By Vlad Vassiliev, Director and CEO of Vape Club.
There is a clear disconnect between businesses and their customers on most eCommerce websites when compared to a traditional bricks-and-mortar retailer. Some people call this a lack of ‘personal touch’. At Vape Club our mission has always been to bridge the gap between a shop experience and a traditional online retail experience. This takes the form of various tools and principles we use, but video content is one of the easiest and most effective ways to bridge that gap.
According to Biteable’s marketing statistics, 72% of customers prefer to learn about products or services via video, and 81% of businesses are now using video as a marketing tool. Simply think of your video content as a sales assistant that can respond to the customer’s questions in a knowledgeable manner and guide the customer to the right product for them.
How video content can better highlight the uses and benefits of a product
- It shows the product being used in action and the benefits it can provide for the customer
- It answers questions a customer may have as to how the product is meant to be used
- It’s a more dynamic and engaging form of content than just a wall of text
In a normal shop you are often able to handle and feel the product to get an idea of its size, ergonomics and functionality. Traditional web store descriptions and images don’t go far enough to reveal all of a product’s detail, so video content is a great supplement to the standard content.
How video content can be used to enhance the overall company brand
- It offers owners the chance to get in front of the camera and display their knowledge and passion for a product
- Videos can also be effectively shared on social media channels
- If the videos are created specifically to answer questions for potential and existing customers, they offer a further opportunity to connect with a target audience
Many consumers’ buying journeys begin by comparing similar items to decide which one will fit their needs. This gives online retailers an opportunity to expose their brand to consumers and start to build up trust and subject authority. Couple that with FAQs and common problem resolution videos for a particular product, and all of a sudden you have a captive customer that knows you as a trusted authority on the subject.
How video content can draw attention to a specific topic a company may want to talk more about
- Video content offers a way to engage that text can’t always do so
- Visual imagery can help hammer home a point (eg. charity brands do this constantly)
- It’s easier to hold someone’s attention through a video than an entire article, where someone might skim through or read only a section
How has Vape Club benefitted from producing video content?
- It’s enabled us to grow a significant YouTube presence – over 66,000 subscribers, and the most popular video has around 5 million views.
Our YouTube channel has a combined 12M+ views, mostly from people looking to switch to vaping. This has helped us to establish the company as an authority on the subject, and in terms of SEO has helped us to rank for a broad range of keywords we otherwise may not have done so well on.
- Other relevant websites and publications have featured our videos which in turn enable us to boost our reputation as industry experts.
- In particular for our industry, we get plenty of enquiries from people who have used e-cigarettes before and their questions are largely predictable. These videos help us preface them and answer them in a way which is friendly and easy for them to follow.
We have also embedded our own videos and 3rd party-generated videos onto our product pages to make the product information more interactive and accessible for potential customers looking to learn more. With more people looking to use vapes and perhaps not knowing that much about it, these videos play a key role in helping us impart what they need to know..
