It should be pretty clear by now that sales funnels are essential for successful entrepreneurs and business owners. Your gears are turning and you are already coming up with ways to strategically utilize your unique content within your future sales funnel.
If you haven’t already done so, go check out the first two installments in our sales funnel series.
You don’t want to miss out on any of the great tips and in-depth information we have already covered in our first part where we explain what sales funnels are or how to use SEO blog content and lead magnets effectively in part two.
This is the final installment in the sales funnel series and you don’t want to miss out on this one! When we talk about providing value to the readers (right now, that’s you), this is exactly what we are referring to.
To take away the knowledge you need to create content for an effective sales funnel, you need to read on and find out how you can use videos and webinars to help consumers decide they want to become a paying customer and possibly even a repeat customer.
How Do Videos Impact My Sales Funnel?
The strategic use of videos in your sales funnel is crucial to any business that operates online. To stay relevant and compete in today’s vast digital marketplace, you need to take advantage of the most effective marketing and advertising available to you: videos!
The days of relying solely on the use of flyers, newspaper advertising, or physical signage are behind us (there are exceptions, of course, but for online businesses, these more “old school” forms of marketing just don’t cut it).
Not only are marketing videos valuable resources to provide to your consumers, but they are also more effective and often cheaper in comparison to the impact of text-only content and advertising. Video marketing receives, on average, 480% more clicks than text content.
With more people consuming video content every day, it just makes good business sense to put yours out there.
Where and How Can I Upload Video Content?
As a reminder, you should be focusing on creating content your target audience is searching for online and creating content that is 1,000% better than anything that is available from your competition.
Reaching your potential customer base with video content is much easier now, thanks to the ever-growing popularity of social media and the “share” button.
Due to algorithms used by the social media giants, you can optimize your blog content to ensure your desired users are targeted and, thus, exposed to your related video content.
For this reason, it is absolutely viable to utilize different types of video content throughout every stage of your sales funnel to meet your goals and help move consumers through your business’s sales process.
Besides posting on your own blog, options to upload and share videos in various formats throughout the different social media sites are available. For example, Facebook has the option to post videos directly to your page (which can be your business, personal, or group page or directly to the page of other people).
You can also share live video streams through Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and other social media networking sites.
The somewhat newer option to post videos to your “story” on these sites allows you to reach your followers, friends, and ultimately, your prospective customers quickly, which in turn, increases opportunities for them to share your video content with others.
Being able to create “highlights” and “featured content” on social media also makes it much easier for people to find your content once they have landed on your page.
I Know Where My Target Audience Is Active Online. Now What?
So, you know how to reach them but what types of videos do they want?
First up, we have explainer videos that are quite a common style of marketing video. These are used to, quite literally, explain something to your viewer.
You may explain how to do something while promoting your business’s products and services as these can help potential customers solve a problem or make a task easier.
Basically, anything you can explain to the audience will fall under this category. These types of videos can help at every stage of your sales funnel. If you offer a solid argument as to how and why your product or service can improve their life, then you are likely going to convert many viewers into paying customers.
Next we have promotional videos and these are the video advertisements we all encounter when we use pretty much any website nowadays.
You must find a balance between focusing your promotional video on your specific offerings while also making it enjoyable for consumers to watch. Making sure to place these videos strategically at the very end or very beginning of your funnel is key.
Promotional videos have the power to increase brand awareness and/or outline the final selling points for potential buyers who are in the ‘decision’ stage.
Through the use of promotional videos, you may also include specific content related to any sales or discounts you are currently offering to customers who decide to buy now.
This is especially helpful at the “decision” stage to help push consumers to act now and commit to buying, thus moving them through to the “action” stage of your funnel.
Mentioning that there is a limited timeframe for them to take advantage of the deal or discount may also prove effective by fast-tracking them from wherever they are in your sales process straight to the buying stage (if the perceived value is made clear).
You may also want to consider the inclusion of some testimonials to back up the claims you are making in a promotional video. Seeing that other people have had success or enjoyed your product or service will entice some consumers to go ahead and make the purchase for themselves.
Finally, we have topical videos (vlogs), and these are mostly effective for increasing awareness and interest. The content will very subtly tie into what your business is offering through videos discussing topics that are of interest to your target audience.
These aren’t a hard sales pitch but rather more of a gentle introduction that is worked into an easy-to-watch video. These videos provide an opportunity for viewers to get to know your brand and build rapport with you as a content creator.
