If customer retention is your goal, you’re not alone. Our conversations with business leaders have revealed that many brands are focusing on ways to deepen their relationships with existing customers. At a time when people are physically distant, building connections with customers is more important than ever. Video can help you do it.
Why video?
Because it’s engaging and eye catching. According to Hubspot, 62% of people thoroughly consume video, meanwhile 56% say they only skim email content. Animoto says video is the crowd favorite among the types of content on social media. And a Wyzowl survey revealed that 94% of marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.
So your customers want to see more videos, are likely to pay attention to them, and will understand your product better in the end.
But your customers have already seen the videos you use to increase awareness. After all, they’ve already bought from you. That begs the question: which videos should you share with them to increase their engagement after they make a purchase?
3 Types of Videos That Improve Customer Retention
A video is worth 1.8 million words. Make sure you’re saying what customers need to hear with these three video types.
1. Tutorials and Guides Improve the Customer Experience
Customers are likely to buy from you again if they’re satisfied with their first purchase. Tutorials and guides can help them understand your product or service, and learn how to use it effectively.
The podcast recording platform Zencastr does a great job of this. Go to their Help page and you’ll find instructions for everything on the platform complete with video walkthroughs. You can take a similar approach to help customers get the most out of their purchase.
2. Exclusive News and Updates Make Customers Feel Included
You probably already share news and updates on your website, email list, or social media profiles. But a blanket approach might night bring the results you’re looking for.
Make your customers feel special by sharing news and updates with them first. Everyone loves to feel like they’re in the know. When you premier videos to your mailing list or prior customers first, you make them part of your in-crowd.
You can send company news, new product announcements, and sales previews to customers via email or in a social media group.
3. Thank You Videos Build Goodwill
Imagine a customer orders your new product and, instead of a boring confirmation email, they get a customized video thanking them for their purchase. That might sound labor intensive, but modern technology actually makes it pretty easy.
If you’re doing B2B sales and only have a handful of new customers each month, you might record a truly customized video thanking each of them for doing business with you. For businesses with bigger customer lists, personalized video is a better option. Personalized video features custom text that can be edited for each customer.
Where to Share Your Videos for Maximum Engagement
Now that you have some ideas for how to influence customer retention with video, you have to get those videos in front of the right people. Organic social media, email, and your website are all great places to reach your customers with video.
Organic Social Media
While some of the people who follow you on social media may never have purchased from you, a certain percentage of your audience are existing customers.
Theoretically, customers who follow you on social media are already engaged. They’ve opted in to hearing from you and want to see your content. Give them what they want by posting customer engagement videos. These people already follow you, they want to hear from you. Social media video offers them a quick and enjoyable way to engage with your brand.
Customer Retargeting
Retargeted ads help you reach people who have already engaged with your website in some way. While retargeting is often used to reach people who left without buying, it can also help you reconnect with customers who haven’t purchased in a while.
Of course, you don’t want to show those people the same videos you would show someone who had never purchased from you. Instead, think about what information or products might be useful to someone who made that particular purchase. Maybe a video on three ways to use your product, or an ad for accessories related to their purchase.
Email is direct communication between you and the customer. That makes email perfect for personalized videos and exclusive updates.
Just having that video in your email can make a huge difference. One experiment found that including the word “video” in your email can increase open rates by up to 6%.
We use this strategy ourselves in our monthly newsletter. Video is a great way to maximize the information you share while minimizing the number of words on the page.
Website
Like the Zencastr example above, you can include video on your website that helps customers use your product or understand your service offerings. Your FAQ pages and blog posts are ideal places to share videos aimed at engaging existing customers.
Customer Service and Support
Equip your customer support team with tutorial videos, product videos, and thank yous that they can send during and after interactions with customers. If you have a chatbot on your website, consider loading it with videos or links to videos.
Best Practices for Using Video to Boost Customer Retention
If you’re ready to start focusing on customer retention, there are a few best practices that can help you make effective videos.
- Provide value – You’re probably used to creating videos that target potential customers and increase awareness. Shift your focus to what customers might need to know after they purchase from you. What questions might they have? What information might encourage them to buy from you again? Your video should add value to their purchase.
- Make unique content – Don’t just recycle the content you use for lead generation. Make customers feel special by creating content specifically for them.
- Optimize for the platform – Choose aspect ratios, length and video style based on where you intend to share your post.
- Invite interaction – While your ultimate goal is for customers to buy from you again, in the meantime you’re trying to increase engagement. Invite customers to ask questions and include links that make it easy for them to do so.
Start with High-quality Video
Of course, efforts to improve customer retention and boost engagement work best when they’re based on high quality videos. For help creating videos that engage your audience reach out to the video marketing experts at IdeaRocket. We’re here to help you launch your message into orbit. Contact us today.
