4 Ways to Use Videos to Generate More Sales on an Ecommerce Website

Ultimately the goal behind incorporating videos into an ecommerce website is to increase conversions and generate more sales – that much is a given. However what many fail to realize is that there are a number of ways to go about this.

Contrary to what you may expect there is no ‘one size fits all’ way to use videos to generate more sales on an ecommerce website. Instead, there are several key parts of your marketing strategy that videos could help to improve. Cumulatively these improvements can help to boost your conversion rate by leaps and bounds.

While the precisely ways in which you will want to use videos in your ecommerce website will depend largely on the type of website you’re running and your marketing strategy – here are 4 ways that could have a big impact on your sales:

• Product demonstrations

Normally located on the pages of individual products, product demonstrations are an excellent way to provide useful information to potential customers. In many cases these customers will probably look for that information anyway before making a purchase, so providing it to them on the product page itself makes sense rather than having them go elsewhere and maybe come back later.

Typically the best product demonstrations focus on facts and are non-promotional in nature. At most they will help to explain what makes the product unique and what benefits it can provide, but in a distinctly non-salesy fashion. Additionally the type of video should suit the product – for example you should use the best screen recorder for Mac if you’re creating a demonstration involving apps.

• Customer testimonials

Testimonials have always been a powerful sales tool as they can let potential customers know what people who have bought the product think about it. As you can imagine video testimonials are all the more convincing, seeing as they firmly establish the identity of the person who is giving the testimonial.

Although different ecommerce testimonials incorporate videos of customer testimonials in different ways, the style that tend to perform best is when it is a story of that customer’s specific experience with the product. In short it should let others know why the customer wanted to buy it, what they hoped it could do for them, and how it managed to fulfill those needs.

• Brand identity videos

The ecommerce websites of today are a far cry from those of yesteryear, and most try to project a unique identity. That is something that you can use videos to further, and sell potential customers on the vision and values that your brand represents.

Once again personal storytelling elements perform best in these videos as they put a human face to the brand as opposed to pushing a faceless identity. In some cases this type of video can even draw on customer testimonials to strengthen its case and solidify the brand identity that is being built.

• Welcome videos

Never underestimate the value of a warm welcome – and what better way to greet first time videos than with a personal welcome video? It may sound clunky, but it can help your ecommerce website to engage first-time customers and give them a sense of what to expect from your website and the type of products it provides.

As you can imagine a welcome video should be brief and to the point. Its goal isn’t to make sales directly but rather to engage and interest potential customers by giving them a glimpse into what your website has to offer. It could be positioned after the sign-up is complete or even as part of a welcome email, but that will depend on how your website is structured.

Between those four options you should be starting to see how videos can be implemented in a variety of ways across your ecommerce website. Additionally you would probably have also realized that the most effective ways tend to be as part and parcel of your existing marketing strategy so that it works in tandem with it and improves its results.

Make no mistake there is no reason to throw out your entire existing marketing strategy and come up with a new one. Instead you should look at it carefully and figure out how best to start incorporating videos into it, and then tweak it as you do so. By doing so you can include the best parts of your current strategy and build upon them further.

Always remember though that as much as the four methods listed above tend to have the biggest impact on sales – it is subjective, and you don’t need to tie yourself in knots trying to include all of them. Focus on the areas that you feel can be included in your existing strategy, and then think about if and how to incorporate videos in other ways later on.

This guest post was written by Louis Pasture.