Creating a Social Media Marketing Funnel: Best Types of Video for Each Stage

Introduction

Before you embark on creating a social media marketing funnel, it’s important to know what stage of the marketing funnel you’re targeting. This is important so your video is as effective as it can possibly be from the very beginning. Knowing who you’re targeting will inform everything from the content of your video to how you distribute it. “For instance, you shouldn’t show short, uninformative content to someone who’s just discovering your brand. That would be a waste of resources and is less likely to end up converting as a sale.”

Your social media marketing funnel is the set of stages in a potential customer’s journey, from the realization there’s a problem to solve, to the first interaction with your brand, to the ultimate goal: conversion. These are also known as the awareness, consideration, and decision stages. Adding video to each step of the marketing funnel can help move potential customers through the funnel faster, while also making them feel more informed and confident in their decision to buy. So, what kind of video is best for each stage of the funnel? Let’s break it down a little further and provide some tangible goals you should prioritize within each stage.

Awareness Stage

In this beginning stage, the buyer is realizing they have a problem. This is where a challenge or opportunity is defined and the buyer is prioritizing this challenge within their daily life. Is it a big enough problem to require immediate attention (like a sore throat or broken television) or can the solution be put off for a while (like tailoring pants or a craving for popcorn)? Let’s say you run a software company that created an online customer service bot. Your potential client may be the CEO of a quickly-growing company. He’s realizing they aren’t keeping up with all their customer’s questions and feedback in an organized or timely manner. Poor customer service is affecting his sales and he goes online to find a solution.

This CEO is in the awareness stage of the marketing funnel and you’ll want to be one of the first companies that shows up in his search. So how do you know your potential client found you right away? Because you’re starting out on a fresh slate with these potential customers, measuring the success of your awareness stage goals can be tough. You’ve had no documented interaction with these consumers and measuring the first touch point is crucial. That’s why general goals of your awareness stage campaigns should include lifts in brand recognition and ad recall. For your video marketing campaign specifically, this translates to high view count, impressions, unique visits, awareness lift, and ad recall lift. Here are just a few video types you can use to interact with your awareness stage consumers.

Commercials

• Outline what problem you’re helping to solve and what makes you unique.
• Commercials should be less than a minute long and highlight your product or service beautifully.

Explainer Videos

• Decide the story you want to tell and make sure it’s in line with your brand mission.
• Explainer videos are a good way to break down difficult to understand concepts.
• Typically under two minutes, explainer videos highlight how a product or service solves a problem in a clear and efficient way.
• These are often hosted on a company’s homepage and distributed on social media platforms.

Educational Videos

• Educational videos help inform your audience about the problem you’re solving.
• Sometimes, educational videos are less focused on your brand and more focused on relating valuable information to your viewers about their problem, about your industry, or about your company.

Consideration Stage

At this stage, your potential buyer is considering ways he can address his problem. He’s researching, asking his friends for recommendations, and searching for cost-effective, but reliable information online. By now, you’ve had at least one point of contact with this potential buyer. Hopefully you’ve gotten a like on social media, set a retargeting cookie, or gotten a view or two on your brand videos. To stay top of mind, though, you’ve got to continue hitting this user with engaging and informative content. Keep reminding them why they should use your product or service over your competition and be there for them anytime they need more resources. This is an especially important stage for using video. Sixty-four percent of customers are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video, so you want to be sure you’re providing your potential customer more and more reasons to trust your brand with quality video.

Let’s say our CEO has found your customer service bot company by now. He’s probably not convinced your brand is the way to go; he needs confirmation of your brand’s quality and reliability because he’d be putting a large part of his customer service initiatives in your hands. It makes sense he’d want only the best – so you’ve got to convince him you’re the best. Your goal in this stage? To get your potential buyer to see you as the solution to their problem. You want to know this viewer is not only watching your content, but engaging with you and actively looking for you. If they think about their problem, they immediately associate with your brand. For each video you post targeted at consideration stage viewers, you want to pay attention to view-through rate, lead generation (like acquisition of a phone number or email address), and favorability, consideration, and brand lift. These will all give you a good idea of how users are interacting with you and what they think of your brand. If you get a new email subscriber or a lead, you’ll know you’re closing in on that sale. Here are some of the videos that’ll help engage your consideration stage viewers.

Testimonial Videos

• People need social proof now more than ever.
• Use a testimonial video as a visually engaging and interactive review.
• Feature someone who loves your product or service telling their story and you’ll instantly gain some major credibility.

Product Videos

• Use a product video to showcase your product, the problem it solves, and how it works.
• This is similar to a commercial, with a more in-depth breakdown of how exactly your product or service works.
• You’ll also want to highlight what unique features help you stand out from your competition – a crucial angle at this point in the consideration stage.
• Product videos can be used in the awareness stage as well, but function especially well in providing further information after a potential customer has seen your commercial or educational video.

Educational Videos

• These videos provide clear, detailed answers to questions your viewers or potential customers may have.
• From how to use your product, to why your product is best, to industry insights, these videos make it easy for anyone watching to start envisioning themselves using your product.

Decision Stage

This stage of the marketing funnel is huge. If your prospective customer has made it this far, congratulations! That means you’ve done a good job staying top-of-mind and the prospective customer is close to making their final purchasing decision. Keep tracking the metrics so you don’t lose communication with these elusive prospective customers. Think about our hypothetical CEO. This is where he’ll decide whether your solution or something similar offered by a competitor is the direction he wants to go. Quotes and demos are great ways to convince him that your company is the right choice. You might offer quotes, demos, free trials, or consultations, but be sure to use video to really push your value home. You’ll want to present anything that may sway their opinion toward you, so this is an excellent stage to provide stats and figures, case studies, and reward bonuses for purchase, like rebates or incentives.

This is where customers are the most volatile, so be sure you’re really providing value at this stage. Your prospective customers know who you are and what their problem is, so don’t waste time with introduction content or videos that don’t tell them anything. Have a clear message with a clear call to action. Success here should be the easiest to measure. You’ll want to know how many people are actually converting. Track these by measuring clicks, calls, sign-ups, sales, and purchase intent lift. Most of these metrics are measured automatically by your video hosting platform or website analytics. If you can, connect Google Analytics to your website and set clicks or sign-ups as your goal for easier tracking (it’s free!) Once your video has led to sign-ups or conversions, you’ll want to keep post-sale engagement high for added value and word of mouth. Here are some great decision-stage videos you can use to close the sale.

Tutorial Videos

• Teach your soon-to-be customers exactly how to use your product.
• Demonstrate in a detailed, step-by-step guide how it works, what you’ll need, and anything else that may be relevant.
• Once the user gets an idea of how easy the actual process is, they’ll be excited to give it a try.

Personalized Video

• Personalized video is a mix between other types of video and some extra personalization features or details.
• Use the data you have to send prospective customers a video that looks like it was made just for them.
• You can include a video for the exact model type they were researching, work their name into the video, or use information from their social media accounts, like a birthday coupon or bonus.

Before and After Videos

• Use the dramatic effect of visuals to really sell your product.
• Before and after videos showcase stark differences in product use.
• Though these function best for physical transformation industries, like weight loss, home repair, or lawn care, you can use this idea to show how much easier someone’s life or challenges are after acquiring your product or service.

The marketing funnel is a crucial tool to use when planning not only video content, but all your digital marketing campaigns. Knowing where in the journey your customers are can help you narrow in on your messaging and really optimize your efforts. Plus, keeping your goals and success metrics in mind can show you any weak points in your strategy and help you target your audience more effectively.