How can you tell if your Videos are increasing your sales?

First things first, Video isn't the Magic Bullet that's going to explode your company and sales. They're one component of you entire sales funnel, and you need to make sure your entire funnel is performing to make sure the videos are effective as possible.

Here are our tips on making sure your videos are performing the way that they should

Do a website audit to ensure your website is optimized for conversions

Broken links, poor user experience, no easy way for your lead to convert, these are all very common problems that websites have.

Your SEO ranking could be amazing. Your ads running perfectly. But if your website has things such as broken links, a poor user experience, or no easy way for your lead to convert, you will be limiting your overall lead generation.

Website audits are amazing tools that are well worth the investment, and in all honesty many website companies will do them for free. At ShortForm we offer a service where we do an audit of your overall sales funnel, and in that we bring in a website specialist.

Alternatively there are websites such as SEMrush that can give you your websites "health" rating to see where the broken backlinks, broken pages, loading speeds, and more are. This information is super critical when looking at the performance of your marketing.

"We've done video in the past and don't see any returns."

A tale as old as time.

“We tried video in the past and it didn’t work”

Next you should look at your current marketing funnels, and their analytics (if available).

Traditional media doesn't have direct returns, but overall your increase in revenue about 3-6 months after should be a good indicator if your money is spent wisely.

The first question you should ask yourself when looking at your marketing funnels is easy. What is my current marketing strategy?

Fun fact, roughly 37% of companies have said they don't have a marketing strategy according to Zippa.com.

Now a lot of brand and business owners often don't even know what is involved in your marketing strategy, and your overall marketing is much more broad than you'd expect. Some examples of marketing are Networking Events and Groups, Email Marketing, Outreaching / Cold emails, SEO, Paid Advertising, Traditional marketing (print / billboard), Radio, the list goes on. A successful marketing strategy should include not one, but at lead 3 or more of these channels.

There are countless brands and companies that all say the exact same phrase that you may have heard. The Rule of 7. On average it takes someone 7 times of seeing or hearing about your brand before they remember who you are and what you do. Now imagine you have 3 out of those 7 times be poor, unclear, or even not correct. That will in turn effect how people view and see your brand before they even get to your website. That's why it's fundamental to ensure you have your marketing messages clear and proper.

Finally we can look at your Video Marketing.

Once we know that all your other marketing channels are up to date, your website is converting, and your message is clear and easy to understand, now we can see what's wrong with your video marketing strategy, and how to make sure your videos are getting the returns you need.

Most of the time correcting your video marketing is pretty clear and easy. But it's also very hard and difficult to notice when your Video Marketing is poorly done.

One of the biggest tips we tell people, is to not go with the lowest costing advertising freelancer or brands. These brands are often cheap for a reason. They offer "high returns" but take the bare minimum and make it seem as they've done an amazing job.

Alternatively, there are a lot of companies and brands out there that do the opposite. Charge high margins, for little to no returns. So how can you tell when you're talking to the right person?

We recommend looking for 3 things.

One, how do they explain the process. Are they mentioning testing phases, are they clearly explaining how it works, and how they do it?

Two, do they only use fancy acronyms and key words? You're likely talking to someone who is either new in the industry, or just trying to look like an expert since they read what those things meant. Most good Video Marketing specialists will take time to explain things, and give a clear plan for it all.

Third, listen to see if they speak about scaling. If right away they speak about high returns and crazy ad spend, chances are they aren't invested in scaling your business. A good specialist will look at your strategy and goal and create a plan that's build for scaling. At the end of the day, that's the point of our jobs.

When should you do video marketing?

To wrap up, marketing doesn't have a magic bullet. But Video marketing is a key fundamental part of this new digital age.

Don't be afraid to invest into your video marketing. When done properly with an approach that's all encompassing, it can be a tool that can scale your brand to places you couldn't before.