As a consumer yourself, you already know how powerful video can be; and if you are ever online, chances are you are interacting with video for everything — including and beyond checking your work email.
Today’s online consumer isn’t limited to techie guys and Millennials; in fact, according to a Forbes study, more than 80 percent of surveyed senior executives watch more online video today than they did a year ago; 75 percent of senior executives watch work-related videos on a weekly basis; and 54 percent share work-related videos with their colleagues at least weekly.
What does that mean for your security services business? Of course, it means there is no excuse not to have a video component — either as a pop-up or in a special section on your homepage, or on your company’s social media pages (yes, you need them!), or somewhere else. Chances are, someone will be making a buying decision based on them.
A popular trend among security service providers is sending out weekly or monthly newsletters...did you know that using the word “video” in an email subject line increases open rates by 19 percent, boosts click-through rate by 65 percent, and reduces unsubscribes by 26 percent (based on online marketing firm Syndacast’s research)?
So, you are sold on the video concept...now what? I have surfed around to a pretty large amount of security dealer and integrator websites and seen what I would call my fair share of security service marketing video campaigns, and a vast majority are missing a key element: the call to action. Wait a minute, you say, our video has a clear call to action at the end, when we tell the person watching to call 800-123-4567 and to visit our website!
Yes, that is a call to action, but you could be doing so much more to make them easy. Have you ever watched a YouTube video and some text pops up in the corner of the screen? That text can be clickable, and is a perfect call to action. It is termed a “Call-to-Action Overlay” and it can include a 74×74 logo (optional), a 25 character headline, a display URL, and appears both on videos used for YouTube ads as well as regular YouTube videos. If you search for “call to action overlay on Youtube,” you will find video tutorials on how to incorporate them into your videos.
Call to Action Strategies
Now that you know how to add them to your videos, your focus should be on getting the biggest bang for your buck! Wistia, a professional video hosting service for businesses, recently analyzed more 3.6 million of its hosted videos — including 481,514 calls to action from 324,015 videos — to examine how people are using calls to action and what tactics are most effective. According to the study, 95.9 percent of users place a call to action at the end of the video — only 4 percent put the call in the middle of the video.
When it comes to conversion rate — users who actually clicked on the call to action — placing the call in the middle is a better strategy, with a nearly 17 percent conversion rate vs. 11 percent when it comes at the end of the video. Nearly 75 percent of the Wistia videos use a text-based call-to-action button; only 26 percent used images. As you probably expect, images helped boost the conversion rate nearly three percent.
Senior executives like information in a mix of text and video, the Forbes study finds. They look to different outlets for different types of videos (e.g., business sites for news, YouTube for testimonials); and many are willing to engage with longer videos. Consider this my call to action to you!
Paul Rothman is Editor in Chief of Security Dealer & Integrator (SD&I) magazine. Access the current issue of SD&I along with archives at www.secdealer.com.
