A Study in Profitability: Why Tutorial Videos Make Dollars and Sense (Cents)

July 24, 2018

Companies and businesses—especially those that have an e-commerce component—should utilize tutorial videos if they want to accomplish the following:

1. Drive more traffic to their website.
2. Help customers purchase more products.
3. Encourage customers to buy more often.

In accomplishing these goals, companies increase profitability and help their bottom lines. Still not convinced that tutorial videos pay off? Check out the following five reasons why video tutorials are a valuable (and arguably essential) marketing tool:

Reason #1: People love to consume videos.

Consumers spend a staggering amount of time watching videos. Approximately one-third of online activity is spent watching videos, an average of 32.3 videos every month. As attention spans grow shorter and shorter, video becomes an increasingly important medium: 1 in 4 consumers lose interest in a company if it doesn’t feature any video on its website. Furthermore, nearly two-thirds of consumers say companies that use video know how to ‘reach’ their customers. In other words, companies that use video are considered to be more savvy and ‘in touch’ with their customers than competitors who don’t use video. Further statistical evidence reveals 30% of online shoppers want more video from e-commerce sites, which includes product descriptions, tutorials, and customer testimonials.

Based on these facts, it’s evident that videos and video tutorials play a vital role in engaging and educating consumers. Compelling, easy-to-understand content can motivate people to watch videos in their entirety and strengthen their influence on viewers. As a general rule, keep videos at 2 minutes or less to maximize impact.

Reason #2: Video drives more organic traffic.

“Organic traffic,” or the number of visitors who find a site after using an online search engine like Google, Yahoo, and others, plays a major role in generating e-commerce earnings. The higher the quality of a website, the more organic traffic it can attract. One of the ways search engines like Google analyze the quality of a website is through something called its “bounce rate.” Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page.

Sites with high bounce rates rank low on search engine results because the search engines downgrade their perceived quality or ‘value.’ For this reason, e-commerce stores in particular need to attract more organic traffic to offset bounce rates. Animated tutorial videos can do a great job of educating consumers about products available for sale on the e-commerce site and garner higher volumes of organic traffic. Some data suggests that over 62% of businesses using animated tutorials and other forms of video think it has helped to directly increase organic traffic to their site.

Reason #3: People use videos to learn about products.

This was referenced in Reason #2, but it’s important to reiterate the value of video as an educational tool. Animated tutorial videos help to build brand awareness, foster customer loyalty, and increase sales. Some surveys have shown that up to 98% of people polled watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. Furthermore, 90% of people interviewed said that product videos helped them decide which product or service to purchase. A separate study found that 64% of consumers are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video and 93% of businesses who use animated tutorial videos believe they have increased users’ understanding of their products/services and consequently, their conversion rates.

The internet is saturated with information that comes in a variety of mediums, each one absorbed differently. What makes watching more effective than reading? The world of marketing is ever changing and attention spans continue to shorten. Video affects how individuals process and understand information. Studies reveal people who watch a video retain 95% of a message compared to only 10% when the same message is read in text. Furthermore, research conducted by Google reveals almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product/service before visiting a store in person.

Reason #4: Video drives more conversions.

Video can greatly impact purchasing decisions and consequently, conversion rates. Research suggests that the majority of consumers who watch explainer videos to learn about products/services end up buying them. Translation? Video helps educate consumers, increase brand awareness, and encourage viewers to buy, which results in higher conversion rates: websites that use video generally have a conversion rate that is twice that of companies that elect not to use video. Overall, 76% of businesses using video believe it is a good return on investment.

Reason #5: Marketers find video very effective.

Consumers have made it apparent that well-made video tutorials are effective. Because of its popularity, video has become an integral part of virtually every company’s marketing strategy: 87% of online marketers use video content to grow their businesses, while 88% say that video is “an important part” of their marketing strategy. Despite the central role that video plays in marketing, half of today’s businesses believe video is the most difficult form of content to create—which is why it’s vital to find an animation studio and team of professionals who can assist in creating unique, results-driven content.

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