The financial industry has been slow to get on board with inbound. This is advantageous to you. Any improvements you make to your inbound marketing can put you way ahead of your competition. We recommend adding video to your marketing. In particular, an explainer video can increase your financial services leads.
Here’s why you should get involved in video marketing if you haven’t already.
Why Use Video Marketing?
The proliferation of video is one of the biggest and fastest growing trends in inbound marketing today. There is a lot of focus on ranking well with Google, and rightly so, but YouTube has been described as the second most popular search engine. In 2015, YouTube outstripped Google in terms of popularity on desktop computers.
Consider also that people tend to retain images – especially moving images – better than they retain text. Video combines moving images and audio, so you can make an impact and a lasting impression. If you have a message that you want people to carry away, consider putting it in an explainer video.
What is an Explainer Video?
An explainer video is a short animation used by businesses to convey their brand story to their visitors. They are concise and precise summaries of a business’s products and services. When we say concise, we mean it. These videos are typically fewer than three minutes long. In most cases, sixty to ninety seconds is plenty.
The strength of explainer videos is that they take the core information that a business wants to share and they make it not only palatable but often entertaining too. If you want your potential customers to understand what your business does and why it’s different to other businesses out there, an explainer video is a perfect vehicle for that message.
Explainer videos can help potential customers cut through financial jargon. Jargon is a particular issue in the financial industry. If you want to explore a complex financial issue, an explainer video opens the door for your customers.
When customers understand what they need, they can take action. If your business provides this information in a way that is easy to understand, people are likely to trust and value what you have to say. People work with businesses that they like and trust.
An explainer video is ideal if you want to make a complex financial process, idea, or service, understandable. While financial matters can often be ‘dry’ or even threatening, an animated video makes it all more manageable.
Some serious numbers to consider
Explainer videos are particularly good at generating leads, which can more than repay the initial investment in the video. If you’re wondering how exactly an explainer video can help generate more qualified leads for your financial business, then here are some astonishing numbers for you:
- Adding an explainer video to your website can boost conversions by as much as 300%
- On average, 85% or more of people who watch a video of your product or service are likely to buy
- 88% of visitors stay on a site longer when video is prominent (Mist media)
- 90% of shoppers found watching a video helpful when making a buying decision (ComScore)
- You’re 53 times more likely to appear on page 1 of Google if your website uses video (Forrester Research)
- Video now appears in 70% of the top 100 search listings
- Our brains process visuals at 60,000 the speed of text
- Video used in email marketing campaigns was found to increase click-through-rate by 96% (Implix)
The Power of Explainer Videos
Videos are not an option any more but a necessity. You might find that most of the businesses are using video now days and there is a strong reason for this. If you are not using explainer videos here are a few facts that will make you rethink your marketing strategy:
Google likes video – In fact, they are more than friends. If you can get your visitors to spend more time on your site, Google will (love) reward you. Giving your visitors video content to watch is a great way to increase how long they spend on your site.
Explainer videos generate visitor interaction – Google understands that visitors are more likely to take action based on an explainer video than reading through a textbook of legalese. If you demonstrate that you know this too, Google will boost your ranking in SERPs.
Reduce sales cycle – Explainer videos when used properly along the entire sales funnel will help you educate the prospects in a very systematic way and thus reduce the sales cycle. This will also help become an authority and your prospect will trust you more!
Reach more visitors – As discussed, increasing numbers of web users are watching online videos. If you want to reach more people, it makes sense to make the best, most engaging videos you can.
Explainer videos are shareable – People like to share content that is useful, entertaining, and short. This is how your explainer video can be spread from network to network, generating more leads than ever.
You’ll increase conversion rates – when complex information is expressed simply and clearly, your potential customers will be more likely to make the leap to become customers.
More data to grind – If you have several explainer videos, you will be able to check out how many people are watching each one. This will give you an indication of which of your products and services are the most popular, which is useful for your marketing purposes.
Be direct – your explainer video gets to the heart of your business and presents it to your visitors. If they want further information, they can find it on your site, get in touch with you, or download one of your offerings. With an explainer video, you’ll avoid losing interested people in navigation. Instead, your video will tell them exactly what they need to know to make a decision on your product or service.
Let your personality shine – a great way to engage your visitors is to come across as a team of individuals, not as a faceless brand. An explainer video, although it may be animated, is a fantastic way to share the unique voice and personality of your business. People will get an instant impression about the people behind your business from the style of your explainer video.
