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The Marketing Funnel
I’m sure as a marketer you are very familiar with a marketing funnel. In this blog I’m going to break down each of the five elements that make up a marketing funnel and look at what video type falls into each of the elements.
Just in case you haven’t come across the marketing funnel model I will quickly go over it. The model describes a prospects (a potential new customer) journey from their very first interaction with your brand right through the end goal of converting them into a returning customer and ideally a fan of your brand. As I mentioned above the marketing funnel is broken down into five elements –
- Awareness – this is the initial interaction a potential customer will have with your brand. Here you want to position yourself as a trusted leader in your sector so that the prospect likes the look of you and wants to explore your brand further.
- Consideration – once you have made the prospect feel comfortable with your brand you then want your marketing material to inform them about each of your products or services in more detail so they have a strong understanding of how you could help them.
- Conversion – This is the key stage you want a prospect to reach as they are making a purchase. Once they are the proud owner of your product or a user of your service you want to make their experience as easy as possible so customer service is key here.
- Loyalty – If they love your product and customer service they should become a loyal customer which means they keep coming back for more. But you can get complacent because people are fickle.
- Advocacy – advocacy is a fantastic point to reach as your customers are no effectively helping you with your marketing as they are actively recommending your products or services to others.
Video can be an extremely useful medium to use in all parts of a marketing funnel because they keep people’s attention for longer and you can portray a lot of information quickly and in creative ways. I’m going to return to each of the 5 levels and look at what type of videos can help you achieve success.
Awareness
In the first stage of the marketing funnel your target audience will no know little about you, if you are global popular brand they may be aware of your name/logo. So when deciding what types of video to produce you need to have this in the forefront of your mind. The best video to raise awareness of a brand is an brand awareness or aspirational promotional video. This video doesn’t need to go into depth about your offerings, it purely needs to create excitement about your brand in order to entice the audience to explore your other videos and marketing materials.
The first video I want to use has been out for awhile but it is a good example of how to create excitement around a brand without actually mentioning the brand or directly looking at it’s offerings. The film is called the The Escape and it was produced for BMW as an online film to create an excitement and buzz around their brand and cars. It’s the second time BMW has released a film of this type. The first was in 2001/2002 with a film called ‘The Hire’ which at the time was described as “the first big media event of 21st-century marketing.” and accrued more than 100 million views. The latest film features the 2017 BMW 5 series saloon being driven by Clive Owen. The idea was to cash in on the ever popular car chase scene with high adrenaline driving and excitement. The ‘takeaway’ here is that for a brand film to work well it’s important to put the story first because that is what will hook the viewer in and keep them watching. As soon as the audience gets a whiff of an obvious marketing or sales message the illusion will be shattered and the audience will be lost.
The second video I want to look at is a documentary produced by Patagonia. It features a handful of exceptional people that have achieved incredible feats of outdoor pursuits. Each person is a Patagonia customer and they have had their Patagonia clothing for many years. Despite the clothing being beat up each person has a connection with it and therefore repairs it each time so they don’t have to replace it. Through listening to each of the stories you realise that Patagonia clothing is built to last and the type of person who uses it is someone you would aspire to be. It’s a clever way to market your products because it portrays the quality, passion and values of the company without either of them being overly trust in your face.
Consideration
Once you have captured the imagination of your new prospect it’s time to give them more information about each of your products and to tell them what it might be like with your product or service in their life. These two goals are best achieved with two types of video. The humble product overview video and video testimonials or video case studies if you want to make it more in depth. Let’s take one at a time
Product videos – this is fairly self explanatory really, it’s a video that informs the viewer of the product or services features and explains how it could change your life. There is a variety of ways to present this information in a video but the example below is a particularly good one.
This video is a fantastic example because it clearly outlines the product and service, it even manages to do it in a humorous way and it explains how it will help you in your life, by saving money. It is one of the very few product promos that managed to go viral and the reason for that is because of how the creators managed to fit in comedy.
Video testimonials – we’re all human and one of the things that makes us human is our emotions, and it is this that makes the video testimonial a very powerful tool. Hearing or reading the words of someone else is good but when you see that person on screen telling their story, their facial expressions, actions and tone all heighten the message making it even more impactful. It adds credibility and builds trust in the product or service which is exactly what you want to happen.
This is a great testimonial video for a few reasons. 1) It is shot out and about in the environment that the product is designed to be in. 2) It is aspirational, for any budding photographers this is a great insight in to the work of a professional photographer and Kata sticks in your mind because of it. 3) The voiceover isn’t overly blatant about the product, you just know they are great bags because of the visuals and the the brief mentions of kata.
Conversion
This stage is where you convert the prospect into a paying customer. How do you do that with video? I hear you ask. Well there are two types of video that can help you here. Instructional videos are a great option as they provide added value and we all like to think we get something for free, they also help put you in a position of trust and show off your expertise.
I chose this example because it’s a very simple idea but done in a very creative way. Stop motion animation is one of the oldest animation techniques and it still wows audiences to this day. Imagine a menswear retailer who produces a series of videos like this, they would soon build up a following because the content is interesting and different. If the videos were branded with the companies logo viewers would most likely check out their website before any others and hopefully make a purchase.
Specific product videos are also a good option to reinforce why the prospect needs your product or service. These video can be extremely in depth and focus on the whole product/service of just a small part that you feel is particularly important.
This is a good example as it shows that companies of all sizes can benefit from product demo videos. Buying an Audi is not a cheap purchase so it’s important that they help their customers as much as possible. All the latest tech that is found in cars can be quite daunting to a lot of drivers, but this video explains and shows the process in a very clear and detailed way.
Loyalty
Once your customer has purchased a product from you for the first time it’s important to turn them in to a loyal customer. In order to do this you want to make them feel special and keep them up to date with any interesting company news, this could be new product releases, a series of how-to videos and general news about the industry.
Apple are masters of their craft and once you own an Apple product you are unlikely to go elsewhere. This video looks over the features of the iPhone X and is voiced by the John Ive the Chief design officer so you feel like you’re getting an insider’s view on the new device. It doesn’t sell, it only informs so current customers won’t feel pushed in to buying the device but after watching it they will most likely want it.
FAQ videos are another avenue to explore when turning customers into loyal customers. Once you buy a product you don’t then know everything there is to know about the product and it may be the case that you want something slightly different. If you can offer your customers flexibility then loyalty is sure to follow. We’re going to visit DJI for the next video, DJI are one of the leading companies in the film industry and pretty much have the drone and gimbal market wrapped up. Their products are fantastic (we use some of them on a regular basis) but when new products are released even the most seasoned pros may need a helping hand for the initial setup. This is where the DJI Tutorials YouTube Channel comes into play. They have produced a huge number of tutorial/FAQ videos for a variety of their products, the one below explains how to operate their new camera gimbal, the DJI Ronin-S. This video is a great example of how to deliver the relevant information and it also shows that these types of videos can be creative. The backdrop for the example has been designed nicely and reflects the high tech nature of their products and the industry they mainly operate in.
Advocacy
This stage is where your customers become more than just customers, they become fans and once they start trying to create awareness about your company they become ambassadors. This is hugely beneficial for you because it results in free marketing. There isn’t a specific video type that helps here as it all depends on how well you have done in the previous stages. If you have engaged, educated, helped and made your customers feel special then advocacy should happen.
This video is a great one to finish on as it shows how TD Canada Trust thanked their customers. It uses emotion to great effect because it is the most powerful form of marketing
I hope you have found this interesting and if you’re currently looking for a video production company to produce some marketing videos for your business please contact Will or Andy to discuss your requirements.