Everyone loves a good movie. Just ask Hollywood. Even as people are watching more video entertainment at home and investing in entertainment systems that make some theaters blush, movies are constantly breaking new records.
Not even the pandemic could stop them. There is something about escaping for a few hours to a new place and seeing new people live out the age-old story of life. Most movies are modern-day rehashes and remixes of the classics and we are just fine with that. We never grow out of the natural desire for a skilled bard to tell us a story.
Businesses have discovered ways to tap into this natural desire and timeless medium by using video content to further their goals and improve the bottom line. What they discovered a long time ago is that there is more than one way to use video. It is not just a way of telling stories to an audience that wants to unplug. Video does not have to be the equivalent of junk food. It can also be health food and everything in between. You don’t have to have a Hollywood budget to turn your business into a blockbuster. Start by reimagining video in the following ways:
Customer Education
A lot of customer service is just customer education. What motivates a person to pick up the phone and spend the better part of an hour going through the hoops required to talk to a real person is the lack of one small piece of information that will make all the difference. They are unhappy because of something they don’t know. It leads to frustration and ultimately a bad experience.
It doesn’t have to be that way. By making customer education videos, you can eliminate the phone call while empowering the customer to find their own, more satisfying answers. Insurance companies can use short videos to explain confusing terms like life insurance beneficiary and contingent beneficiary. Software developers can make videos showing customers how to use the software they just purchased. Food producers can use videos to show people how to make tasty recipes and get the most from their ingredients. It is all a matter of customer education. An educated customer is an empowered customer, is a happy customer, is a repeat customer.
Customer Engagement
When you educate your customers, you are also engaging them. Attention is the currency of the digital media age. There are only 24 hours in a day. About a third of that is spent sleeping. The biggest chunk of the rest of that time is spent working. That means you only really have a few hours a day when you can capture your customer’s attention and get them to engage with you. Remember, you are not just competing with other auto parts stores. You are competing with Netflix.
A person is likely to hit your page and quickly bounce if they don’t immediately see what they are looking for. They stopped by but didn’t engage. Video is one of the best engagement tools there is because once they start watching, they become a captive audience. As long as your visuals are engaging, they will not look away. You have more time to give a better explanation and make a better pitch. Video gives you the luxury of speaking directly to an engaged prospect. There are a few things that can provide more engagement for less effort.
Customer Enjoyment
You don’t just want customers who do business with you only because they think they have to. You want customers who want to work with you and choose to stay with you because they genuinely enjoy your offerings. Microsoft still suffers from this problem to some degree. Many people use Microsoft products because they lack sufficient alternatives, or because that is what work demands of them. But they go home and use some other solution they enjoy. Well-made, entertaining videos can help you connect with customers so that they enjoy, and even look forward to interacting with you regularly.
Customer education, customer engagement, and customer enjoyment can all be improved by a small investment in video. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on building a studio to make video work wonders for your business.