You can always augment your personality-building by including video interviews or talking heads in your video marketing, alongside your explainer videos.
What Makes a Great Explainer Video?
The elements of story-telling will help you assess the quality of your video. This needn’t be a massive learning curve. Think of it like this: A good story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
The beginning should have a hook of some sort, such as an interesting premise or a question to answer. It should capture the interest of your audience and keep them watching to find out how it is resolved.
The middle of your video needs to keep your audience’s attention. This is often the hardest part of a story! When it comes to video, the trick is often to keep it to the point and don’t let it get too long.
The end needs to deliver on whatever you set up at the beginning of the video. Just like a story, you’ll want to make sure that you don’t leave loose ends. If you haven’t done what you said you’d do at the beginning, your video needs more work.
The ideal outcome of an explainer video is that the viewer learns something and finds the solution to a problem. If the video compels the viewer to action, it’s a winner.
Here’s a great example of a short and sweet video that gets to the point fast and tells viewers how this business can help them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRjqOII77zc&
Videos like this work well because of their simplicity. As well as being visually engaging, it communicates ideas clearly and promotes understanding of important concepts.
Making an explainer video that distills the essential parts of your brand takes technical skill and expertise. We have you covered.
Further benefits to consider
If you’re interested in becoming a thought leader and leading your industry, engaging with people through video is a fantastic way to get ahead.
If your business is already creating blog posts or is focusing on an ebook or a stellar infographic, consider shifting energy into video. With video, you’ll be attracting new customers, satisfying your existing customers, and speeding ahead of most of your competition.
If you’re considering creating a talking heads video so your visitors can see you and/or your team, you want them to trust you and associate your brand with wealth and safety. Investing in a quality, dedicated video camera, therefore, might be wise. One of the benefits of explainer videos here is that they are largely animated, negating various technical problems. There is no need for you to worry about camera angles, lighting, or getting your good side.
Of course, you can represent the videos in different styles to hammer the point home.
Check out a few more styles of videos here:
https://youtu.be/tZqAqest9GU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDaCc6BGUHc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s24FfMCr2k
Whatever kind of video you use for your video marketing, focus on engaging your customers. Don’t play to your competitors. Your customers want to know what makes you different from the competition, not how you can be similar.
A short video unraveling a specific issue that the public tends not to understand can work wonders. Compare this with a 25-minute epic that displays your branding in inspirational settings but doesn’t satisfy any of your customers’ needs.
Focusing on your customers means giving them an insight into what you do and why they should partner with you. It means answering their questions and empowering them to take the next step, whether that’s subscribing to a list or calling you for a consultation.
How Soon Will My Explainer Video Go Viral?
A common issue with video marketing is that people expect their videos to go viral. The truth is that it’s very unlikely that a video will go viral.
The good news is that a video doesn’t need to go viral to bring new customers to your business every single day of the year.
Whatever kind of video you create or order for your site, a good video that tackles the right topic will be evergreen content, working for you 24/7. A great video will be shareable and allow you to reach an even wider potential audience.
How to Get Your Explainer Video
While some professionals, such as artists or skilled laborers, might be able to connect with their audience using hand-held video shot on a smartphone, the public generally expects more ‘stability’ from a financial services industry video. This doesn’t mean hiring Steven Spielberg to shoot your video, but it does require you to think carefully about the quality of the sound and look. An animated video, of course, can dismiss many technical issues in a single move.
Paying someone to make your business an animated video can make life a lot easier for you. It will also provide you with something for your video marketing that is especially effective at communicating messages.
Done well, your explainer video will be immensely shareable and provide you with a significant increase in leads.
If you have been reluctant to engage with video in the past, hopefully you will reconsider. We can make it easy for you. If you want to reach a larger audience and generate more leads, video will deliver, and we can help make it happen.
For a special one time marketing event, AltaStreet has teamed up with http://rkale.com/a stellar animation video company which has expertise working with Financial niche and has consistently provided high ROI’s to its clientele for past few years.
As a subscriber and LinkedIn contact, we have a special offer available. This content will boost your traffic and send your lead generation through the roof.
You’ll need to get in on it fast, though. We’re only accepting 10 videos per month.
Don’t hesitate. Get in touch today to discuss your professionally-made explainer video.
Contact: Dan Stark dan@altastreet.com
www.altastreet.com
We made a Video for this Special Offer, Check it out: https://youtu.be/tZqAqest9GU
