Video content has become the dominant force on the web, and the eCommerce industry isn’t exempt.
An eCommerce store aspiring for success needs to find a way to create video content that both entertains and informs its audience in a manner that convinces them to convert.
Product tutorials do just that.
If you’re still skeptical about the power of such videos, here are four reasons why you should be putting a significant portion of your content creation efforts into product tutorials.
It Builds Trust
Trust is a vital component of finding success in eCommerce. It’s the difference between whether or not a person orders with you, whether they recommend you to a friend or not.
Trust rests on many things, from the number of reviews on your website to whether or not its general functionality inspires confidence.
To encourage trust in your products though, you need to produce high-quality product tutorials.
Product tutorials help to bring some clarity to the products you’re trying to convince people to part with their money for.
With so many underhanded tactics present on the internet, people are right to be wary about whether or not what they see is legitimate.
Product tutorials are your opportunity as a retailer to show off a product and convince people that it not only works but functions in a way that could actually improve their lives.
Images and descriptions can be misleading, with lighting and twisted words helping to pass off products as better than they are.
While these tricks can be used in videos, there’s less room to hide in a moving medium and the demonstration of functionality is much clearer to the average shopper.
While we all impulse buy from time to time, online shopping is much more regularly based on extensive research and the building of trust over an extended period.
Gives a Better Overview of the Product
As an online retailer, it can be easy to have tunnel vision about your products.
You’re around them all day every day, you sourced them and you understand their functionality inside out. That doesn’t mean your customers do though.
Some products are difficult to understand and even harder to explain.
Images and text may not tell the story you think they’re telling, and your descriptions may be leaving customers confused about how the product is made or what it’s key feature actually does. This is where product tutorials are so useful as a marketing tool.
This kind of content gives you the opportunity to explain the more complex features of your products, saving your marketing team the trouble of having to put them into words and making insight the focus of your strategy.
Product tutorial videos allow you to explain products in much more detail than standard images and descriptions - building more trust and giving your prospect a much better understanding. Click To TweetUsing videos to showcase the not-so-obvious features of your products is another great idea.
Filming tutorials gives you the chance to show off these elements you would otherwise not get the chance to.
A lot of people are visual learners and need to see something in action before they can fully understand it.
You can use your tutorials as a call to action, with an explanation of the product and demonstration as to why the customer needs it as the final push to get over the line and convert.
It’s Versatile Content
There’s so much you can do with a product tutorial video, that experimenting with this type of content is an essential step in your creative strategy.
You may look at product tutorials and see them as pretty simple straightforward pieces of content.
You get the product out, show off what it does and tell the customer to buy it. Simple right?
Actually, there is an incredibly amount of versatility to the product tutorial that can have ramifications on how you produce all of your video marketing content.
A product tutorial can take many forms. Sure, you could just show off what the product does or you could use it as a brand-building exercise.
These videos can act as a base to show off your humor and values, much in the same way the viral Will It Blend? series did for the Blendtec blender.
You don’t have to play it straight. Use the format to introduce other elements of your business, from unique deals to behind-the-scenes information that helps to build the perception of your business.
One product tutorial can also spawn a series of videos where you compare different products and ranges, helping customers to make more informed decisions.
Product tutorials are also great pieces of evergreen content you can roll out on social media during peak periods to improve traction across these platforms.
They’re highly shareable pieces of content, as the average user will feel they’re sending something valuable to their friends and family.
You can be as simple or daring as you want with this versatile form of content, which makes it such a brilliantly cost-effective piece of marketing material.
Cuts Out Unnecessary Customer Queries
While every online store cares about its customers, queries from them are a small business’ worst nightmare.
During peak periods you can’t afford to waste 20-30 minutes of your day in a call or responding to emails explaining the details of a product or it’s benefits compared to an alternative.
Your website needs to be able to do that work for you. Product tutorials are a brilliant way of taking some of that pressure off your team and allowing them to get on with more important and pressing tasks.
If produced well, it should answer any general questions a customer would have about your product range.
While more of a time-saver than a marketing strategy, posting this content across social media puts information at the centre of your social strategy.
This answers many of the immediate questions they’ll have and curb them from getting in touch.
Product Tutorial Videos Conclusion
Marketing in eCommerce is evolving.
Not only do people want video, they know what they want to see from their video content.
You need to be as informative as possible but have room to be daring and experiment with making your content both enlightening and memorable.
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