Just like any other animal, our brains are programmed to help us survive in the wild. Thanks to this primal instinct, our vision focuses on moving objects to quickly detect danger.
What this means in today’s safe environment is that the best way to attract someone’s attention will always be through motion.
With this in mind, when promoting a product or service, the ultimate goal has to be to gain the recipient’s attention and then to be able to convince and persuade them that they need it.
It is in the promoter’s interest to move away from traditional static words and images on stationary mediums and inch towards today’s new world of videos, GIFs and personalised advertising.
Once promoters use this knowledge to attract people’s attention, the next step would be to begin the persuasion process.
The use of “how to” videos can be a subtle way to attract interest for the product itself, gain trust from the viewers and all the while creating, and then maintaining their interest through engaging content in video format.
The 3 Ways How “How To” Videos Attract Customers
1 – Don’t waste my time
Reading an article or a blog post or generally researching about a product or a service or a process takes time. To do it well, LOTS OF TIME.
For the less enthusiastic or busier customer, this could easily be a dealbreaker. Even back in 2015, 4 times as many consumers reported they would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.
When a user is met by a video upon conducting their search, instead of big blocks of text, all they have to do is click ‘play’ and stare at the screen as they passively absorb the information through the video.
Plus, if the video answers the questions I had, then that video is precisely what I wanted!
2 – Video is HUGE!
This shouldn’t be news to anyone, but video is absolutely huge on the internet. 1.5 BILLION people visit YouTube every month, and research has revealed that how-to videos earn the most attention of any content category on YouTube.
Think of YouTube as the world’s second largest search engine, except that instead of a banner or webpage, you have a whole video to grab attention, teach something, and possibly, sell.
3 – Users searching for “How To” videos want to buy
The greatest advantage to using “how to” videos is that people search for “how to” do things when they have a problem to solve.
According to Google themselves, 86% of viewers regularly turn to YouTube to learn something new and 70% of YouTube viewers use the platform for help with a problem they’re having with their work, studies, or hobbies.
Meaning that if a user watches your video and it explains or solves their problem, they will likely want (or even need) to buy a product or service that fixes that same problem.
It could also happen that the user watches the video and decides, “Nah, no way am I fixing my own washing machine, but this guy looks and sounds like he knows what he’s doing. I’m gonna call him!”
Chances are that if external help is needed, the first one the user will call will be the one they saw in the video.
In conclusion, “how to” videos are a reliable way to improve conversion rate from viewer to customer and to drive traffic to your website through video.
If you’re interested in taking the next step, here’s a short primer from Google’s own blog, explaining how, “Grabbing consumer attention is hard. ‘How-to’ content can help”.
Why people turn to YouTube
And here’s a couple of my own favourite how-to videos:
