Video Marketing For eCommerce: Top 3 Strategies To Ensure Success

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then video is worth a million when it comes to selling physical products online.  

Unless you’ve got a creative copywriter, product descriptions aren’t really that exciting. Plus, photos never tell the whole story. 

Here’s where video marketing can help your business get a leg up.

The Rise of Video Marketing for eCommerce

Before diving into video marketing itself, it’s important to consider how central video has become to the internet. 

Cisco Systems found that 80% of all internet traffic globally is dedicated to video streaming, which is up from 69% back in 2017.

Unlike photos, videos can show a product from every angle. This makes buyers more confident that they’ll get exactly what they order. 

This is true when it comes to the high-production-value videos you create for your eCommerce store.

But guess what? It’s also true even for simple yet authentic videos that your customers create about your products. Think unboxing videos, Instagram reels, or even TikTok reviews—these can all contribute greatly to optimizing your conversions.

Video Marketing Ideas for eCommerce

Videos are now being recognized as important contributors to the overall marketing strategy of eCommerce stores. 

If you don’t have a solid video marketing strategy yet, or you’re not sure how to begin, don’t worry. Here are the top three eCommerce video marketing strategies you can start exploring right away.

1. Produce explainer videos

There’s nothing like seeing the actual product before buying it. This is where eCommerce stores are handicapped. Sure, you can read reviews from buyers, but there’s nothing like video content that will let you see the product closely. 

An explainer video is a short video that does any of the following:

• Quickly and efficiently outlines a process
• Showcases a product
• Elaborates the brand story of an entire company clearly and concisely

Explainer videos are heralded because they make sense even to the most novice video viewers. They’re able to deliver the important information in a span of two to three minutes only.

2. Encourage customer testimonial videos

A video featuring people who vouch for your product and/or service will be a great thing to add to your overall content marketing strategy.

By showcasing the voices of those who tried your product, you allow potential customers to see for themselves how awesome your product is. 

Videos like these are simple and can already make an immense difference in optimizing your conversions.

3. Create educational how-to videos

A video that shows how you do something —like how to change a tire or how to make a cocktail—content that makes sense to online users.

It works so well because it’s able to provide help even if the viewer doesn’t finish the entire video. This means it gets watched and shared by people who may not necessarily care about your actual products but care about the information.

Top 3 Strategies For Video Marketing For eCommerce

Make the most out of user-generated video

An estimated 90% of consumers say user-generated content (UGC) holds more influence over their buying decisions than promotional emails and even search engine results. Organic videos created by your consumers add to your credibility and build up your trust rating. These videos prove that your customers are delighted enough about their experience to promote a trusted brand. 

Start investing more time on social media platforms to look for UGC videos, or encourage your consumers to create their own videos in exchange for reward points or discount coupons.

Leverage Social Media Videos

Uprising Food Founder & CEO William Schumacher said, “Using video is a more attractive way to market, and it gives you free rein to give your company any sort of image you want. One thing I’ve learned about it— it is a more ‘shareable'(or ‘retweetable’) way to advertise your brand.”  This means that consumers are more likely to stop scrolling when presented with an engaging or visually appealing video. 

For example, using videos in the food industry is, in his opinion, a clever, innovative way of product promotion.

However, it’s worth noting that having an interesting angle is crucial. The viewer’s initial reaction to your branded video should make them want to visit your eCommerce store, try your products, or share the content with others.

Here are some other ways to leverage social media videos:

• Repurpose UGC to build social proof and conversations about your brand online
• Create ads or campaigns around testimonials from your customers.  
• Highlight any organic content that mentions or showcases your brand and tag the creator. This will help you create stronger bonds with them.

Use Shoppable Videos

Since you’re repurposing video for social media, you can also repurpose your social content. This means using your social content across your ads, website, and other landing pages.

Here are a few ways to start making the most out of your social media videos:

• Add videos to your product page for increased conversion rates. This is one of the biggest opportunities for eCommerce brands, as it can make the transition from the social platform to your site much smoother. Plus, video content naturally increases the likelihood that a visitor will convert.
  
• Add it to your homepage (works best for brand-related content, or for 1-product stores). Your brand should communicate fluidly on both social media and your own site. Adding video content from social media to your homepage, can improve your overall messaging, and build better brand messaging at every step of the sales funnel.
  
• Add it to your blog content, increase engagement for your blog and provide an internal link back to your product page. Adding video to blog content naturally increases avg. session time by as much as 2 minutes.

Harness the Power of Video Marketing to Increase Your Customers’ Lifetime Value

Videos can increase engagement, improve conversions, boost SEO, strengthen your brand,, and bring success to your eCommerce business.

Additionally, video marketing can be distributed across multiple touchpoints. This means that you can use videos for acquisition, conversion, and even retention. Feel free to check out VideoWise, Shopify’s video shopping solution, to learn more about how you can effectively strategize your video marketing efforts.

Once you get your target consumers in the door, the next hurdle is the customer journey. Ultimately, if you’re able to provide a tailored and seamless customer experience, the lifetime value of your customers will reach higher levels.