There are other kinds of marketing videos you can use, but for use in your sales funnel, these are some of the key video styles to focus on.
Why Are Webinars Important?
Webinars Sound Like A Lot of Work; Are They Worth It?
Webinars are honestly one of the most powerful marketing tools available to entrepreneurs. This is due to the immense value consumers associate with a free webinar.
It doesn’t matter if you use a webinar to share your products and services; the mere fact that you have provided free access to a webinar related to a problem or interest of the viewer is enough to draw them in and often convert them into a paying customer.
More than 70% of consumers have consistently noted their preference for video-based content vs. text-only marketing.
Because we are moving toward consumers placing a notable preference on easily accessible videos and webinars, it only makes sense that about 5% of the people who participate in your webinar will become paying customers.
Many people don’t have the time (or desire) to read your free ebook, so you need to offer a compelling alternative that delivers valuable information about your company while also offering something to the viewer that will drive them to follow through and actually attend your webinar.
This could be about any topic that is both relevant to your target audience and also ties in with what your business is offering for products and services.
To continue with our example from part two of this series, if you are a dietician who focuses on helping parents with their children’s nutrition, you may want to offer a free webinar where you will discuss some specific things that helped you with getting your children to eat more veggies.
In doing so, you can share information related to the different products and services you offer to help the parents that are viewing your webinar share the same success you have had.
Creating an Effective Webinar
The number one tip when it comes to any webinar is to keep the audience engaged.
You want to keep the viewer interested in what you have to say while making sure they stick around to the end when you will summarize and highlight how your business can further assist them through paid services, product purchases, subscriptions, etc.
In order to be engaging, you will need a couple of key things:
- An upbeat, friendly, and relatable on-screen persona
- And a killer webinar script to help keep you on track and ensure you hit all the key points and sales opportunities within your limited timeframe
If you aren’t sure that you can produce a solid script yourself, don’t worry, you are not alone! Not every entrepreneur is a wordsmith. You’re the brains behind the products and services that make your business successful and valuable to consumers, why not let a top-tier ghostwriter create the perfect script for you?
Using a professionally written script will let you focus on delivery and content you want to include, boost your conversion rate, and ultimately, help you make more sales.
Working with a ghostwriter can even help you prepare additional content and handouts to use in your webinars. You can provide your attendees with templates, worksheets, planners, quick guides, and more through the use of a ghostwriter who specializes in whatever niche you are working within.
Using these little extras throughout your webinars shows you truly want to provide for your customers and that their faith in you and the rapport you build are important to your business.
It also provides another opportunity to help any potential buyers decide they are ready to act and pay for the added value that comes with being an exclusive member or paying customer.
Finally, webinars also help you retain customers who decide to pay for your services and products.
You can keep them on board by offering consistent content updates, access to additional webinars (either live or pre-recorded), and boost engagement through series, Q&A sessions, allowing customers to join in on group consultations, access to exclusive content, and much more.
While it is obviously extremely important to every business to convert as many qualified leads as possible and make as many sales as you can, it is equally important to treat your existing customer base with respect, exceptional service, and an on-going stream of content and value that they signed up for when they decided to become a paying customer.
Tying It All Together
After everything we have covered in these three articles, it has become quite clear that regardless of any reason you may have to not implement a sales funnel, there are several compelling reasons why you should.
It is an involved process, and there are many different components you have to figure out; that much is absolutely true. However, your business was going to be involved in some form of marketing anyway, so why not make it a super-effective sales funnel?
You’re already confident in the value you have to offer your customers; it’s just a matter of focusing on what content you should use to deliver it to them.
There is no doubt that with the right content marketing strategy you can convert more leads and drive your sales to levels you didn’t think achievable.
Knowing more about how sales funnels work and breaking down the specific content that will help guide consumers from their initial exposure to your company straight through to hitting that “checkout” button is half the battle.
Now it is time to take on the challenge of getting organized and making sure you have the content you need to fuel your sales funnel and seize every opportunity that arises as a result of its success.
If you’re not sure how to get started on actually building your sales funnel, check out some of the sales funnel building software available and find what works best for your business and budget.
Don’t let the small details deter you from going after the big picture! Map out exactly what you want to do and what content you need to achieve your goals.
If you need to enlist some outside help to get SEO blog content and/or video and webinar scripts, there are experienced ghostwriters available to help you get that done, ASAP.
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