEntee
5. Image 2: Mobile Phones Copyright Laura Bittner