It’s hard not to notice the growing impact of video content in marketing. Videos are everywhere – companies use them to attract new customers, boost sales, and build brand awareness.
Video content can even help you improve customer loyalty, even in the first stages of the sales funnel when a customer is just getting familiar with a brand. According to statistics, video ads are the #1 way consumers find a brand they later purchase from.
If you’re not convinced by these stats and worry about the loyalty of the customers you already have – 54% of people say they’d like to see more video content from the brands they support.
Got it – videos have a great potential for boosting customer loyalty. But how long should they be to actually achieve that?
There’s been an ongoing debate around the optimal length of a video that drives engagement and loyalty. On the one hand, it’s obvious that longer videos provide more information that could be useful for the viewer. On the other hand, a shorter video is easier to memorize.
What does the research say?]
Studies overwhelmingly speak in favor of short videos.
For instance, TechSmith shares that over 50% of people want both instructional and educational videos to be from 3 to 6 minutes long. And only about 15% of people say they would watch a video that’s longer than 10 minutes.
So, it’s obvious that you should opt for shorter videos. But how can you use them to improve customer loyalty?
Let’s take a look at a few useful tips. We’ll also share some cool examples for inspiration.
1. Introduce Your Product through Short Explainer Videos
The chances are high that consumers research your product before purchasing it. This research encompasses a lot of things – what other people say about your product and which needs it can solve.
During product research, consumers also often look up how to use the product to evaluate its UI and see whether it is easy enough to operate. It is often true for SaaS companies that usually offer a product or a service which can seem a bit overwhelming for first-time users.
If you recognize yourself here and your product is a bit complex, you can solve this problem with the help of short explainer videos. Such videos have the following benefits:
- introducing a quick solution to the problem in a concise manner
- providing equal value to both new and existing customers (which boosts customer loyalty)
- offering great adaptability (short explainer videos can be reused on multiple platforms)
The statistics also speak in favor of short explainer videos. Reportedly, 8 out of 10 customers think product demo videos help them understand the product and its features better. Customers recognize your effort to educate them about your product, and they will respond to this effort with loyalty.
HubSpot has an awesome short explainer video example introducing its Make My Persona generator:
The video is 33 seconds and offers a quick demonstration of how HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool works, along with its main benefits. The video ends with a relevant CTA inviting the viewers to visit the tool’s page and try building a buyer persona by themselves.
HubSpot’s video is an animation, but you can also ask someone from your team to do a voiceover or appear on the screen to do a product demonstration. Of course, in this case, your explainer video might end up being around 3 or 4 minutes, but it’s still worth the try.
Want ideas for your product explainer video?
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2. Take Advantage of Kinetic Typography
How else can you showcase your product through a short video to boost customer loyalty?
Consider producing a series of videos that introduce certain product features using kinetic typography, which is the combination of moving text and some animated visuals.
Basically, kinetic typography in a video looks like a moving text accompanied by some images or animations, which helps deliver a message without involving a narrator. This method also has a few viewer engagement benefits:
- Kinetic typography helps target the necessary emotion better. The mix of text and visuals ensures that you address your audience’s needs precisely and provoke the right emotions with your message.
- Videos with kinetic typography retain attention for longer. People who have a short attention span will find videos with kinetic typography more engaging because it uses attention-grabbing fonts and eye-catching headlines to keep engagement high.
- You get one more opportunity to brand your business. Companies often use the typography that corresponds to their brand’s image and style. Such an approach helps attract the attention of consumers and build associations with the brand, helping boost customer loyalty.
If you’re looking for an example that embodies all three benefits mentioned above, take a look at Apple’s 2018 iPhone X commercial:
This video, which some of the commentators called a ‘magical masterpiece’, is a perfect example of how you can combine kinetic typography with product demo clips and some animations.
Apple’s ad demonstrated the upcoming product and some of its features to target a specific emotion – excitement. The way how text moved in tune with music makes the viewer feel the rush to find out more. As a result, you can’t look away and keep watching the ad until the very end.
And, of course, you can’t help but notice how well Apple combined kinetic typography and branding. Fonts, colors, and visuals all correspond to Apple’s general style.
Did this ad impact customer loyalty?
Probably this reply from the comment section tells it all:
So, if you want to create a short video like this to get you more loyal customers, go for it. Besides, creating a video with kinetic typography is not as cost-intensive – a single graphic designer or an animation professional can help you create a short video with kinetic typography in no time.
