Videos offer businesses a unique way to get their audience to focus on their key message and convert them like no other marketing content. In other words, you can ease your lead generation process, get product sign-ups, and easily move your customers through the various stages of the buyer’s journey using videos.
But this is easier said than done. Most businesses struggle to create videos and develop effective strategies for getting product sign-ups. So, if you’re struggling to improve your product sign-ups with your videos, you’re not alone.
In this article, you’ll learn the “why” and “how” of using videos to increase your product sign-ups. You’ll also discover the specific types of videos you need to create to gain sign-ups fast. So, let’s get started.
Why do you need to use video to boost product sign-ups?
Before we jump into how you can win product sign-ups with videos, let’s talk about the things that qualify video as the best way to boost product sign-ups.
Videos convert better
Video is the best way to make your potential customers understand all aspects of your products explicitly. By incorporating video in your product sign-up plans, you can capture your customers’ attention and speed up the cycle like no other medium. According to Forbes, 60 percent of business audiences prefer watching a video to reading. And on top of this, about 90% of people find videos helpful when deciding to make purchases, and 64% of users are more likely to buy a product after viewing a video.
Videos encourage trust
Videos combine audio and live human action to convey information to viewers in a way that traditional types of marketing content can’t. Videos make prospects feel more comfortable by showing them how the product works, what they can achieve with it, and most importantly, the people behind it. So, this also adds a certain human touch to videos, making them more relatable and trustworthy to viewers and driving engagement.
Videos drive emotions
There is no denying that people make decisions off of emotions, and videos are the best way to achieve this. This is somewhat due to the level of engagement that comes with videos content. Viewers get to see real-life situations, examples, people, or stories that can easily stick them to the message and carry them away.
8 strategies to boost product sign-ups using video
There is no foolproof way to boost product sign-ups using videos. You will need to develop and implement many video creation and leveraging strategies to achieve optimal success. Here are a few strategies to get you started.
Embed a pre-roll lead capture form in your videos
You’re probably wondering what a pre-roll lead capture is or how you should go about embedding it perfectly in a video.
Embedding a pre-roll lead capture form in your video is about inserting a fill-in registration form in the first 15 to 20 percent of your video to collect viewers’ information to further your marketing communications. You can collect their name, email address, and other information as you see fit, as long as it remains in a professional scope. Here is an example of a lead capture form in a video.
Pre-roll video lead capture forms will help you generate leads from visitors, and you can use this for your email marketing strategy and win them over. You can even feed them with exclusive and personalized video content to help them get an idea about your business and ultimately entice them to sign up.
Private video hosting platforms like Wistia offer features that allow you to embed the lead capture form anywhere in your video easily. You can even make it skippable as in the example above or gate the video content behind the form. That is, the video will only play if the visitor fills in and submits the form.
While you’re at it, it’s important to always place your lead capture form at the beginning of the video (i.e., 15 to 20%) to maximize chances. In fact, data from Wistia shows that turnstiles placed in the first 10-20% of the video have the highest conversion rates, ranging from approximately 38-43%.
Offer product tours and walkthroughs to drive visitor sign-ups
Think about it. If you’ve just visited the website of a product or software you’ve just learned about, what would you want to know? Chances are, you’d want to see the product from the inside out, how it looks, how it works, some of its benefits, etc. You’d want to learn enough about the product to be able to evaluate it and determine if it’s the right solution for you or not. That’s where the product walkthrough videos come into play.
With a product walkthrough video, you can answer all of these questions, introduce your product or software, break down the ins and outs, and give viewers a clear picture of what it is. By the end of the walkthrough video, viewers should be able to tell what your product is, what it does, what they can achieve with it, and how they can do it. Here is an example of a walkthrough video from Airtable.
Walkthrough videos can be longer than marketing videos as we know them. That’s because you can’t leave any questions unanswered. A good strategy is to organize the video into parts or sections so that viewers can jump to the section that answers their questions quickly.
Take product close-ups
Don’t get confused by the terminology. Product close-up videos are product demonstration videos, except here, you focus more on the visual feel of the product. A product demo is the most effective way to boost conversion rates.
Your goal here is to let viewers see the products in close-ups and from all applicable angles while explaining how they can use them. Think about a watch or ring close-up demo video like in the video below from Tiffany Legacy.
Close-up product videos are more powerful and less demanding in terms of video production. Plus, videos showing products from different angles give customers a better understanding of what they’re purchasing, making them more likely to generate more sign-ups, conversions, and shares.
Send personalized video emails
Videos make it easier to reach your customers via email automation. Your job here is to gain insight into your audience’s preferences and intentions through data and then offer them tailored videos via email. You can use specific information such as their name, company name, logo, and other specialized elements to make your email video unique to them.
Video email allows you to interact with your customers in a more personal way than traditional emails. Plus, unlike your website or video hosting platforms that contain too many videos, your video email will stand out, giving you a better chance to make your point and drive sign-ups or conversions. Keep in mind that you need to be very precise in your video, especially a cold email.
Leverage customer testimonial videos
Sometimes the easiest way to generate product sign-ups for a product is to have your happy users share their experience through a customer testimonial video. Happy customer testimonial videos will help convince new visitors and potential buyers. Here is an example from Neustar’s.Co.
Create Facebook and YouTube video ads to drive more sign-ups
YouTube and Facebook are known as the two most visited online platforms after Google. Every month, over 1.2 billion people watch videos on Facebook, and 2.74 billion people watch videos on YouTube. Together, they give you a pool of over 3 billion people to advertise your products.
So, if you want to reach a larger audience, you should consider advertising on these platforms. You can add pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll video ads with a link to your landing page to gain more sign-ups from viewers.
Keep in mind that the platform you use will also depend on your audience. So, you can consider other social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn to place your ads.
Make your blog posts more powerful with video
Google prioritizes video because it deems that it explains things better, and people enjoy watching videos rather than reading. So, a video element can significantly increase traffic to your website and improve your view rates. This means that your blog posts will attract readers and increase conversions. Here is an example from Vidico.
Make sure the videos and blog posts are topic-related and/or incorporate them into your content strategy as examples. This also means incorporating video according to your marketing funnel.
Set one goal for your video with an adequate call to action
You need to ensure you have only one and clearly defined call to action in every video asset you put out. Your call to action needs to act as a goal. Maybe you want to download an ebook that’ll leave them wanting more; perhaps you want them to watch your next video, or perhaps you want them to sign up for your product or onboard for a free trial.
Whatever your goal, you need to use a simple call to action and tell viewers directly. You might find it tempting to include everything in the video. The key is to have one clear goal per video and focus your message and call to action around it.
Wrap up
Videos are a powerful and versatile type of content. They enable businesses to create more meaningful and impactful content for their audiences. They can easily educate their audience and speed up their sales and conversions processes. Always remember to keep your videos natural, short, fun, and engaging. Doing so will always ensure people watch your videos to find and that they drive results.