With everything and everyone going digital, it's no surprise that businesses and marketers are finding new ways to spread their message and promote themselves and their brand. 

As a business owner, you want to keep that competitive edge over others in your industry while increasing brand awareness. You might have a great website already, so many you're wondering how it could get even better. Here's all you have to do: 

Add video. It's efficient and incredibly effective. Videos are the ultimate triple threat: your audience can hear you, read your body language, and see visual aids. Those 3 factors are crucial to earning the trust of your targeted audience.  Now, let's take a look at the 3 reasons why you need to include video on your business's website. 

Videos are Popular

In our fast-paced world, people aren't taking the time to read lengthy articles about your company or the specs of a certain product they are interested in purchasing.  The ways content and marketing materials are being consumed are changing. 

In fact, more than 90% of consumers access video content on the web. Not only does video make your website look aesthetically appealing, but it makes content easier to consume. Instead of taking 5 minutes to read an article, your video could convey the same message in 2 minutes. your audience is much more likely to engage with your brand after watching a 2 minute video as opposed to reading a lengthy article and then taking even more time to engage with you. 

Think about the one billion people who visit YouTube each month. Those people want to watch videos about everything. Videos are making their lives easier - why Google something if you can learn about it on YouTube?

If your video is found on Google searches and on YouTube, you're just one step closing to placing your brand right where you want it: in front of your targeted audience. Expanding your distribution tactics for your video is easier through YouTube because it links directly to people's social media and email accounts. Sharing your brand's video is as simple as a click of a button. 

Not only is your content more readily accessible on multiple marketing platforms, but your content is accessible from the palm of your audience's hand. Videos are easy to view on mobile devices so your brand can be everywhere your customer's may be. You'll reach more people if you include mobile users in your marketing strategy. Reading an article on a phone can get frustrating because the font may be too small, or you are forced to scroll over and over again to read the whole thing. Videos are compatible on mobile devices, making the content easier to digest. 

Videos Make for a Great User Experience

The number one goal for any marketing strategy should be to cater to your audience. You want to provide them with the best resources and products to solve all their dilemmas and touch on their pain points. If the user experience is the top priority for your marketing strategy, then adding videos should be the top priority for your website. 

A video adds an extra layer of supplement material that will allow your audience to connect with your product. You don't have to feature a video about each product or create new a video whenever there's a new release or company announcement.  These videos can be used for a few different wats to connect to your customers: 

• Demonstrate a product - Providing a "How-to" video that describes your services or the special features of your product will be more appealing to your audience than having them read a confusing user's manual.  This is an easy way to explain how your product works and more importantly, show them how it works. Giving your audience audio and visual instructions will reach a broader group of people. Studies have shown that visitors are 85% more likely to buy a product after seeing someone explain it first. 
• Tell a story - People connect to stories. Use a video to introduce your company and tell the brand's story. This will turn your brick-and-mortar company into something more relatable and humanistic.  This way, your customers will feel like they are doing business with real people as opposed to just another company. Telling a story will set your brand apart from the competition.  
• Share industry expertise - Videos can be a great way for you to feature expert "hosts" to talk about the industry - how it's changing, current trends, etc. Having a third party expert of the video will add credibility to your brand and also help your company build business connections.  If your viewers see that an industry expert is talking about your company or something related to your brand, they will trust your company more. 
• Bring testimonials to life - When it comes to building credibility and trust with your customers, one of the most effective ways to do this is including customer testimonials. Written testimonials are great - but getting that satisfied customer behind a camera to give a verbal testimonial will work even better. This gives the testimonial a voice, life, and the viewer will be able to connect with your satisfied customers. 

Humanizing your brand connects to your audience in a way that simulates a face-to-face interaction. That kind of attention to detail will boost customer engagement and keep your audience happy. 

Videos Increase Sales

Well, if that isn't enough to sell you on creating videos for your website, I'm not sure what is! 

Videos are capable of increasing your website's traffic because it will encourage people to stay in your site longer. Google will recognize this and think your site is more important, so you will begin to rank higher in Google searches. This means you will start to see more organic traffic on your website because the video is driving web searchers to your website, rather than going elsewhere. 

Websites with videos see a higher engagement rate, higher click-through rate, and higher conversion rate. All those factors play into creating more business for your company.  A prospect is more likely to purchase a product from you if they engage with your brand and click-through more of your sales funnel or lead magnet. 

Not only will you get more traffic from a higher rank, but Google searches offer video as a part of integrated results.  If you have a website, Google will recognize that and your website will show up in more searches. 

Another useful way videos increase sales is using your videos to self-promote and provide clickable links on your video that will lead to your other products and potentially lead to an upsell.  Cross-selling and upselling your products is a great way to keep your customer's engaged with your brand and a smart way to engage new customers by offering a variety of useful products.  

Utilizing an experienced video production team to create these videos for your business will help boost customer engagement, increase your SEO by encouraging visitors to spend more time on your site, and can be final push needed to convert visitors into customers.  Having a professionally produced video will transform your website into an interactive, vibrant site that will keep your customers coming back for more. 

If you want to stand out from your competition, talk to the team at Sheffield about producing your corporate videos! They'll walk you through the whole process and, with little effort on your part, Sheffield will deliver a final product that will create a memorable impression with your target audience.