12.22.2021
How to optimize your B2B buyer’s journey with video: Decision phase
We’ve reached the final stage of our series on optimizing your buyer’s journey with video—the decision phase.
(If you haven’t read our articles on using video in the Awareness and Consideration phases, you should do it!)
Creating materials to help convert more prospects into customers can feel like an insurmountable challenge. This is especially true in the B2B space where each sale represents a customer committing to a multimillion-dollar investment or allocating a large portion of their yearly budget.
When the stakes are high and the investment is significant, how do you get prospects to commit and buy?
Read on for three tips to help you create bottom of funnel videos that result in more sales.
1. Be direct
The Decision phase is not the time to speak in generalities or avoid comparisons.It’s the time to…
- Be clear about your superiority on the features and services your prospects care about most.
- Alleviate your prospects’ concerns about choosing you.
- Give prospects the confidence to pick you.
The easiest way to do the above? Show them “the proof is in the pudding.”
This can be accomplished by creating videos that either walk audiences through a specific use case/case study (“this is how we would solve problem X”) or show what to expect after purchase or commitment (how to videos, process videos, or unboxing videos).
Your Decision phase videos need to be very focused and intentional. If sales were a boxing match, the Decision phase is the final round. You don’t want to throw out a mad flurry of jabs hoping a few land. You want to execute a strategic combination of punches to win the round and the match as decisively (and with as little unnecessary energy expended) as possible.
2. Stick to the fundamentals
If you’ve read my articles on the first two phases of the buyer’s journey, you’ve already done a great job of grabbing prospect attention in the Awareness phase and begun positioning yourself as the expert in the Consideration phase.
Grabbing attention can sometimes require a lot of flash and dash or emotional storytelling to stop the scroll.
In the Decision phase, you’ve already got the prospect’s attention. Now it’s time to stick to the fundamentals.
You don’t need to spend a bunch of money making an over-the-top trendy, attention-grabbing video at this late stage in the game. You are no longer trying to sell. You’re trying to stick to the facts, alleviate a prospect’s remaining concerns, and reassure and excite them that they are making a good choice.
This “how to” video from Rollerblade is about as simple and non-flashy as it gets. But it sealed the deal for me in my decision to purchase rollerblades as an adult.
My biggest fear about rollerblading as an adult was my ability to slow down or stop once I got going. Would I be able to do it? Do the brakes on rollerblades really work that well?
After watching this video, I was sufficiently convinced I could master the skill of slowing down and stopping well enough to survive rollerblading on the mean streets of a small town. It also convinced me that the helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads, all of which I refused to wear as a kid, were worth buying.
I’ll tell you about my most recent failed attempt to brake resulting in me having to bail into the grass another time.
3. Make it easy for prospects to commit
Most of us love the thrill that comes when a prospect finally picks us over the competition. The joy of being “picked” is a universal human emotion. We all want to feel it. Sometimes you’ll get to be part of that moment and sometimes you won’t.
The true measure of success for a Decision phase video is its ability to facilitate an easy and successful purchase for your new customer.
For some companies, that could mean providing self-service options to support your video content, such as providing links to featured products within your social media posts.
For other companies, human interaction is a key component of their buyer’s journey. In that case, providing contact information to a sales person is pivotal.
All of us have been in a situation where a company’s customer experience leaves you wondering if they even want your money. (Like those times you can’t find someone to help you in a store, or when you’re on hold trying to buy something for an hour.) Don’t do this to your customers!
Provide them the information they need to seal the deal as part of your video content, video CTA, or video optimization plan.
Optimizing your buyer’s journey with video allows you to use your marketing dollars in a way that delivers the most value. It allows you to give your prospects and customers the content they need when they need it. It helps you understand where to spend the big bucks and where you don’t need to. And it helps you turn more prospects into customers.
For more information on how to use video to optimize your buyer’s journey, check out the previous two articles in this series.
How to optimize your B2B customer journey with video: Awareness phase
How to optimize your B2B customer journey with video: Consideration phase
Now go forth and optimize!