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7 Video Production Tips to Boost eCommerce Sales

Written and researched by experts at AvadaLearn more about our methodology

By Sam Nguyen

CEO Avada Commerce

Drive 20-40% of your revenue with Avada
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With over 2 billion people who purchased goods or services online in 2020 alone, eCommerce has become an irreplaceable part of the retail framework worldwide. That same year, e-retail sales reached an astonishing 4.2 trillion dollars, and it’s not letting up anytime soon.

So, how do you set yourself apart and keep your business afloat in this highly competitive market? Unfortunately, offering a quality product or a service is simply not enough. You need to capture your audience’s attention and you need to do it fast.

This is where eCommerce video marketing comes in. A video is a great tool for bringing your product or service closer to your customers, increasing your brand awareness, and boosting your sales.

In collaboration with one of the best video production companies, we’ve created a list of seven easy-to-follow tips on how to make videos that bridge the gap between in-store and online shopping and drive sales for your eCommerce business.

Here are the steps we’ll cover:

  1. Identify your target audience
  2. Decide what types of eCommerce videos work best for you
  3. Make sure your videos are SEO optimized
  4. Exploit user-generated content videos (UGC)
  5. Go live
  6. Add emotions to your videos
  7. Incorporate videos in your eCommerce marketing strategy

Let’s get started!

1. Identify Your Target Audience

Like any other marketing strategy, a video marketing strategy also starts with identifying your target audience. You need to have a clear insight into your buyer personas to recognize the kind of content your audience wants to consume.

The information you should collect when identifying your target audience includes:

  • Demographic data – age, gender, ethnicity, income, race, etc. This information will help you understand your audience’s background.
  • Geographic data
  • Socio-demographic data – lifestyle, social class, hobbies, interests, beliefs, etc. This information will provide you with a more in-depth analysis of your audience and help you tailor your videos to drive interest and engagement.

One of the most useful tools that can help you understand your audience better is Google Analytics. This tool will provide you with a detailed report, containing the following information:

  • Where the traffic comes from
  • Which content on your website works and which doesn’t
  • Which keywords you are ranking for
  • Where incoming traffic lands
  • Which channels are performing the best

Before you launch your video marketing campaign, make sure you are creating content that is valuable to your audience. Upon seeing your videos, you want them to think: “ This is just what I was looking for!”

2. Decide What Types of eCommerce Videos Work Best for Your Brand

Typically, we can divide eCommerce videos into these seven categories:

  • Product close-up
  • Product demo
  • Testimonials
  • Explainers
  • Interactive
  • SEO/Founder’s message
  • Lifestyle

Let’s examine these categories in more detail.

Product close-up

Close-up videos serve to bring your product closer to your audience by presenting it from different angles in detail and pointing out its specific features. This way, you allow your viewers to examine your product and make a more calculated decision before buying it.

Product demo

Product demo videos typically feature a speaker showing how your product works and describing its top features. These videos should explain to your viewers why your product is the best solution or answer to their problems.

Testimonials

What better way to convince your audience to buy your product than to offer them your satisfied customers’ testimonials? Social proof is one of the best tools you can use to demonstrate the value of your product.

When you give people evidence of how your product effectively solves problems for other people, you help your audience bridge the “trust gap” in their customer journey. Testimonials and reviews are often the key factors that drive a customer to conversion.

Explainer

Explainer videos might be the right choice for you if you sell products or services that aren’t instantly understood. Unlike the product demo, this type of video concentrates on explaining the reasons why your product is the perfect solution for a specific problem and how to use it properly. If your product is complicated and has loads of different use cases, then leveraging an AI voice generator is a key way to create lots of different videos in a short amount of time.

Interactive

Interactive videos might be your best choice if you want to engage your audience and make them feel more involved in your brand. Typically, these videos include a call-to-action, where your viewers are asked to take some type of action – take a quiz, click on the link that will take them to your business website, etc.

SEO/Founder’s message

This video type is the least popular among marketers, but it can be a useful tool for personalizing your brand and forming a deeper connection with your audience.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle videos demonstrate how real people use your products as a part of their everyday routine. These videos help your viewers envision the exact way your products can improve their life. When choosing the right video type for your eCommerce business, you don’t have to opt for one type. Try using different approaches to convey different messages. Ultimately, the type or types of videos you choose will be those that make the most sense for your offering, brand and audience.

3. Make Sure Your Videos are SEO Optimized

Having a video SEO strategy in place will help you improve your page ranking and increase your visibility.

