Video

Does One Video Really Make a Difference?

September 11, 2017

You launch a single video for your product and to your surprise, it goes viral. Getting millions of views in just a few days. And with all those views, you also get an enormous boost in sales. So many sales that you’re working all night to fill orders with a giant smile on your face.

That’s what everyone hopes will happen when they use a single video for their business. However, in 99.99999% of situations, that doesn’t happen. That’s ok though…

There’s a lot of people out there that see having a video go viral as the measure for success. There are a few problems with this idea though.

I believe it was Mark Cuban that said, “Being a millionaire takes skill, being a billionaire takes luck”. The same is true with viral videos. You can make a great video for your audience and it will help build your audience and grow sales, but if it turns out to go viral, you have to understand it was likely a lot to do with luck and isn’t something you can plan for.

Being a millionaire takes skill, being a billionaire takes luck

– Mark Cuban

Going viral should never be an expectation of using video. Andy Miller from Creative Pep Talk, says quite often that he’s “anti-viral” because having something go viral isn’t realistic and you should instead work on building a solid foundation for long term growth. Even if a video you release does go viral, it’s not sustainable for your business. It’s likely only a temporary boost. Sure, some people can turn that into a bigger business, but again, it shouldn’t be expected.

So, a single video may give you a big boost in sales and it may even go viral, but the best way to look at video is like a patch for a leak in an individual’s buying experience.

So, instead of trying to get instant sales, you should instead be focusing on patching the leaks in your buyer’s journey. What I like to do to find these leaks is first to write out all the stages of the funnel and then simply circle the areas where I find where my audience is leaving the funnel. And sort of like patching leaks in a boat, I use video to keep people moving.

A practical example would be if you’re getting a lot of traffic to your site, but no purchases. That means there’s a leak somewhere in your funnel after you “gain awareness”. Now, keep in mind it’s a funnel because a lot goes in and a few come out. I can’t give you specific numbers, but if you had 1,000 visits to your site every month and get 10 sales, you still might be able to convert higher on that, but it would be a sign that your funnel is at least working. So, after doing some research into your analytics you might notice that most people are leaving on your homepage. That could mean they’re not given the info they want when they wanted it. Using a video on a homepage would be the patch to your funnel here.

The hard part is that you may be wrong, maybe there was a bigger leak somewhere else? That doesn’t mean a video was a failure though, it can at least be considered a reinforcement to a possibly weak area. One strategy here is to start at the top of the funnel and fix any possible leaks going down. You should be able to see higher conversions in each stage if you patched the right leak.

So, as long as you’re fixing leaks in your funnel with individual videos, One video plays a small part, but still a large role in the buying process.

Your goal with business should always be for long term growth, not short term windfalls or lottery winnings. So, you may create a video that you expect to have millions of views, but only get something like 50. It may seem like a failure at first, but if you patched the right leaks, you will convert a higher % of those people giving you a better long term return.

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