Today’s consumers are looking to establish trust before they engage in business. Before they invest, they want to know they will get the best possible value from what you are offering. How will your products, services, or team provide them with the best solutions to problems they face?
Many businesses recognize the need to be seen as thought leaders and industry experts. As a thought leader, you may have a blog on your website that demonstrates to your prospective customers that you have the research, opinions, and strategies to help them find the solutions to their issues and answers to their questions.
Blogs take time and effort to construct, but if you have a marketing strategy to lead people to your website through your blog, you could strike gold. However, just luring a prospective customer to your blog doesn’t guarantee they’ll commit to your brand.
How can you use your blog to establish the trust consumers require?
Video Is Personal and Powerful
Videos are personal and powerful. They are the secret sauce for more click-throughs and purchases from your blogs—and your emails and social media as well. Adding video to your blog is not only an excellent way to increase your SEO ranking and promote more web traffic, but videos also establish trust in a way that the written word alone may not produce.
70% of customers will watch a video throughout their path to purchase.
6 Types of Videos To Create for Your Blog
#1: Outreach Videos
Outreach videos are a human introduction to your business in sixty seconds or less. An outreach video replicates a face-to-face chat and is a great way to start a new relationship. Let your team introduce themselves and tell the role they play in solving your customer’s problems. When there is positive human interaction with your customer, they will feel a sense of familiarity and confidence in your business.
PRO TIP: Be yourself. Your video’s success relies on its authenticity and the element of ‘realness’ it brings to the sales process. It shouldn’t feel clinical and automated. Present yourself with empathy and sincerity, and your video content will get the best results.
#2: Product Demos Videos
You can move a customer along the sales cycle much faster if you provide expert content with a product demo video. People looking for content on how a product works—not necessarily a review or step-by-step explainer—appreciate the ease a product demo video brings to the monotony of a longer blog post. A product demo can complement a how-to blog article. You can even split the demo into a video series that links one blog to another.
PRO TIP: Keep your products human. Gong Labs research found that they closed 41% more deals when clients saw people on camera vs. just seeing the product itself.
#3: Content Summary Videos
When creating any blog, you may often find yourself asking, “Is anybody even going to read this?” Even if you get a click-through to the blog, a potential customer may see the length of the blog and immediately click off. However, if they see a short video that hits your blog’s key points, they are much more likely to stick around. Content summary videos are an easy way to turn written blog content into a visual medium. They engage the blog readers who would rather watch a short, snackable recap.
PRO TIP: Keep it short. In an Animoto survey of consumers, 59.9% indicated that if a video is too long, it would strongly deter them from watching. Videos under 2 minutes get watched the most.
#4: A Day-in-the-Life Video
You don’t have to be a YouTube celebrity to know that vlogging is a fast-growing trend for industry leaders. Consumers love watching “reality tv” in bite-sized video format. It’s part of what has made TikTok and Instagram Reels a considerable success. A day-in-the-life video allows you the opportunity to take your potential customer on a quick journey they wouldn’t otherwise get to experience. Show them behind-the-scenes of your company, document experiences, show off particular items, take them to upcoming events, or whatever will produce intrigue and keep viewers coming back.
PRO TIP: Find your point-of-view (POV). Boring is the enemy, so if you’re going to take this approach to video on your blog, be sure you’re infusing humor and other emotions into your videos. Emotional storytelling videos get exponentially better results.
#5: Customer Spotlight Videos
Use classic “before and after” type stories to encourage your potential customer. Customer spotlight videos should show transformation and life-change because of an interaction with your brand, products, or services. While the blog can tell a longer story, a short video can highlight the most inspirational parts. Customer spotlight videos convey trust and influence, adding a layer of credibility to your business. If you’re not featuring the positive experiences of one of your current customers, clients, or fans, then you’re missing a huge opportunity.
PRO TIP: Not comfortable putting your customer on camera? Totally fine! There are many ways to tell a customer’s story without ever having that person on set.
#6: FAQ Videos
With FAQ videos, you communicate to your audience that you are in touch with them and their concerns. By the time they reach out to you, they will already understand the problems they need to be solved. These videos are also an excellent opportunity to increase qualified traffic. A qualified lead will help you save time because they already know that you are a good fit for them.
PRO TIP: “Show” instead of “tell” as often as possible. By having visuals, especially instructional visuals, your audience will identify your product as the solution to their problem.
Start Adding Videos To Your Blogs
Videos will help you establish brand authority and allow you to portray yourself as an expert in your field. They will differentiate you from your competition. While you can do this via blog copy on your site alone, you’ll add a layer of personal investment that will nurture greater trust and more substantial commitments with video.