Follow these seven practical eCommerce video tips for SEO:

  1. Conduct keyword research – this is always the first step in optimizing any part of your business for search engines.
  2. Create an attractive video thumbnail – a thumbnail is the first thing your viewers see when your video appears on the results page. Create an interesting thumbnail that will show exactly what you are trying to rank for.
  3. Add transcription to your videos – the more text you manage to attach to your video, the better you’ll rank in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
  4. Make your video mobile-friendly – not only does Google consider mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor, but the majority of your customers may be using a mobile device to interact with your brand.
  5. Add a video sitemap – a video sitemap serves to show all vital information about the content of your video. Not only does it help search engines gain more context but it also serves as an add-on for your site’s general sitemap.
  6. Include your keywords in the video’s filename – optimizing this way will also help you rank in search for your preferred keywords.
  7. Authorize the embedding of your video – Allow other users to embed your videos on their sites. In return, you will earn more inbound links and Google will recognize you as an authority in your field.

4. Exploit User-Generated Content Videos (UGC)

UGC is authentic, brand-specific content created by your customers and posted on social media platforms or other channels. Not only is it cost-effective but it is the ultimate tool for increasing conversion rates and boosting sales.

UGC is another way you can provide your customers with social proof. It is much like word of mouth, but the word is spread much faster in the digital world!

User-generated content is a strategy that pays off, but how do you encourage engagement? Here are three tips for collecting user-generated videos:

Organize a hashtag contest

Encourage your audience to use your branded hashtag and post it on their social media profiles. In return, offer an attractive prize to the winner of your contest.

We often see influencers setting new trends in fashion, technology, and other industries while their army of followers consumes every content they make in a frenzy.

Use this newly-emerged marketing platform and hire an influencer you think will speak best to your audience to create UGC for your eCommerce business.

Find UGC creators through the marketplace

There are sites like Billo, that offer the service of making authentic videos for your products. On this particular site, you can create a task, wait for creators to apply, and choose the one you want to create a custom-made UGC video for your product.

You can choose between more than 3,500 skilled creators at a starting price of $59.

5. Go Live

Live streaming has been getting serious attention as of late. Live videos offer you the opportunity to interact with your audience in real-time. You can stream a video of your latest product, reveal behind-the-scenes moments, or prepare a Q&A session and answer common questions live. This approach will help you get more brand exposure and create tighter bonds with your audience.

6. Add Emotion to Your Videos

People tend to base their decisions on emotions rather than logic. According to the analysis of the IPAdataBank, ad campaigns with purely emotional content performed almost two times better than those with mainly rational content. This goes to show that people feel first and think second.

Make videos that convey powerful emotions to your audience. The best way to do this is to focus on storytelling. When you add an emotional story to your video, people will connect with your brand on a more personal level and the video will stay longer in their minds. Making your brand memorable is key to building a loyal following.

7. Incorporate Videos in Your eCommerce Marketing Strategy

Now that you know who your audience is and what kind of videos you want to make, it’s time to find a way to integrate them into your marketing strategy. Here’s how:

Integrate your videos into your eCommerce website

Placing your videos on your home page, product pages, about us page, etc. will increase the average time your audience spends on your website.

Post your videos on Social Media platforms

Make sure your videos are optimized according to the platform in use. When it comes to the video length, follow these recommendations:

  • Facebook – 1 minute
  • Twitter – 45 seconds
  • YouTube – 2 minutes
  • Instagram – 30 seconds

Another thing you should do when posting on social media platforms is to include subtitles in your videos. It might not seem important at first but studies have shown that 85% of all Facebook videos are watched without sound.

Related post

Video Production for eCommerce Statistical Data

If you are still not sure that video production is important for your eCommerce business success, have a look at these convincing stats:

  • Using videos on your landing pages can boost your conversion rates by 86%.
  • 69% of people prefer a video over text when researching a product or service.
  • 88% of marketers are content with ROI from their social media video marketing.
  • Almost 50% of online users search for a product video before they decide to purchase it.
  • The average user will spend 88% more time browsing on a website that offers videos.
  • 66% of people aged from 18 to 34 years engage with a brand upon watching a video.
  • Video marketing boosts organic traffic by 157%.
  • 73% of visitors who watch a video on an eCommerce website are more likely to convert.

Summary

There is no doubt that a video marketing strategy pays off in more than one way. Not only will it boost your eCommerce sales, but it will also improve your rankings in SERPs, increase brand awareness, and make your audience more connected to your business.

Knowing who your audience is and what they want to see will help you create a more tailored experience for every part of the buyer’s journey.

If the purpose of your video is to attract new customers, you can speak to a wider audience and increase visibility. If you want to engage prospects or nurture leads, create a video that connects with a more specific buyer persona.

Get on board with the latest video marketing trends to gain a competitive edge and boost your sales.

We hope our article helped you understand the importance of video production for your eCommerce business and provided you with useful tips on how to boost your sales with the latest trends in video making.


Sam Nguyen is the CEO and founder of Avada Commerce, an e-commerce solution provider headquartered in Singapore. He is an expert on the Shopify e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. Sam loves talking about e-commerce and he aims to help over a million online businesses grow and thrive.