Using Video to Increase Conversion Rates

Jeremy Scott wrote an excellent piece today about the importance of goal setting when creating videos that convert. In his piece, he wrote that conversions are not the same thing as sales; too often, business decision makers use these terms interchangeably, and marketers need to remind them that there are other ways to measure if a viewer converts besides an increase in sales.

In addition to sales, increasing web traffic, increasing awareness and share of voice, and changing perception are three other common forms of conversion that your video can help you increase.

As Mr. Scott mentioned, a producer should not start any video project without having a clear idea of what the goals of the project are. Likewise, you should not launch a video without fully understanding where your starting position is. Key questions to ask before launch are as follows:

1. What is my current site traffic like? How are visitors interacting with my website?
2. Approximately how much traffic do my competitors get?
3. Besides my company website, what is my brand presence online? What is your competitors' online brand presence?
4. How often is my industry discussed on blogs, forums, or social networks? Who is doing the talking?
5. How often are my competitors discussed on blogs, forums, or social networks? Is the sentiment positive, negative, or a mixture of both?
6. How often is my business discussed on blogs, forums, or social networks? Is the sentiment positive, negative, or a mixture of both?

Web traffic is the easiest metric to measure. If you have analytics installed on your site, you can easily see where your traffic is coming from and what paths the users take once on your site. Using Google Analytics, you can set up goals and funnels to see how many people perform a certain action on your site (like sign up for a newsletter or submit a form), then see how they got to that point with funnel visualization. By connecting the entrance source to the goal, you can see how many people not only came to your site from the video, but if those visitors performed a desirable action.

Using sites like compete.com and quantcast.com, you can obtain some basic information about your competitors' sites as well. Although not completely accurate, this data can give you a good gauge for how you stack up against your competitors, and if your video marketing efforts are helping you increase your share of voice.

If you a new company, and your goal is to merely get some brand recognition and establish differentiation. Creating a memorable and relevant video is an easy way to increase awareness for your brand. Because video is compact and transferable, you can post video content in multiple sites and increase your exposure.

We recommend posting content to multiple video shares, posting on your social networks, and submitting to social bookmarking sites. Track your awareness by views on these sites. There are several free tools to monitor your mentions, including Google Alerts, Twitter search, and Social Mention. There are also several tools that are available for a low monthly fee and offer more robust ways to monitor the web.

How do you measure if you've changed the way a person thinks about your brand? Perception or sentiment can be measured by listening to your audience. Often, when your brand awareness increases through video, people will begin to talk about your content and your brand. Listen to them and interact. Use social networks as a customer service channel to respond to advocates and critics. Interact with viewers in the comments section on your video shares. You can create conversations in the comments that will extend your brand's message beyond the video.

Traffic, awareness, and perception often do lead to sales, but if increased sales is the only conversion rate you are measuring, you are probably missing opportunities to build your brand and create advocates. By starting a video project with clear goals, establishing a starting point for measurement, measuring your results, and acting upon those results, you can create a successful video campaign to increase your conversion rates, whatever they may be.