How Video Content Boosts Customer Lifetime Value
Marketing
It's no secret among marketers that a well-thought-out video strategy is a significant driver for revenue growth.
When done right, video can accelerate the customer journey from brand awareness to engagement and through to conversion. There really is no better format to help you tell your story, showcase your products, and bring your brand personality to life. In fact, many marketers credit video with increasing dwell time, traffic, leads, and sales. And with 92% saying they get a good ROI on their video content, the impact of video has never been greater.
But the value of video doesn’t stop at conversion.
Delivering video content that goes beyond information and entertainment is a key tactic to maximizing customer lifetime value (CLV). Such videos offer customers additional benefits, insights, and utility after they complete the initial purchase or have gone dormant. With this approach, the total revenue you can expect from those customers grows.
Let’s dive deeper into how such video content can drive revenue growth in the loyalty stage and the types of content you should focus on.
Value-Added Video Content Drives Customer Loyalty
The loyalty stage can be tough to get right. What happens after conversion will determine whether your customers remain one-time buyers or become repeat purchasers on their way to customers for life. Now is your chance to deepen the trust established in the previous stages of the customer journey. Keep your customers engaged with personalized, interactive experiences that boost brand affinity and loyalty.
Using video to build customer loyalty will result in the following benefits:
- Steady visibility. After they have completed a purchase, you want to remain top of mind for your customers’ next purchase. Providing value after conversion secures ongoing visibility of your brand.
- Continued engagement and trust. If you keep your customers connected to your brand and entertained, they’re more likely to repeat a purchase. Eight in ten U.S. consumers say they will continue to buy from a brand they trust, even if there is an alternative. Additionally, personalized after-sales videos create an earnest emotional connection with customers, which leads to a 306% higher CLV.
- Cross-sell and upsell opportunities.The success rate of selling to an existing customer is 60–70%, compared to 5–20% for new customers. Videos promoting accessories for products your customers bought increases their chances to buy and, consequently, their lifetime value.
Once you recognize the benefits of value-added video content, you need to set the proper foundations. These three steps can enhance the success of your video content in the loyalty stage.
- Apply customer insights. Identify customer behavior and engagement opportunities based on data collected in the first three phases of the customer journey.
- Segment customers based on their status. Create segments of first-time, returning, or dormant buyers—and also factor in video engagement data for deeper personalization.
- Explore the touchpoints customers have been through. Understand your customer’s journey and how they converted.
Once you have a clear understanding of what your customers want, you can begin creating value-added content that will draw customers back to your brand.
Types of Value-Added Video Content
Video content that delivers benefits after conversion can take many forms. But there are three common types that can keep your customers coming back for more.
Exclusive content
Exclusive content can be based on products your segments have engaged with in the past. For example, if you know a customer is into camera gear and drones, target them with product teasers of an upcoming drone model. This will keep their engagement high and prime them for a potential upgrade in the future.
To see success from exclusive content, focus on the following tactics.
- Strategize. Define clear objectives. Do you want to re-engage viewers? Get their email on a product waitlist or gather their thoughts on your creative fashion collection? Make sure you know these beforehand to properly judge success.
- Personalize. Analyze your customer data and tailor videos to your segments. For example, high-touch customers will appreciate VIP content and offers to strengthen their connection with your brand. In contrast, those showing signs of potential churn need to be reminded about your products’ worth in re-engagement campaigns. No matter the segment, make sure the information in the videos is genuinely exclusive and not obtainable elsewhere.
- Engage. Deploy interactive features to make your exclusive video content more appealing. For example, use personalized CTAs for exclusive content, like early access to a new collection before the official launch. Or utilize feedback forms asking for an opinion on the progress of a project your clients just saw behind-the-scenes video about. Enabling direct interaction with your brand and making customers feel involved and heard is a great way to stoke excitement.
How-to videos and user-generated content
Assets that show customers how they can get the most out of the products they bought are a great way to enhance customer experience post-purchase. Given that 70% of consumers say that video helps them to better understand the product or service, the importance of this content is undeniable.
Also, user-generated content, such as videos showing user hacks or creative uses for a product, can serve as an effective form of peer-to-peer marketing (P2P).
The following actionable tips can help you get the most out of how-to and user-generated content.
- Invite audiences to participate. In a dedicated video campaign, encourage your audience to share video reviews of your product with you and explain how to do so. Then, you can build a dedicated library online and use it for P2P marketing.
- Add interactivity. Bring how-to videos to life. Instead of having a talking head video with exhausting explanations, incorporate chapters or branching to let the customer take charge of their learning and viewing experience.
- Focus on support. Are there any issues that have repeatedly been raised by your customers? Create videos answering them to offer a quick fix.
Educational videos
Videos positioning your brand as a trusted knowledge source are a great way to offer your customers an entertaining experience after purchase. Keep engagement high by creating educational video series, publishing expert interviews, presenting video case studies, or hosting online webinars on topics that interest your audience.
To see success with this tactic, consider the following:
- Rely on data. Know your audience, understand their preferences, and serve them content with proven viewership and engagement. Also, be mindful of video duration. Check your analytics to determine the most easily digestible video length across your segments and prevent drop-offs.
- Define learning objectives. What skills should your customers get after watching your video content? Avoid branching out too much to keep your content practical and answer a specific need. You can also incorporate interactive polls or quizzes to keep your customers’ attention and test against your objectives.
- Extend reach. Promote your educational videos across channels. Send them out as a part of your newsletter or publish them on social media to reach more viewers and increase the value-added factor. Also, optimizing video metadata to make your video content easily discoverable can boost the organic reach of your videos.
Drive Loyalty Across the Customer Journey
Value-added content is a great way to deepen relationships with customers after the initial point of purchase and increase CLV. From showing customers your care through deeper personalization to retargeting customers and creating lookalike audiences, you can deploy many different tactics to drive results.
