How Marketers Can Tie Video Assets to ROI

Although 70 percent of B-to-B marketers are using video, only 58 percent believe they're using it effectively. This can largely be attributed to not optimizing content before releasing it, and to the fact that the primary focus for most videos tends to be top-funnel goals such as awareness versus mid-to-late funnel goals like lead generation. It's possible to tie your video efforts to return on investment, but it requires taking a step back and revisiting how you approach video initiatives. Set an end goalBefore you decide to make a video, think about the purpose of the video and what action it will inspire your viewers to take. Are you trying to drive more demos? Encourage people to register for an event? Whatever the case may be, think about what you want your audience to do when they finish watching. Always give your viewers a clear action item that ties to a meaningful, measurable activity. Calls to action (CTA) are a simple and effective way to do just this. For example, if you create a video product tour using a series of videos, use the first video to lead viewers to the second, the second video to lead to the third, and so on. At the end of the last video, prompt a demo request or trial download. Using this method, each of your videos guide viewers one step further along the buying cycle. Designing your videos with the end in mind and using CTA to prompt specific actions will help ensure you're tying your content to concrete marketing goals. Look at the dataIt goes without saying that tying video content to ROI will involve evaluating what video content seems to be working and what isn't. When it comes to determining the performance of your video, these are the key metrics you need to keep an eye on: Audience attention span: Are viewers skipping parts of your video? Rewatching certain sections? Drop-off rates: Are 20 percent of viewers making it to the end of your video? Clickthrough rates on CTA The device types used to view video content — do most of your views come from mobile devices? The geographic location of viewers. By understanding how prospects interact with your content, you're better positioned to notice any areas for concern and make changes that will help you achieve the goals your video was intended to accomplish. For example, let's say you notice that at 25 seconds into a video, a high percentage of viewers are dropping off. What's happening during that time period? Is the content getting dry? Was there something that turned people off? Looking at the digital behavior of your audience ultimately allows you to adjust your content to make sure it's hitting the mark. On a similar note, if you notice that a particular video resonates better than others with your audience, you can start thinking about where else you may be able to incorporate that video to amplify your efforts. Connect your video data to your CRM Arguably the easiest way to see if your videos are impacting revenue is to push viewing data into your CRM system (note that this requires a video marketing platform). When viewing history is available in Salesforce, for example, you can take advantage of simple reporting to see exactly how the videos you're producing resonate with specific contacts. For instance, you can see not only a lead's video viewing history, but what percentage of each video they've completed and when. Linking your video data and CRM system gives you direct visibility into what prospects are interested in based on their viewing history. Additionally, there are reports available that can show you which videos are generating the most revenue. You can even filter data by opportunity size to see if there's a correlation between high video consumption rates and higher-value deal sizes. Integrating video engagement data into your CRM is the most direct way to track how each video your marketing team produces ends up impacting sales. The bottom line is you need to be comfortable setting measurable goals and looking at data to evaluate performance. Because there are so many simple ways to begin seeing results with video content, it's easier than ever to get started. Begin by adding CTA to your videos, adding email gates or incorporating video content into your nurturing campaigns. Once you get used to tying mid-to-late funnel videos to measurable goals, you'll be able to show ROI on your video projects in no time. Michael Litt is the CEO of Vidyard, a video marketing company. Connect with Michael on Twitter — @michaellitt @vidyard

General

How Marketers Can Tie Video Assets to ROI

Michael Litt

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Michael Litt