Optimize buyer journeys using search-driven buyers by using videos

Your first contact is the most important step in acquiring a customer. Before becoming a customer, there are many steps that a consumer must go through. The first step in a buyer’s journey is to identify or express a need. Then, the need must be met in some way.

Real buyer journeys can take weeks to months due to the fact that there are over eight billion searches each year. To simplify, let’s take a look at the steps a person takes to become your customer. These stages can be found in Google, as nearly 68 per cent of online experiences start with a search engine.

• Awarenessspan styling=”font-weight 400 ;”>: When a customer discovers that you have the solution to their problem, they want it solved. This search journey begins with a “how-to” query in many cases.
• Consideration When a customer adds you to their list of potential solution providers
• Decision When a customer believes that you have the best solution, and then becomes a paying client

Businesses must help customers make informed decisions. They need to provide assistance, information and trust through this process.

Video content is showing up in search results all the time, so it makes sense that videos are used for all three stages of the consumer’s journey. Videos rank extremely well, especially if they are hosted on YouTube and optimized for video.

There are two sections in which video can help your customers at every stage of the buying process:

• Featured Snippetsspan style=”font weight: 400 Google including a video in a featured search snippet is a strong indicator that users are looking for a tutorial video to help them solve their problem. A video is essential if you are targeting a search query. This is especially important when optimizing for the “awareness” stage of the funnel.
• Video carouselsspan styling=”font-weight 400 ;”>: Google includes videos carousels when a specific video intent is implied. It’s not difficult to rank your video there. This is especially true when you are dealing with specific queries (low-search volume), such as brand-driven queries.

This is an example of both these sections ranking at the top of the search results page. It pushes organic results well below the fold. Lowes has featured a well-branded video for a very specific, but longtail query. This is sure to generate a lot of leads for them. Another brand is The Home Depot. You can see its video ranking in the carousel. Both of these brands seem to be doing their homework very well.

There are many types of video content that you can use at each stage. These videos encourage consumers to travel with you, rather than your competitor.

Awareness

This video optimization strategy, as the name implies, ensures that target customers are made aware of your brand.

These types of video marketing content work best at this stage in the funnel:

• 
  How to videos
  
• Q&A videos (especially based People Also ask boxes )

Use your logo and colors on your thumbnail to make your videos easily identifiable.

Now it’s time to consolidate the effort and move your customer to the next level of consideration.

Take into account

This stage can help you enhance customer experience by using videos to position your product in the way you want. Videos are a great way to enhance your customer experience at this stage. They show how others use your product.

These are the most powerful videos for this stage:

• You can use explainer videos to show your customer the product and give details about what you offer. Explainer videos will present the problem and discuss the solutions. They also highlight the benefits of the product to the consumer. These videos can be thought of as lead magnets. You want them not to just talk about your product but also to offer value.
• Demo videos of products and services that explain in detail how they work. These videos highlight the benefits of the product and make it easy to understand. They will often provide step-by-step instructions and offer some creative ideas for where to use the product. It is a great product demo video because it has a good script and a great presentation. To share demos with site visitors, it is a smart idea to create an online video gallery. Video can slow down pages so be aware of page load times when embedding content.
• 
  Storytelling videos are a way to showcase a lighter side to your business and humanize it in order to connect with consumers. These videos tell a story of your business and its hopes, dreams, and values. Employees and executives often talk about their company and their experiences. These are intended to create an emotional response that will improve the consumer’s relationship with your company.
  

All of these videos should be ranking in Google. Make sure they match to commercially-oriented search queries

Take the decision

The third stage in the consumer journey is convincing the customer that your product/service solves their problem.

This stage is when the consumer is committed to buying and just needs a little push. Trust-building is key here. This will help build trust and get the consumer to trust your brand and purchase your product. Peer testimonials and reviews are the best videos for this stage.

• Video testimonialsspan styling=”font-weight 400 ;”>: These videos are great for building trust and confidence in potential customers. They also serve as a crucial part of the customer acquisition process, which is lead conversion.
• Customer-driven storytelling videos showing customers using the product in a more creative setting

These are the most popular search terms for these types videos:

• Your brand and productspan styling=”font-weight 400 ;”>: If your brand is well-established (or you are working towards it), these videos will help you to control brand-driven SERPs. You already know the important brand-driven queries if you’re tracking your brand in organic searches.
• Competitor driven search queries These are queries that explore your competitors’ options and compare two competitors.

These videos can also be used in two important ways:

• Add them to your key landing pages span style=”font weight: 400 ;”>: Customers will feel at home when they see the same video after clicking the YouTube link. These videos can also be curated on your dedicated customer review page.
• These videos can be used for your remarketing campaignspan styling=”font-weight 400 ;”>. YouTube retargeting can be used to show them to customers who have already completed stage 2 of the buying journey, but have not converted.

Conclusion

One of the most effective ways that SEO and sales can work together is to use videos in your organic searches strategy to engage customers at every stage of their buying journey. You will see better results from both SEO and CRO strategies if you include videos.

Ann Smarty, the founder of Viral Content Bee and brand manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas, is Ann Smarty. You can find her on Twitter @seosmarty

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Search Engine Watch’s first post, Using videos to increase engagement in search-driven buyer journeys, appeared on Search Engine Watch.