What I Learned Blogging This Month / The Shocking Truth About Marketing

If you’ve been in business online for awhile you’re probably familiar with the term “conversion”. A conversion is used to describe an action you want your website’s visitor to take. For example, signing up for your email newsletter or opting in to your lead magnet. Here’s the catch. Getting your visitor to “convert” isn’t always an easy task! However, if you choose a solid marketing strategy you can kickstart conversions in an instant.

Psychological Marketing Tactics – Stats Don’t Lie

This post will teach you how to make your conversion rate skyrocket. The secret? Videos. The truth is, video’s boost conversion rates by a whopping 80%. Eighty percent y’all. Further, just mentioning the word “video” in your email subject line boosts open rates by nearly 20%! Best yet, 90% of customers in one study indicated that watching videos helped them when making buying decisions. Those are very powerful statistics! Get all the stats and more in this article.

64% of people choose to purchase an item or service online after watching a video about it.

The Psychology of Videos

Are you curious why video is one of the most powerful psychological marketing tactics you can invest in? Let’s break it down. First and foremost, we process visual cues at much faster rate than by reading alone. Statistics show that we process visual cues 60,000 times faster than language. Why? Because our ancestors were primed to be constantly alert for movement and noise. This is likely why 60% of people surveyed in one study reported choosing to watch video over text.

Video is, simply put, easier for humans to absorb and decode.

Non-Verbal Communication is Key

Did you know that only 20% of communication is verbal? It’s true, 80% of our communication is non-verbal. Meaning only 20% of your written text is communicated the way you intended.

20%!!

This is the primary reason why video has such a ridiculously high conversion rate! Videos convey all of the non-verbal cues our visitors are searching for! Videos of us speaking, that is. And, let me emphasize that videos of people are going to convert the highest. Much more so than a video without a face to watch. This is because we as humans are searching, from the moment we are born, for human faces. This is why you’ll often see websites with pictures of faces on them, and especially of people’s faces and eyes looking towards the sign up box or lead magnet like here on Marie Forleo’s website. Believe it or not, our brains are searching for these images and when we find them we feel relief and a heightened sense of trust. It’s how we connect with others.

Faces Imply Trust

It goes without saying that videos with people not only provide our visitors with the visual cues they’re searching for, but with trust and most importantly, nearly 100% understanding of the message we are striving to communicate. Remember, 80% of what we communicate is non-verbal.

Videos with people speaking your message convert higher because the message you’re sending is processed accurately.

They are hearing not only the words, but are reading the “speakers” body language, micro expressions, and are processing their tone of voice, inflection, personality and more. Your visitors will have a far greater understanding of your message from viewing a video because you’re giving them the chance to process basic social and emotional cues on a deeper level, which we all subconsciously crave when making decisions! Videos are a creative way to showcase your product while simultaneously implementing powerful psychological marketing tactics.

In fact, according to Unbounce, 58% of people considered companies that produce video content to be more trustworthy.

Food Blog Example

I recently began testing this strategy on my food blog. Since adding a Welcome Message (with a translucent image of myself) to both the top and sidebar of the website, my conversion rate has increased drastically. Prior to this I tested pop-ups, sidebar opt-in’s, homepage opt-in’s as well as below the post images to grab my reader’s attention. I also even tried lead magnets and quizzes. Nothing has had more dramatic results than the video. Nothing!

UX Matters

If you’ve been reading my blog posts for awhile now, you know that I love to talk about how the user experience can make or break your biz. This is a perfect example as to how it can make it.  A study found that videos at the top of a website had a 32% higher conversion rate than those elsewhere on the site. Now, as you’ll see on my food blog, I put the video at the top and in the sidebar, and you may choose to do the same. However, keep your white space in mind. I did this to catch people attention coming from mobile. If they breeze past it when they first reach the page they’ll still see it as they scroll down past the post. However, I may remove the sidebar video once I finish crunching the data from my A/B tests.

You can always start with two locations and use heat mapping software to determine which one is converting the most! For more information on smart UX strategies read this article where I discuss essential UX tips every website should follow.

Webinars vs Headlines

This is why webinars are so incredibly powerful. Be honest, have you ever attended or watched a webinar and chosen not to purchase the product they were attempting to sell you?! I’m going to guess your answer is “no”. Now, of course there’s always exceptions, but videos and webinars have the advantage because they easily evoke trust in viewers. Far quicker than any headline ever will! And, in the absence of real life, in person hand shakes and what not, you need to invest your time and energy in whatever gains your visitors trust the quickest.

Are You Still ONLY Posting Pictures?

Videos are not going away anytime soon friends! In fact, the sooner you can upload one (or more) to your website, the better. You will gain your viewers trust much quicker than your copy, headlines dripping with power words, or social proof alone ever could. This is true for social media too! Instagram stories are quickly becoming more popular than posts. In fact, 400 million Instagram users are watching Stories each day, and 1/3 of those stories are created by businesses. At this point in the article, I imagine you can see why!

Photography Gadgets To Make Your Videos Pop

Before you grab your camera or smart phone to start filming your video, make sure to purchase a ring light! This tool will make your face light up, filling in any harsh shadows and giving your skin tone a beautiful glow, unlike any indoor lighting can ever achieve. It’s basically makes your video appear as if you shot it in a portrait studio! Bonus, it will make any selfies you take going foward look absolutely stunning! I’ve used both of these ring lights in my studio, and recommend each! If you can afford the Neewer ring light, I recommend that over the B-Land because it’s taller and the light is double the diameter!

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