The people have spoken–or rather, watched.
We love videos. We love them in 7-second Vines or Snapchats. We love them in our Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter feeds. We love emails caked in gifs. And let’s not forget about the wonderful world of YouTube.
Chalk it up to any of these social media sites, to the explosion of GoPro technology, or simply to “kids these days…” – whatever the reason, videos are in vogue. And that’s good news for zip tours and aerial adventure parks.
“When you’re selling an experience, still images can only go so far,” says Sara Bell, CEO of The Gorge. “That’s where videos come in to complete the picture.”
In the marketing world, videos can do no wrong. Ninety-three percent (read: pretty much all) marketers use video in their roles and just over half think video delivers the best ROI compared to other types of content.
But anything offering a high reward also comes with a high risk. It’s hard to produce a cinematic marvel. The best ones will be short, look professional, and excite viewers.
With your tours winding down this winter, it’s the perfect time to plan out some video projects that bring some A-list entertainment to your website. Enchant your customers and boost your sales, as long as you follow these video marketing tips:
Show Them What Sets You Apart
With anything as hyped as video marketing, there’s the risk of going along with the bandwagon without anything to show for it in the end. It’s not worth taking the time, money, and energy to produce a video just because everyone else is doing it.
Before you press record, you need a strategy. Any marketing, video included, should ultimately influence your audience’s behavior, nudging people closer to a sale. How you accomplish that, however, depends on your customers––are they swayed more by information or by excitement and entertainment? Will they listen to what you have to say or what other customers have to say?
One way to begin your brainstorm is to think of all the things people look for when they book a tour. Why would someone choose your experience over your competitor’s?
Now that you’ve got your list of reasons, put it to the screen test. Let’s be honest, there are some stories that don’t need to be told in film. For example, some of your competitive advantages could be your pricing or proximity to a major metropolitan area. But neither of those topics make for compelling videos.
As you plan, therefore, make sure your video speaks to your customers’ purchasing criteria, but also ask yourself whether that topic could be communicated easily in images or text.
Take The Gorge, for instance. On its home page, it features a video about the quality of its guides. “So much of the feedback that we get from return clients is about how amazing our guides are,” Bell explains, “and that’s also a really challenging thing to communicate to people that have never been here before.”
Videos give you the power to showcase your tour’s personality. Take advantage of that by capturing special parts of your experience that are hard to describe in pictures or words.
Extra tip: The placement of your video is in some ways just as important as the content itself. Make sure you consider where on your website it will have the greatest influence.
