My ecommerce business basically started with a video.
And admittedly, it wasn't a pro one either. But it got traction and led to the current business.
So, video and particularly Youtube is high on my list of recommendations.
It probably will be mentioned in part of the cookbook, but while checking some stuff on Youtube, I figured I best get you guys started with this.
Why? Well, just look at those inflatable seats / bags we discussed the other day.
A video with tips on how to use them gets just under 800K views in little over a year. On just 500-something subscribers, so where not exactly in Youtube celebrity leagues here
(you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbCgDhIi1NI)
Just imagine having to pay for that traffic.
Sure, the buying intention might not be there as it is for more targeted traffic but still..
An additional benefit of being higher up in the funnel also means you are able to build trust at a stage where there's little competition.
You don't even need that many views
So yeah, this is anecdotical evidence, but from my experience, you don't even need that many views.
We've had great results with very specific topics and only hundres of views.
But these views are an indication of self-selected customers. Meaning that if they watch the video (and don;t skip in seconds), they are clearly interested.
And they will buy, mail you, call or whatever (depening on what you want them to do).
Every additional subscriber means every next video will do better
With no traction, you can spend money on fidget spinners all day long.
But when some 12 year old with a big subscriber base (100K in gaming niche) in The Netherlands makes a top 10, he gets 200K views in littel over a day.
And it doesn't even have high production values: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdkUboSA5uE
We have seen this with our own videos too: once you have a few hundred subscribers, new videos get picked up quickly.
A workflow for success
Here's an example workflow to get you started:
- get the product in and do some research
- make video 1: unboxing (just showing what it is and what's in the box)
- make video 2: review (where you talk about the good and bad parts
- make video 3: how to use x (talking about how you use it)
- put videos up on youtube, make sure there's a call to action in the video and in the description
- embed videos on your site wherever relevant
- get videos transcribed and add them as content on your site (repurposing)
Hope this helps in getting you started!
I am indeed going to cover this in some depth in the later part of the Cookbook - it's a very, very powerful technique.
And the video doesn't need to be expensive. Even four years ago, you might have had some questions about whether phone video would be good enough quality to sell product - but these days, the cameras in phones are ridiculously good. You really don't need any specialised equipment to shoot credible product demos/unboxing/whatever. It's not a bad idea to get a mic (Rode VideoMic Me probably being the best option) but you can even live without that. I've been shooting video for professional purposes on my phone using the phone mic in the last few months, and I've had precisely zero complaints.
(When I say "ridiculously good": I saw a video the other day comparing iPhone footage with footage from an Arri Alexa, as used on Mad Max, The Revenant, and almost every other top-end Hollywood film. The Alexa footage had greater dynamic range and would give a professional video editor more to work with, but honestly, for someone without a $50k color grading suite waiting, the iPhone video was probably more immediately usable and beautiful. )
I'm just getting into ecommerce myself and have been playing around making my own