Video makes people buy things. You can tell them all day long how great something is, but when they can see if for themselves, it’s a whole new story. I know for a fact that video tends to create higher conversions on my salespages.
My husband is getting into gold prospecting (we live about 10 minutes from Coloma, where gold was first discovered in California, in the heart of gold rush country). He and my brother watched the YouTube video below, and started telling me about this amazing gold panning machine they just had to have. It sounded like, to tell the truth, utter BS to me.
Until I watched the video…
The thing is, they were trying to TELL me how cool it was, trying to “sell” it to me. Once I watched it work, I wanted it too.
(Yes, we now won the Desert Fox – and it works like mad… Now we need to find some spots with more gold so it can pan it out for us)!
So that got me thinking about the power of video – even old school video like the Desert Fox demo. SEEING how something works makes people buy. For a product manufacturer or affiliate of a product, it’s a no brainer.
Then, I got an email from a guy who listed to a call I did for private coaching clients of friends’ of mine. I talked about social media and video, and encouraged everyone to get their videos on YouTube ASAP. Because it ranks. Check this out:
Hi Michelle, I am with the [edited] program, and listened to you with great interest on the rescent training call. I am particularly interested on the video promotion aspect and have moved in that direction. I have since made a video promoting a [edited] that I have an interest in distributing. On uploading it to You Tube our website was No1 and No 4 on Google the next day. It was a niche term I searched, but great none the less.
Video works to get Google rank, not just views on YouTube itself!
There are other video sites that tend to rank highly as well. More on that in a later post. But YouTube is, thus far, the most frequently high-ranking video site.
Finally, I was putting together a demo site for the site building script I told you about. I want to show you all the features it has, this is something I adore and will be using heavily in the future. Anyway, the site is about cosmetics and beauty, and the site builder automatically pulls in YouTube videos for additional content (if you want it to). So I was checking out my home page and clicked one of the videos and ended up on this (guys, it’s about putting on eye makeup, but check it out anyway):
This lady does a whole series showing women how to create fancy eye makeup looks. Check out the view counts on her videos – she’s getting a lot of traffic – and has 29,735 people subscribing to her videos.
She’s selling via education. Doing eye makeup like she shows is something I’ve never been good at, but watching her videos I can SEE how it’s done. And she lists, in the description, exactly what products she used. Her profile provides a link to a source to buy those products, and tells you to use her referral code for a free gift. It’s not a direct affiliate link (and she’d make more money if it was), but she’s also, by the looks of things, getting her own website up – which should be chock full of affiliate links for the products she demonstrates and teaches people how to use. I can only imagine hw much she’ll make with that many subscribers and views.
She’s used the YouTube platform as a complete business builder. She put up good content and has developed a vast and loyal following because of it.
Do video. It doesn’t have to be perfectly produced, it doesn’t have to be scripted and sanitized. Just do a dang video, durnit! It’s incredibly powerful!
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{ 12 comments }
Video marketing has always been something I would like to look into further but…and please forgive my ignorance… is it just a case of shooting with a digital camcorder and uploading? Is it really that simple? And what about these clips I see with people demonstrating things on a computer screen- how is that done??
Tony – yes, nowadays it is as simple as shooting the video and uploading.
For screen demos, I use Camtasia, which is from a company called TechSmith. It’s got a 30 day free trial to play with it.
Isn’t that eye make-up video wonderful? I mean I don’t even use eye-makeup that dramatic… but I was mesmerized by the video and the process.
I have about a thousand ideas for videos in my niches that this type of video will work wonderful for.
I mean… how personal can you get? You feel like you’re getting to know her in the girls bathroom. She gets in your face with hers!
Just amazing.
Thanks for sharing these video ideas!
I don’t wear makeup that dramatic wither – but should I have an occasion, I now know where I’ll turn to learn! She does a great job of making it simple in ALL her videos.
Hi Michelle,
You are so right. Video sells things like crazy. From independent experiments, I found that using video on a website increases sales by a minimum of 100%.
Talk again soon.
Enjoy your day!
Terry
TheBusinessProfessional.com
Hi Michelle!
Thanks for the post. Video is extremely powerful indeed.
See you soon, hopefully next time on Justin.tv
Fiatalon Gazdagon
One cannot understate the importance of video today. However, it’s not the video that actually sells… it’s the relationship the video creates between the buyer and seller. My company has worked with people selling items over $7,000, using simple, well crafted videos. I’ve got a bunch of tips up over at http://www.videopaste.com/tips/ on how to use video effectively in today’s market. Great article.
Michelle – I’ve been using video for several months now. The title of your video can make a world of difference. I uploaded a video 3 weeks ago and have 22 views. I immediately re-uploaded it once again using a different title and have 344 views. Exact same video. So if your not getting many views, re-upload using a different title.
Hi Michelle,
A couple of comments on your excellent observation:
In the first video, yes…SEEING how something works is powerful but one of the main factors that makes this video SELL is because they “showed the last thing first”. Very early on, I saw gold flakes dropping into a container. From that point on, I could SEE myself actually doing it and in possession of the product. I was hooked to watch the rest of the presentation and explore the other features and benefits.
In the second video, the girl is “telling her story”. Hey, I don’t wear makeup but I immediately felt I knew, liked, and trusted this person because of her wonderful demonstration in telling her story.
I would submit that “Videos” in and of themselves do NOT make people buy…videos that engage the emotional responses that these two examples nailed make people buy.
Hi Michelle, this is the guy you mention earlier who got the No1 and 4 spot. Just a couple more things about video. The Video description you put in, must start with your url, it is clickable and appears first on the You Tube mini description and on the Google listings. Another thing that has brought a lot of traffic is to go to a popular forum about your topic and post a comment like “what do you think about this video, here is the You Tube link” one such comment brought 300 visitors in a day! If there is a video similar to your topic that has a lot of views, copy their tags when you upload, and then your video will appear in the You Tube “related video” list for instant exposure. With those “Tips of the Day” bye for now. Michael
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for all the great information you provide! I really appreciate the free blueprint report too.
I am about to get started with video but am having a struggle deciding whether I want to “wing it” so it is more natural, or write a script to use… decisions, decisions!
Have a great day,
Lisa
Michelle,
Thanks as always for your good information. Just fyi it seems the goldpanner video has been removed from youtube and the link on this post, therefore, is no longer visible.
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