Growth marketing refers specifically to the entirety of the customer lifecycle. It has to do with accelerating the rate at which new prospects convert to active users of your product. It can also include new acquisition through customer referrals.
Here’s how to leverage video at every stage of the growth marketing process to improve engagement and drive referrals.
Branding
Wait, didn’t I just say that we’re talking about the lower end of the funnel? When a prospect has already shopped around and is actively testing your product out?
Stay with me here. Branding is key to personifying your company, and making it relatable to your customers. Good branding matters throughout the customer lifecycle.
Without strong branding, users might not feel as motivated to pick your company out of a line up of options, and recommend it to friends. They might struggle to find the right words to describe what it is that makes you so great.
To beef up your branding with video, focus on the solutions you’re providing to customers. Think about what your product or service enables them to achieve. Then, center content around that.
For example, the video series from Gusto (Zenefits) really hits this nail on the head. Gusto released several videos when they were launching a new brand identity.
The videos aren’t about what Gusto means, or even specifics about the services they provide (payroll, HR, benefits, etc). It’s all about who their customer is, and how they help them out on a daily basis.
Onboarding
New and potential customers are often fraught with uncertainty. Are they making a good purchase decision? How can they get the most out of the product or service? How do other people use it?
Videos featuring existing customers talking about how your company has changed their lives, also known as testimonials, are a great choice here. Authenticity must be high, and the people featured in it must be relatable.
Zero in on common use-cases, and include lots of details about how new users can replicate these results. Add in supporting documentation and how-to guides to ensure they can get started.
As with Gusto, it’s really not about you or your brand. It’s about the ways in which you help people achieve their goals, whatever they might be.
Sometimes, the type of help new users might need is far more technical. Video walk-throughs of your application, or a detailed look at a product or service, can help assuage doubts and encourage people to test things out for themselves.
For instance, we made a super simple video about one of the most key actions a new user needs to take after signing up for a video hosting account on our platform. Here it is:
It’s just a screen capture and a voiceover, but it really helps new users navigate our platform. By walking people through the steps required to upload and share a video, we help people get to a critical successful moment on our platform.
Engagement
Once you’ve got your branding on point, and have taught users how to get the most out of your product or service, consider ways to sustain their interest.
Personalization is absolutely key here. The best, most ubiquitous example of video targeting engagement might be the Friend’s Day videos from Facebook.
In celebration of Facebook’s creation, the company launched highly personalized videos created for its users. The videos feature a summary of two people’s friendship, as it played out on the app.
This achieves several things that contribute to higher engagement on Facebook. Each video involves two people, increasing the likelihood someone will share it. It also provides social currency – it’s a cool overview of some of the most fun and memorable times they might have shared together. Often, it features a key delightful moment, which triggers a strong emotional response.
As we’ve seen before, an emotional connection with viewers is key to increasing sharing. By leveraging personalized video, you can help engage your users and grow brand affinity.
Growth
Once you’ve solidified your branding, onboarded your customers, and kept them engaged, it’s time to ask who they might know who could also benefit from your product or services.
Referrals need to be as easy as pie, or they simply won’t happen. Create easy ways for customers to share pre-formulated messages with custom referral links. Incentivize sharing with special discounts, access to premium features, or seriously cool swag.
A video simply asking for a referral probably won’t cut it here. However, a personalized “thank you” video that really speaks to the individual, might.
Try to pinpoint to awesome stuff they’ve achieved by using your products or services. Or, how they’ve helped your company grow, and in turn, are helping others.
For example, this approach by charity: water is not only highly personalized, but also very genuine. It’s also extremely specific about the contributions they received, and what those donations enabled them to do.
Wouldn’t you be more likely to donate again, or refer others to this organization, if you received a grateful message like this?
To really give this type of message a boost, couple your sincere gratitude with a post-play call-to-action. Use this CTA to prompt the viewer to refer others, and you might just get people to share.
Are you using video to accelerate your growth marketing efforts? Let us know how in the comments below.