3. Partner with Influencers on Educational Videos
Influencer marketing has been around for a while and has proven to deliver great results helping businesses create winning digital marketing strategies and boost brand awareness. Influencers expose businesses to very niche audiences, helping them expand their customer base.
Speaking about customer loyalty, partnering with influencers followed by your audience can help you get more recognition. If people see their favorite influencer promote a product, they will be more likely to at least consider purchasing it because influencer recommendations are highly credible to them.
So, how can you combine influencer marketing and short videos to get more loyal customers?
The most common way is to get an influencer to review your product. But if you want customer loyalty to last, opt for collaborating with an influencer on an educational video featuring your product. Consumers love when they can get practical value out of content, and your videos will offer exactly what they are looking for.
A great video you can employ to educate your customers is a how-to video, during which an influencer will show how to use your product to its fullest. NYX has a good example of such a video featuring YouTube influencer NikkieTutorials:
In this 4-minute-long video, the influencer showcases some of NYX’s nude lipsticks and explains how to build up the color to complete a perfect nude lip look.
NikkieTutorials, who has over 13 million followers and an enormous experience with makeup, was a great choice for this campaign to attract more loyal customers to the brand and share some useful tips with them.
If you decide to try a similar strategy, you should carefully pick the influencer to work with. They should come from your niche and have an audience that corresponds to your target buyer persona.
4. Feature Your Employees in a Video
There’s no doubt that influencer marketing can work wonders for your digital marketing strategy. But why go look for somebody to promote your brand in a short video when you can ask your employees to do it.
Employee ambassadorship is not something new to the marketing world. Companies often involve their employees in promotional campaigns, and it delivers amazing results – 79% of brands reported an increase in online recognition and brand visibility thanks to employee advocacy.
Similar to influencers, you can engage your employees in showcasing your products and educating your customers on how to use them. For instance, MAC Cosmetics often involves its employees to teach the viewers how to do different makeup looks:
This video is a basic step-by-step tutorial in which a former employee (but a dedicated MAC Cosmetics fan) shares her tips on how to apply different MAC products to create a natural makeup look.
If you decide to feature your employees in short tutorials, make sure you write a script that will keep your video concise and straightforward. Build your message based on your customer’s needs. Also, don’t forget to proofread your script, which you can do fast with research paper writing service tools such as readability checkers and editors. You can check this website to find the right one for you.
As you can see, the idea behind such videos is simple – your employees contribute to your content strategy by sharing their insider knowledge. But there’s something bigger behind this strategy – you let the world know that you are a supportive brand, and you respect your team’s contribution. Brands that have an online image like this often have armies of loyal customers.
5. Lure Consumers with Contests and Giveaways
One more idea, how you can build up customer loyalty with short videos is through competition. You can ask your customers and followers to participate in contests and giveaways, in which they’ll have to submit short videos featuring your product. Of course, you’ll have to give them something in return for their effort.
A great example of user-generated content used in contests and giveaways is GoPro’s Million Dollar Challenge. For this contest, millions of GoPro’s fans have to submit videos in which they use the brand’s product to film outstanding cinematic videos:
The contest is annual, and the winner gets 1 million dollars for the most creative video. It also makes sense to add that GoPro successfully converts this content to sales – the videos show an outstanding quality of the brand’s product and the content it can help create.
But most importantly, this 1 million dollar challenge helps GoPro build a closer relationship with its customers. The brand is extremely supportive of its followers’ creativity, which undoubtedly helps it skyrocket customer loyalty.
Wrapping Up
Short videos can help a brand boost sales, build up online recognition and awareness, promote products, etc. But short videos are also extremely effective when it comes to getting you more loyal customers.
Of course, whether customer loyalty will improve or not will depend on the contents of your video. That’s why we’ve shared some short video ideas with you today that can positively affect your relationship with customers.
Let’s quickly recap all the ideas we’ve discussed:
- short explainer videos
- kinetic typography paired with animation
- a partnership with an influencer on an educational video
- a short video featuring your employees
- user-generated content contributed for a contest or a giveaway
Hopefully, these video suggestions and examples we’ve shown you today will inspire you to invest in short videos that will skyrocket your customer loyalty.
Written by Helene Cue
Helene Cue is a writer, proofreader, and contributing editor at the thesis writing service GetGoodGrade. She’s also passionate about digital marketing and shares useful tips backed by research and studies in her blog.
