Guest Post: Wanna Make a Video Marketer Cringe? Just Say the C-word
By Andy Wilson-SVP Product & Marketing Management, Cinsay.com
Video marketers love to talk engagement. And since video is the most engaging content form, any marketer worth their salt has a stack of video links and can quickly shout from the rooftops the engagement stats of their latest online viral video campaign. But, when the conversation turns to conversion—how many of the engaged viewers actually purchase products as a result of their engagement—the shouts are replaced with blank stares.
Yes, conversion—the less-glamorous sister of engagement—is the most dreaded c-word in marketing, yet it promises the most rewards.
Engagement is fairly simple; every video service tells you how many views your videos have received. You can easily post a video and watch with excitement as your views pour in.
But consider this: Only 1 in 500 videos by brands get more than 500,000 views. So, engagement may (or may not) get you glamour, but conversion (definitely) gets you ROI, and that’s the bottom line in the business of social commerce.
Many small businesses (who are actually experiencing more success in some areas of social commerce than big companies) are creating humble video material and marketing it to their target audience. They aren’t spending lots of money on video production and their viewership is modest. To an overzealous marketer who sees engagement as the measure of a successful campaign, these video campaigns are flops; but, in fact, these videos are producing more ROI than the biggest internet sensations.
Here’s the trick:
- Make it engaging. Use video. (If you need to know why, go here.) Read up on the 5 motivations people have for sharing content and make sure your content elicits at least one of these reactions.
- Make it shareable. Adults spend more than 70% of their online time on social networks sharing engaging content with their peers. Make sure your content’s platform makes it simple for people to pick it up and share it across the web—wherever they choose.
- Make it convert. Instead of becoming preoccupied with creating a viral video, focus on minimizing the barriers to conversion. One of the biggest barriers to conversions is transaction abandonment due to complicated checkout process and multiple click requirements. Use an all-in-one social commerce CMS that simplifies the process—for you and your video viewers.
Before you go on your way, keep in mind that each industry has different standards when it comes to conversion rates, so the best place to start to improve your conversion rate right now is to calculate your current conversion rate (views your content received/how many total purchases were made) and then set goals to increase it.
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Andy Wilson is SVP of Product & Marketing Management at Cinsay.com. Cinsay has created a next generation eCommerce, viewer interactive, video-based platform for any size businesses. Cinsay’s SaaS based technology enables anyone to sell products, capture donations, and generate leads all inside the patented Smart Store. Cinsay also manages end-to-end social media and blogger campaigns through its ten million plus blogger network. Customers are offered a complete turnkey business via merchant account services as well as an exclusive on-demand solution featuring dozens of personal, brandable products like t-shirts, caps, mugs and iPhone covers. Self-managed and managed customers benefit from Cinsay’s in-depth reporting tools and real-time statistical data. Cinsay’s embeddable platform is compatible with web and mobile HTML5 devices and is highly scalable via its enterprise-level hosting and distribution network. www.cinsay.com
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Published: June 5, 2012 By:
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