Creating Video Content for Every Stage of the Customer Journey

When a customer is considering purchasing something, they embark on what’s known as the customer journey. There are five primary steps to this journey, with the first three focused on making the customer aware of your product and persuading them to purchase. Marketing is crucial in these steps, and video marketing, in particular, can make or break your sales.

Your video marketing strategy should include content that targets each of the first three steps of the customer journey. At each stage, the customer has different needs, and your marketing needs to reflect that. Understanding the customer journey is just the first step in knowing how to create killer content that converts customers and drives sales.

Understanding the Customer Journey

The customer journey refers to the different steps that a customer takes when choosing what product or service to purchase. While the specifics of the customer journey can vary slightly depending on who you ask, most marketing professionals agree that they include the following:

• The awareness stage: The stage in which customers become aware that your product or service exists.
• The consideration stage: The stage in which customers are weighing their options and deciding if the product or service is right for them.
• The decision stage: The stage in which the customer makes a decision about purchasing.
• The retention stage: The stage in which you do what you can to keep customers coming back.
• The advocacy stage: The stage in which your customer is so happy with your product or service that they are willing to spread the word to others.

The first three customer journey stages, awareness, consideration, and decision, are all focused on guiding the prospective customer from when they first discover your product to when they make a purchase. The last two stages are focused on building and maintaining customer loyalty.

While all stages of the customer journey are important, marketing is primarily focused on the first three. Using videos within your marketing strategy is an effective way to inform, convince, and convert customers, which allows you to later retain their business.

The Importance of Video Content in Marketing

Video marketing used to be limited to television and movie theaters, but today, many more customers view video marketing online. Studies show that the average user spends 17 hours a week watching digital videos on sites like YouTube and TikTok. These platforms, as well as other social media sites, create the perfect opportunity to reach potential customers.

The power of video marketing is hard to deny. Marketing videos are often vastly superior to text or simple images because:

• They’re more likely to both capture and hold the audience's attention
• They allow you to do and express more than you can with images and text
• Users are more likely to share videos
• They help you rank higher in SEO

In addition, videos are more likely to create an emotional connection with the viewer. This deepens your relationships and helps you build trust and credibility. As a result, videos have become an essential part of most marketing strategies, and you can learn more with Charter & Co.’s video marketing guide.

The Awareness Stage: Capturing Attention

The first stage of the customer experience journey is the awareness stage. This stage is all about making your target audience aware of your company and the products or services you offer as well as showcasing what those things can do for your customer.

Standard promotional videos are the most common type of video marketing used during this stage. These are videos meant to bring attention to your brand, product, service, or event. Think of your typical commercial, where the product or service is on full display.

But the market is flooded with commercials, so for videos like this, storytelling is incredibly important. These tell some sort of story, which can be humorous, heartwarming, educational, or somewhere in between. Storytelling videos are usually more memorable and more likely to be shared, which is what makes them so effective for the beginning of your customer sales journey funnel.

There are several other types of videos you can use instead of, or in addition to, promotional marketing videos. These include:

• Educational videos: Videos that answer FAQs and teach customers how to use your product or service
• Explainer videos: Videos that give an introduction to what your product or service does
• Live-stream videos: Videos streamed live on your website or social media showcasing your product
• Product demo videos: Videos that show off the product in action

These types of videos are great at capturing attention because they differ from typical promotional product videos. You can even make these types of videos as short-form content, perfect for social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.

The Consideration Stage: Building Trust

In the consideration stage, customers are aware of your product or service but haven’t yet made the decision to purchase. At this point in the customer experience journey map, your job is to build trust with these potential customers.

Often, social proof, like customer testimonials, is the best way to do this. In testimonial videos, happy customers talk about your company or product. An effective customer testimonial will talk about a pain point that the customer was dealing with and how your product or service solved their problem.

But maybe you’re a new company that doesn’t have many customers yet. There are other types of videos you can use to help convert customers, such as interview videos. In these videos, you can interview people within your company to showcase what went into developing the product or interview experts to help you gain credibility.

Additionally, things like tutorials, explainer videos, and product demos that expand on previous marketing can work well in this stage. They are especially effective for B2B marketing, as they give you the opportunity to teach businesses how to use the product and how it can resolve specific issues they may have.

The Decision Stage: Encouraging Action

The decision stage, sometimes called the purchase stage, is the part of the customer journey in which your potential customer becomes an actual customer. You’re trying to get them to make the final moves to go beyond “add to cart” and finalize the purchase.

This isn’t always easy, but there are a variety of video marketing tools you can use to convert customers. Persuasive content that aids customers in decision-making is key. You can create persuasive content by providing your customers with information, especially about how your product tackles common pain points.

One way to persuade customers who are on the fence is by creating videos that address frequently asked questions or concerns that your customers might have. Customers want to make informed decisions, and by providing answers to their questions up-front, you make it much easier for them to feel confident in their choices. 

Product demonstration videos can go a long way in this stage of the customer journey as well. Sometimes, seeing is believing, and when a customer is able to view for themselves exactly what your product does, it gives them that extra push to make their final decision.

Tips for Aligning Video Content with Customer Needs

The best way to create video content that resonates with your customers is to understand what your target audience needs and wants. Market research goes a long way here, but you can also use current and former video marketing campaigns to understand your customers and what makes them tick.

When you post marketing videos on social media, you’ll be able to see analytics for your campaign. These are things like how many people click on or share your ad and the gender and age groups of these people. You can then use this information to determine what your target audience likes, what marketing videos are working, and which ones aren’t. For example, if educational videos have a higher click-through rate than standard promotional videos, you’ll know where to shift your focus.

Additionally, looking at campaign analytics can tell you where you’re missing a step in the customer journey. Maybe your campaign has a great click-through rate but a dismal conversion rate. This can tell you that something might be lacking in your videos meant for the decision stage.

Ready to Grow Your Video Content?

A comprehensive marketing strategy should include content, including video content, for the first three steps of the customer journey: awareness, consideration, and decision. This gives you the ability to guide your customers as they first discover your product until they ultimately decide to make a purchase.

Creating a marketing strategy for all three stages of the customer journey can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to be. Charter & Co’s comprehensive video production services will help you create the perfect marketing strategy that has you converting potential customers into paying ones. Contact us today to learn more!