Video is a must-have for most marketing strategies. And for good reason too. 88% of video marketers reported that video gives them a positive ROI.
While video is no-doubt one of the most effective tools for marketing, it can also help with customer success.
Customer success is centered around understanding your customers and their challenges and finding ways to help them so that they can get the most out of your products and services.
It’s part of every stage in the customer journey, from converting and activating new customers to retaining and growing your relationship with existing ones. Customer success leads to customer satisfaction, which in turn improves retention, reduces churn rates, encourages customer advocacy, and most importantly, boosts sales and revenue.
Video is an effective way to achieve this, giving you the means to directly connect with your customers with engaging and personalized content focused on helping them be successful.
Here are 5 ways you can use video for customer success.
1. Provide Seamless Onboarding
Onboarding is a crucial part of any customer success strategy. If customers can’t see value in your product, why would they continue to be a customer?
There are several different approaches to onboarding — drip campaigns, quickstart guides, demos and tutorials, and more. Each is aimed at getting your customer acquainted so they can begin using your product and seeing the value right away.
No matter the approach you take, video can help create a seamless onboarding experience.
Video onboarding is a great way to take customers through your product step-by-step. Video can make any complex or confusing steps more clear. It can replace the long, written-out text with captivating content that keeps customer’s interest. And most importantly, it can show your product in action so customers can see exactly what it does and what it is capable of.
Ways you can use video for onboarding include:
- A personalized welcome message
- Product overview or explainer
- How-to videos in modal steps
- Getting started checklist or guide
For example, Monday.com uses a video along with their step-by-step onboarding guide. The video provides an overview of the product and the steps to get started. With this overview, users know what to expect and have a clear outline of their progress.
Video can also be used by your customer support team throughout the onboarding process by offering 1-on-1 meetings shortly after a customer begins using your product. This check-in would be tailored to the individual customer, ranging from helping completely new users finishing setting up their account to troubleshooting issues for more advanced use cases.
2. Create a knowledge base
Along with preparing your customers for success during onboarding, video is also a useful tool to include throughout all customer resources.
Video can help customers who need a refresher on how to use your product, giving them resources to refer back to long after they have completed onboarding. As well as help more long-term customers who are having trouble with certain features or are seeking to learn more about different ways to use your product.
Having this knowledge base not only empowers your customers but also saves time. 43% of video marketers say video has reduced the number of support calls they’ve received.
Your existing resources can act as an inspiration for potential video content. This can include:
- FAQs
- Common troubleshooting issues
- Tutorials for key features
- Product use-cases
Canva uses short videos to explain different features and use-cases, allowing users to see the product in action and how they can use it for themselves. There are several videos in their knowledge base, including everything from how to get started with Canva to advanced Canva Pro features.
3. Introduce new product launches
40% of people will respond better to visual information than plain text. So if you are needing to communicate important information, such as a new product launch or feature update, video comes in handy.
Video can be used to introduce a new product in a much easier and quicker way than text. Including video in email campaigns, chat boxes, and on your website will both inform customers about the new product, and ease them in to any changes that may be coming. This will help alleviate change-aversion and answer their questions beforehand.
Intercom uses video to announce new feature updates on their platform. The 2-minute video explains what the feature is, why it is useful, and how it can be used. Users can see how the feature looks and where to access it, giving a strong visualization of the use-case.
Additionally, video is a great medium for building excitement and anticipation around a new product launch — a tried and tested strategy used by Apple for years. These videos can be featured on your own website, as well as on social media and in press coverage.
4. Build a unique customer experience
More and more, video is becoming an essential way for brands to communicate with their customers. Video gives you the ability to personalize your message, providing you the opportunity to better connect and engage with your customers.
There are several different ways you can use video to build a unique customer experience.
Customer engagement
One way is to use video to interact with your customers on a more personal level. This could include:
- Welcome video
- Celebration of a milestone
- Customer appreciation
- Anniversary celebrations
- Invitation to VIP events
Social media presence
Another way is using video to speak directly with your customers on social media.
Video-driven social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram have become increasingly popular, especially with younger generations. Customers can reach out to brands on their company pages, as well as interact through user-generated content.
Another option is through streaming platforms such as Facebook Live, allowing customers to participate in the conversation as it is happening. Popular approaches to live streaming include hosting webinars, Q&A sessions, and panels.
This is not only great for the customer experience, it also helps with other growth areas such as SEO and content marketing. Video will help your SERP rankings and online presence, all of which help your brand awareness and reputation as a business.
News, insights & trends
This is also an opportunity to create content beyond just product information.
Video can be used for sharing industry news, expert insights, and new trends. This could be in the form of vlogs, online courses and academies, or a video series.
For example, Moz created a “Whiteboard” series that teaches audiences everything they need to know about SEO — although directly related, the content does not focus on the software itself. Instead, the content is centered around understanding and mastering SEO.
They’ve expanded their content to make it worthwhile content for everyone — ranging from beginner’s guides to those just starting in SEO to weekly videos for experienced marketers. Since the content is not product-related, there are always new ideas and topics being discussed to keep their customers engaged.
5. Encourage customer advocacy
Customer success not only increases your odds of gaining lifelong customers, but it also encourages customer advocacy.
Customer advocacy turns your happy customers into your brand advocates, who will share their positive experiences with others. This could be through customer reviews and testimonials that are featured directly on your website, or through user-generated content that can be shared on your social media pages.
Additionally, customer advocacy allows you to leverage the power of word-of-mouth marketing. With referral and affiliate marketing programs, you can reward customers for their promotions and referrals. This can be a game-changer for your outreach efforts, as Nielsen reports that 92% of consumers believe suggestions from friends and family more than advertising.
Using Bonjoro, you can create personalized videos that encourage customer advocacy.
For example, Munk Store uses Bonjoro to send their customers a thank-you video after they complete a purchase. The short-but-sweet video is a delightful way to thank their customers, while also providing a prompt for customers to leave a review — making it convenient and easy for them to advocate for the store.
Wrap up
To better convert, retain, and engage your customers, consider using video in the following ways:
- Provide seamless onboarding
- Create a knowledge base
- Introduce new product launches
- Build a unique customer experience
- Encourage customer advocacy
Including video throughout the customer journey will make your customers more successful, and as we discussed at the beginning of this article, customer success is vital to your brand’s overall growth.
About the author:
Jessica Rangel, Tapfiliate
Following degrees in journalism and intercultural communication, I left the US for a new adventure in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Luckily enough, I found my sweet spot as a Content Marketer for Tapfiliate.com. Now, my days are spent writing marketing content and mispronouncing nearly every word in the Dutch language.
