Having a sales funnel is vital to mapping the journey from someone being interested in what you offer to them becoming a loyal customer.
Using video in that process is a new idea to a lot of marketers but it's the way much of your customer base wants to learn about you and your product or service.
To demystify how video fits into a sales funnel, we're going to guide you through the process, covering:
- What a video sales funnel is.
- Why you need to develop a video sales funnel.
- The type of content you need to create for each step.
Meaning you can be confident that your sales funnel will have a high conversion rate at every stage so that it's worth the effort you put in.
Let's get into it.
Table of Contents
What is a Video Sales Funnel?
Why You Should Use Videos as Part of Your Funnel
How to Create a Sales Funnel with Videos (& Examples to Learn From)
What is a Video Sales Funnel?
A video sales funnel is a process of using video content to guide your potential customers down the path of being aware of your product, learning about it and comparing it, buying it, and then sticking with you.
You probably already have a good idea of your sales funnel and use a range of tools like…
- Social media
- Your blog
- A sales team
- Great customer service
… to connect across all channels, build your customer base and keep them loyal to you.
A video sales funnel serves the same purpose as all of these tools - to turn searchers and browsers into customers and advocates.
Video is a powerful tool in marketing and is a great way to engage with your audience because it's how more and more people want to connect with a brand.
Video can make your products come alive during every stage of a sales funnel, from grabbing people's attention and making them aware of your business all the way through to personalized onboarding videos.
Here are the main reasons you should be including video in your sales funnel.
Why You Should Use Videos as Part of Your Funnel
Accessing video online has boomed in recent years, with nearly 43% of people watching an average of at least an hour of video online each week.
Your customers and potential customers like watching videos and marketers know it's where the industry is heading - as we'll see in a moment.
If you need convincing that you should be building a video sales funnel, or integrating it into your current successful funnel, here's some data and examples.
Reason #1: Explainer videos are in demand
People like to learn through video - whether that's learning through online courses or watching videos to figure out how to get the best out of your product.
In fact, 96% of people say they've watched an explainer video and more than two-thirds say video is their preferred way to learn about a product or service.
The information people get through video sticks, too; social media users say that 95% of what they learn through a video is retained.
Clearly, there is a huge audience of people waiting to discover the educational and informative content that you put out there.
So much so that there are whole YouTube channels dedicated to the video format.
Example: Create a Pro Website
The YouTube channel Create a Pro Website has more than 316,000 subscribers and produces content about building websites with different platforms.
As you can see, the channel's videos have accumulated over 13.7 million views by explaining the different knowledge and skills people need to get their business or passion online.
This is just one of many thousands of YouTube channels that are making people aware of its product or service by offering information through how-to videos, and people are engaging.
Reason #2: People watch videos before they buy
It's all well and good creating videos to inform and educate an audience, but is it possible for that to convert into sales?
In a recent survey by VidMob, 25% of Gen Z and Millennials reported that they actively seek out videos of a product before they make a purchase.
Meanwhile, Google says that 68% of people watch a YouTube video to help them make a purchasing decision. Create eye-catching Youtube thumbnails to stand out and attract your audience to gain more views for your videos.
This goes to show that as people move down your sales funnel, they're actively seeking out video content to inform themselves and consider whether your product solves their problems.
Having video content ready for them to learn how your product helps them will guide them down your funnel.
Check out how this company is doing just that.
Example: Instasize
Instasize is a browser-based photo and video editing software.
There are a lot of similar tools out there and people want to know exactly what features are available and how their photos will look after the filters and editing options have been applied.
The team at Instasize has created videos that show users exactly what tools they get, how to use them, and the final outcome through YouTube videos.
Product-led videos can support the decision-making process of your potential customers.
Reason #3: Video persuades people to buy
Audiences respond well to video - so well, in fact, that people directly attribute their purchases to the video content that they watch.
According to a survey by Wyzowl, nearly 9 in 10 people have been persuaded into making a purchase based on a video they've watched.
Another study found that video-based adverts are the number one way that people discover brands that they end up making a purchase with.
When you can demonstrate how useful your product is and how many other people trust you through video, you can move people much closer to making a purchase decision.
Example: HoneyBook
HoneyBook is a client management and invoicing tool for small businesses and has nearly 5,000 subscribers to its YouTube channel.
Included in the content posted on the channel are testimonials from satisfied customers, explaining the problems Honeybook solves for them.
The videos also show elements of the tool in action to help the audience understand how it works.
By using social proof, these videos are working to persuade small business owners that this tool can help like it helps their peers.
Reason #4: Video marketing is the future
Being a leader in your field gives you a competitive advantage.
We already know how much consumers like video, but it's not being used to its full potential by all businesses.
That's quickly changing, so if you want to be the go-to place for video content in your niche, now is the time to start.
