Below is an excerpt from the webinar “Why retailers should go all-in with videos?” where InVideo co-founder, Sanket Shah, was in conversation with iZooto co-founder, Vivek Khandelwal.
Sanket Shah, CEO, and founder of InVideo brought in the concept of video marketing recently. While being at the University of Michigan, he enjoyed creating videos and pondered over the cost of production. He went on to form InVideo along with two other founders. The company is supported by CNN, Sony Music, Network 18, CNBC, Money Control, Republic TV, and several others. Video formats are handy for online marketing campaigns as they are great presentations for your brands and business.
“We live in a video, the only difference is that it is 3D. Videos are an extension of the world we live in.”
– Sanket Shah, CEO and Co-founder, InVideo
How did this become your point of interest?
People are moving on to short-form content and battling short attention spans. We interviewed around 250-300 people and asked them whether offline presentations are helpful, or videos are a better way to feel connected. One can instantly connect through visuals more than just reading, and that is also what the study found.
Why aren’t retailers more keen on adopting videos for their marketing?
First, it requires education to build a market, takes time for people to understand, adopt, and to start using it. People are still trying to figure out how and why videos work. Also, people get the notion that making videos is expensive and they require professional expertise and time. An unprofessional would look at this as if it is like a song or a movie and dismiss the idea of making a video. But, videos are getting a popular platform on Instagram and YouTube. YouTube is the second-most viewed site on the internet. So, people are adopting videos, it is just not at the pace at which we imagine.
How should retailers go about video marketing?
These days, websites are your storefronts on the internet. So, everything inside your website also has to give an experience similar to that of being in a physical store. Retailers or E-tailers, for that matter, should make videos keeping in mind the in-store experience that customers have.
If I were to go to a store and look for a washing machine, the salesman would probably show me how that machine works and what were the top 5 selling products in that category. There is no reason why I shouldn’t have the same experience while shopping online. So, retailers should be looking at answering questions and giving a similar experience to customers like that of an in-store experience.
Take a look at this Snapdeal ad that I made in under an hour. It is like looking at a ‘For Sale’ section in a store but from the comfort of your house.
Who should be looking at video as a marketing strategy?
It isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy. You have to know what the customers want, the budget, and the resources that you have. I am sure you, at iZooto, must have also suggested that your clients tailor their strategies according to their needs.
It depends on the company whether it wants to run a large-scale strategy or a small-scale strategy. You need to know the kind of video that has to be made, how much money needs to be spent in creating the videos. Every marketer needs to look at the marketing strategy of the company and its brand value. And that is where technology like InVideo can help you get the job done.
Understanding the difference between Hero, Hub, and Hygiene content
Hero content requires a lot of money where we are talking about big companies with more abundant resources pull A-list celebrities to do their bidding. But, hero content needs to be followed-up with hub and hygiene content.
Hub content means building your brand with peripheral content. These type of videos fit into the budget of a mid-market e-commerce business. They can produce instructional videos, detailed FAQs, etc. InVideo can be of great help here.
Hygiene content is where the marketer can take control in his or her hands and easily create Instagram stories, review videos, testimonial videos, product slideshows, etc. This is more functional video content.
When would be the perfect time to take videos seriously?
Now would be the time to invest in videos. Because video makes it possible for people to convey information naturally and does not require a large budget. Start today. Take the time to understand the idea. It will take you a couple of months to understand what is working and why it is working. All you need is content that you can transform into gripping videos.
What are the different types of videos that e-commerce businesses can create?
Product videos and their advantages – where your consumers can learn. Create product videos that focus on the features of the product, concentrate on how the product relieves the pain points that the consumer may encounter. One can create 200 videos for 30 dollars a month, integrate various APIs, transfer data. InVideo is certainly a platform that can help you do it.
This kind of video marketing will help with conversion and distribution when you expose your products’ instructional videos.
Focus on the product and discuss it equitably. Focus on the benefits that you provide for the customers and the problems that you so smoothly solve. What this does is assists your customers in making a decision and improves your discoverability in search engines.
Microwave buying guide:
This video is a digital version of going into a store and being greeted by a salesman who takes you through the different products that they have. They will ask you about your requirements and your budget and try to give you the best deals within those constraints. They will also give you a crash course on how to use a microwave. This video does just that in under a minute!
Review video:
Imagine having small review videos like this in your Instagram stories. It will not only boost sales but it will also help you build better relationships with your customers. Ads like this, don’t take more than 5 minutes to create, which is generally the time you take to update your Instagram stories.
What are video ads and why are they so popular right now?
An ad is just like a kiosk at a store. However, this kiosk is custom-made for you because it is digital. You are converting a physical ad into the best content form which is video. For those few seconds, your consumer has your undivided attention.
Here is a Snapdeal 6 second ad that talks about the most crucial points using good music, captivating visuals, and minimal text.
The advantages are:
• Speak directly to your consumer’s psyche
• Convey more information in a short time – precisely in 6 seconds
• Works best with shorter attention spans
• Run micro-video ads that are more specific to different users
• Increase brand awareness
• Higher SEO rankings
• Real-time Interaction
The Facebook experiment:
Facebook ran 3 tests.
They tried combinations of static and video ads in 3 different tests. Running static ads resulted in 1.7x the visitors but running a video ad and then a static ad resulted in 1.3x the conversions. So, a marketer should do a combination of things when deciding strategy.
The important thing about Facebook ads is that one can use a custom audience to retarget people who have watched 3 seconds, 10 seconds, or some percentage of your video and retarget them depending on that again.
What is the best video marketing strategy for e-commerce businesses?
Based on different research and analyses one has to decide where they fit into the market and to make sure that they have a consistent budget to follow up as well.
Create brand guidelines specifically for video. Once you have the guidelines, make sure you and your team follow them religiously. Plan well on what you want to do. Consistency builds reputation, trustworthiness.
Take a step back and determine where you want to do video, monitor results of video marketing, evaluate all the information, and cater to the target market.
How many shoppers are watching the videos, how long are shoppers engaging with the videos? How are shoppers behaving on pages with videos compared to pages without? Do videos impact the number of time shoppers spends on your websites?
When you answer these questions and identify changes in shoppers’ behaviors, you can quickly determine how to proceed with a video marketing strategy. This review and revisit make excellent enhancements to the current e-commerce marketing efforts.
To watch the full version of this webinar, visit iZooto.
