3 Companies Succeeding With Video Across the Buyer’s Journey
Video across the marketing funnel is sometimes a foreign and abstract concept. Often times, video is left out of the conversation of strategic content marketing despite video being easier to consume for an audience. Video is often uploaded and forgotten about, with marketers crossing their fingers that it will hopefully succeed. But while video is being incorporated into strategy more and more, it still lags behind the strategic placement of traditional text-based formats that have dominated content marketing strategies such as blogs, eBooks, white papers, case studies, and more.
Video can be used to not only engage an audience on social media, but is also effective in driving engagement in website visitors, converting those visitors into subscribers, and hopefully, customers.
In this blog, we’ll share examples of 3 companies that are currently using video successfully across the buyer's journey; harnessing the power of visual storytelling to engage their audience at every step of their journey, from impression to conversion.
Ring
Ring, a billion dollar home security startup that was initially rejected on ABC’s Shark Tank, uses video to not only build a brand, but create a community of ambassadors. They even actively seek out video content from their customers:
User-generated video content allows Ring to connect with their customers and have a steady stream of video content that not only entertains, but tells a story about the benefits of their product. They use this content in a video hub on their website that is filled with categories that are related to their product. Everything from anti-package theft to family & pet safety is featured:
At the top of the funnel, user-generated content is invaluable for any brand. But the next step in the buyer’s journey is featuring video about the actual product. Ring is a visual product, which means they need visual imagery to tell the story of how their product adds value to any home. They do this with their product pages when someone is close to a conversion:
AdRoll
AdRoll, a digital advertising platform, uses full-funnel tactics to engage their audience with video. From LinkedIn to webinars to case studies, they have a touchpoint with video for each stage of the buyer's journey. Here, they share a customer story snippet on LinkedIn and point to the full case study on their website:
By doing this, they drive the traffic to their own website where visitors can engage more with other assets such as case studies and webinars, should they want to dive deeper into the product.
AdRoll's strategy with video allows their audience to learn visually. At the top of the funnel, they quickly communicate their product and successes across social. Then quickly move visitors to their own page where they can engage more with additional assets that will further educate them about the product, hopefully resulting in a demo or trial request.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp, one of the largest email service providers in the world, has masterfully implemented video in their marketing strategy. Their video series, Wi-Finders, is the perfect example of using video to tell a story and distribute video effectively. They use short video snippets on social to entice their audience to watch the full library of videos produced, hosted on their website:
After Mailchimp has captured someone's attention at the top of the funnel, they also feature compelling case study videos on their website. Video case studies humanize the words behind the stories and let potential customers connect with others who are succeeding. By taking these success stories and turning them into videos, Mailchimp has created a resource for sales teams to reference that visually tells why they should choose Mailchimp.
While these companies are a mix of both B2B and B2C brands, they all follow best practice for running video across the buyer’s journey. They give their audience the chance to quickly consume on social, providing the opportunity to engage more video assets on their website. They then use case stories and webinars to let visitors to dive deeper into their product, if they so choose. Finally, they use video to convert through product pages and demo requests. Strategic video marketing consists of providing prospects with valuable content and allowing them to choose how they want to learn about your product or service, and video has proven time and time again to be one of the most effective ways of driving that engagement.