5 ways you can use visual media to increase your sales
From still images and infographics to adverts and TikTok videos, visual media permeates every aspect of our work and social lives. In this article, Rob Edmonds from NRG Digital highlights 5 ways you can leverage the power of visual media to maximise your business communications and improve the success of your sales function.
1. Peer review
According to Edelman, the world’s largest PR firm, “Trust is now the make or break difference for brands”. There is a clear shift in trust away from advertising and towards personal experience and advocacy. When was the last time you bought something purely based on an advert without checking the reviews?
Peer review is a fantastic way to build trust, unlocking deeper relationships between brands and their consumers, reducing friction and ultimately shortening the decision making process.
Video testimonials are an unrivalled way for customers to endorse a brand. Most people aren’t that keen to be on camera, so if your customers are happy to put themselves in front of the lens, that is a massive endorsement of their trust in you.
The problems we face individually often contain elements of shared issues and experiences. Tapping into those shared experiences through the medium of video allows the viewer to connect their own experiences with the solutions that your brand can offer. People instinctively recognise in others what they themselves are looking for, making the video testimonial extremely powerful.
Trust is important, because if someone trusts your brand:
- They are more likely to buy your product, even if it is more expensive
- They are more likely to respond to your communications
- They are more likely to recommend your brand to other people
2. Video content
User Generated Content (UGC)
Some content really does need professional help to elevate it above and beyond, but UGC also has its place. With the improvements in technology that are happening all the time, you can still generate great content without the need for everything to be filmed on a movie set. This can be particularly useful with teams that are spread across the globe, or even based at home as many people will be for some time to come. UGC can also be great for social media and peer review to help in raising a brand’s profile or when building trust.
Explainer video
Video can also be a useful tool in terms of demonstrating products, explaining complex ideas or talking about changes. Often, we think about product demonstrations being on a one-to-one basis in a physical environment. Using video and animation can be an extremely effective way to demonstrate a complex idea or product to many people at the same time, in many different locations. You can, literally, show your customers how to use your product to solve a specific issue, including highlighting the end results.
Case study
By teaming an explainer video with a customer testimonial, you can build a case study that marries up the benefits of a product demonstration with the trust you get from advocacy and endorsement.
3. Onboarding
New customers, new suppliers, new staff. Every aspect of your business needs to have a streamlined and cohesive Agile onboarding process, reducing friction at every level. Creating a set of cohesive assets across all of your onboarding processes, ensures consistency, alignment and elevates brand awareness.
Video and animation are particularly adept at achieving this – with the added bonus that by planning ahead, you can re-purpose and adapt them across many different situations.
4. Customer service
Great customer service improves brand loyalty and increases trust. It’s a win-win situation. You can help improve your ongoing customer experience by making your content easily accessible, not only when customers first access your product, but also further down the line when they are regular or returning customers.
5. Platforms
Video and animation are great at distilling complex products and ideas into clear and concise messaging that works across multiple platforms.
Website –your website is often the first point of contact that people have with your brand. Video and animation can have a real impact here:
- Less written content is needed
- Website visitors stay on the site longer, as they watch the video
- People share video content far more frequently than written content
YouTube – As the second most popular search engine, globally, posting your content here when you can, makes absolute sense because it will help:
- Optimise your video
- Increase sharing opportunities
Social media – having a social media presence is more important than ever and visual imaging can vastly increase your reach:
- Cut longer videos into 10-second snippets for social media use
- Tease longer content on your social media channels
- Direct users back to your website with links
In today’s highly competitive world, where we are bombarded with content 24/7, it can be challenging to increase sales and build trust in your brand. It can be easy to get lost in the noise. Visual content, be it video or animation, is a highly effective mechanism for cutting through that noise to engage and inspire your audience, wherever they are based.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rob Edmonds is Founder and Creative Director of visual communications agency NRG Digital. Twitter: @NRG_Digital
