When you purchase products online, you want to be sure that they are right for you. Ecommerce store owners know that when it comes to product images, a picture is worth a thousand words. As it turns out, our brains are able to process visual images much faster than blocks of text, which may be part of the reason why we are all drawn to striking images and beautiful works of art.
Sometimes, though, a picture just isn’t enough to sell and explain the features of a particular product. This is where product videos come in.
Product Videos Sell
The most basic, but by no means the least important type of product video is one that provides a brief introduction to the features and unique benefits of a product. If you sell vacuum cleaners, for example, you can create a simple video that discusses the features of a particular type, and shows someone using the product.
Many large online retailers, including Zappos, have used product videos to increase their rankings, as well as sales. According to ReelSEO, there are nearly 30k Zappos videos currently indexed in Google, which translates into a significant search engine rankings boost for the retailer.
Here is an example of a product video from I Do Engravables.com.
Product Review Videos Inform
Product review videos differ from the other types of product videos in that they are often (but not always) user-created. This usually means that someone other than the manufacturer of the product expresses their opinion of the product in a short video.
Instead of reading through pages of product reviews, your customers can watch user-created videos. Not sure if there are already user-created product review videos for your products? Try searching online or doing a search in YouTube. If videos exist, you can link to them or feature them on your reviews page.
If no videos exist, reach out to your customers on your site, and via Facebook and Twitter and encourage them to submit short, user-created product review videos. Having a contest and awarding prizes to the best videos will not only give you videos that you can use, it can also help to generate publicity for your site and improve your customer loyalty.
As illustrated in the example from Headblade below, product review videos can also sometimes take the form of celebrity endorsements.
Product How-To Videos Explain
If your customers become frustrated by the product instructions (or lack thereof) that they receive from you, where will they turn to get help? Most customers will go to the site where they ordered the product, and if you have how-to product videos on your site and on your own YouTube or other video sharing site channel, you can provide them with the help that they need.
Product how-to videos don’t have to be involved or complex. In this how-to video example, from Fence Max.com, multiple uses for the Magna-Latch are presented, as well as simple instructions for installing and usage.
Getting Started Is Easy
While some retailers use expensive equipment, sets, and even dramatic storylines and special effects in their product videos, the good news is that the average small business owner can create a video using a video camera or basic recording software and a video editing software program.
Once your video is ready, you can upload it to your YouTube, Vimeo, or other video sharing channel, and showcase it on your site as well.
Just as you optimize your website and your product images, you can also optimize your product videos. SEO video optimization isn’t a complicated process, and basically involves adding keywords to the video title, description, and tags and video sitemap creation and submission. The results, however, can be dramatic.
If you haven’t created a product video yet, give it a try. Whether it is a basic, brief demonstration of a product’s features and how it works, an instructional how-to, a product review, or some hybrid combination of the three, you’ll be surprised at how quickly your customers will begin engaging with it, commenting on it, and hopefully, purchasing your products because of it.
Miva