Over two-thirds of non-video marketers said they would start using video in their marketing according to the Wyszowl study we looked at earlier, while in another study 81% of businesses said they would be investing more in video content.
Another incentive to start doing video marketing now is the fact that todays’ technology makes it accessible to anyone. There are tools to easily create video content, to schedule YouTube videos, check analytics, and to even repurpose your content. So much technology to help you be as efficient as possible with video marketing.
Example: Shift4Shop
Shift4Shop is a powerful eCommerce platform that has been in business for more than 20 years.
As you can see in the screenshot above, the company only launched its YouTube channel in early 2021.
They're steadily building their content offering to generate demand and put together a sales funnel to increase awareness and demonstrate the tool's features.
Now you know why you should build a video-based sales funnel, here's how you can make it happen.
How to Create a Sales Funnel with Videos (& Examples to Learn From)
Bringing video into your sales funnel should see huge benefits, but where does it fit in your process?
Here are the places you can include video in your sales funnel.
Step #1: Create videos that help you raise awareness about your products and services
The first stage in any sales funnel is awareness, where you grab the attention of your potential audience without a strong sales element.
Videos to create awareness can be content about your niche in general, such as explainer videos, discussing trends in your industry, or ones that answer commonly searched for terms relevant to your business. For example, a law firm's SEO strategy could be to create videos that explain complicated legal terms that people search for definitions of.
The aim here is to increase the number of people who see your content on YouTube and social media platforms.
Here's how one company is doing just that.
Example: Gong.io
The revenue intelligence platform, Gong, ran an ad during the Super Bowl of 2021.
The Super Bowl is a huge event for marketing and 38% of viewers watch it specifically for the advertising.
By running an advert that introduced the company to a huge chunk of the USA, Gong is bound to increase awareness of its product to new audiences.
To the next step.
Step #2: Create videos that help you convert people to customers
The next stage of the sales funnel is consideration, where you want to pique the interest of people who now know your product exists.
At this stage, you want to talk about the problems you solve for people and demonstrate what you're able to do to solve these pain points. For instance, you have a website that provides essay writing service reviews.
You should be talking about your product specifically and what makes it stand out from the crowd.
An example is coming right up.
Example: Uscreen
Uscreen is a video-on-demand (VOD) platform for video entrepreneurs to monetize their video content.
We recently celebrated the fact that our customers have achieved a combined annual sales of $100 million with a YouTube webinar.
This not only allowed us to build community with our existing customers; we were also able to tell people who were already interested in using our product what we do and how we support customers through their whole business lifecycle.
The third step is coming up.
Step #3: Create videos that help you activate your customers
To drive conversions, you want to really appeal to your potential customer's emotions and show them exactly what you can offer.
The VidMob survey we looked at earlier also tells us that 41% of Gen Zers and 32% of Millennials want adverts that are visually beautiful and 55% of all video users want ads to match their style and taste.
To really drive this, you can use personalized videos during your conversion stage.
Do this by creating personalized onboarding videos and having your sales team create short videos using simple online video editing tools that talk about the specific issues a customer is facing. And best of all, design a website with which to quickly find and evaluate these videos
By talking directly to what interests and drives your audience, you can help drive conversions in your sales funnel.
Example: Printful
Printful is a print-on-demand business that offers a range of business services.
In the video we can see above, the company shows exactly what it can offer with one of its products in a visually appealing way.
The video talks about the full process from design to production and focuses on the service the customer receives.
Moving on to the final step in your video sales funnel.
Step #4: Create videos that help you educate your customers
Once you've successfully converted your audience into paying customers, you need to educate them so they stick with you and, hopefully, become brand advocates.
One way you can do this is through video calls using Zoom or alternative video call tools, or you can create personalized videos to answer customer queries, such as quick how-tos and explainers.
You can create educational videos to demonstrate your new features or to explain different use cases for your product or service in the public domain and even run Q&A sessions as live streams to interact directly with your customers.
We've got one more example for you.
Example: Clearscope
Clearscope is a content optimization tool and the team creates really useful and insightful video content.
Some of the videos created are aimed at their existing customers so they can get the most out of what's on offer, such as the video in the screenshot above which helps new users build a strategy using the tool.
That's how to create a video sales funnel, let's bring this to a close.
Now Over to You
That's our quick guide on how to use video to create a new sales funnel.
Your audience wants to watch videos you produce and there are simple ways to make a sales funnel that'll convert people from being aware of your brand to being loyal, returning customers.
Now is the time to up your video creation game and have a targeted plan to convert your audience to paying customers.
Good luck!
About The Author
Amir is the SEO Lead at Uscreen, an all-in-one video monetization platform that empowers video entrepreneurs and creators to monetize their content and build thriving businesses around their videos.
