The explosion of online shopping means that eCommerce is booming globally. But if you’re interested in scaling your eCommerce business, or setting yourself apart from competitors, visual and video content can be vital to your success. In fact, recent studies suggest that 82% of all internet content will be online videos by the end of 2022. The amount of video that consumers watch online has more than doubled since 2018. If that weren’t enough, 85% of consumers say they would like to see more video content from brands.
What should eCommerce brands be doing? Here are some concrete ways visual content can be valuable in helping scale your eCommerce business.
eCommerce customers can’t get enough of visual content marketing
You don’t have to look far to find convincing evidence in favor of visual and video content. Facebook posts featuring videos receive more than double the engagement than their video-less counterparts. And according to survey after survey, 4 times as many customers prefer watching a video about a product to reading about it. Visual content can be very effective at engaging new customers. On the other hand, brands that handle video marketing poorly, or don’t produce engaging visual content, sometimes pay the price, with customers describing them as “sketchy” or untrustworthy. In this respect, a smart video content strategy can be a life-or-death question for certain companies.
How can your eCommerce business avoid being labeled “untrustworthy”?
- Produce original visual content. If a photo you publish can be reverse image searched, your company may end up being unfairly associated with whoever took the original photo, or with other brands that have used that photo in unsavory ways. To avoid this, produce your own visual content directly, or only use a trusted source.
- Make sure your videos don’t look clumsy or amateurish. Nowadays you can shoot a feature film on an iPhone. Clearly, technology isn’t the problem. Instead, you have to make sure the person responsible for producing your visual content knows what they’re doing, and how it will look when uploaded to social media.
- Maintain a strong visual media presence online. The average business today produces 18 videos per month. This can be a stepping stone on the way to stronger customer relationships and long-term growth. On the other hand, brands that produce less visual content may be disadvantaged if customers are choosing between them and their competitors. In a crowded market, customers will often choose the brand that produces more high-quality videos on a regular basis, viewing them as more trustworthy.
Customers notice the difference
When it comes to video content, customers can immediately tell if a business puts in the work. When an eCommerce business invests in the basics of producing strong, consistent visual content, the results often speak for themselves. Whether your eCommerce business is just moving beyond the start-up phase, or has finally grown into new success, high-quality visual content doesn’t have to be your weak spot.
Three simple ways to improve your visual content:
- Know which image size you need for each social network. Different social media platforms have different ideal dimensions for visual and video content. For example, Twitter publishes photos and videos that are 440 pixels wide by 220 pixels tall. If an image is larger, it may be cropped.
- Use colors, but don’t overwhelm viewers. Never use more than five colors in a given image or video frame, otherwise you risk burying the important information you want to highlight.
- Know your audience. It may sound obvious, but sometimes businesses fail to align their visual content strategy with the customers they are trying to reach. This can result in a mismatched tone, and a lost opportunity for eCommerce providers.
User-generated photography and video content is king
Beautifully shot product photos can be useful. Entertaining, high quality videos are important. However, when it comes to scaling your eCommerce business nothing beats user-generated content. For an eCommerce provider, amplifying the organic voice of a happy customer is twice as useful as trying to attract new ones with compelling visual content.
How does user-generated content affect sales?
- Consumers say it works. 79% of consumers report that user-generated content influences their purchasing decisions.
- Word of mouth marketing is powerful. User-generated visual content can increase your product visibility. Showing trending products to potential customers can assure them that a new product is exciting or well-liked.
- Customers trust customers. Amplifying user-generated visual content can increase trust and credibility.
Visual content isn’t just video
If you own an eCommerce business, you probably already know visual content isn’t just photos and videos. Your company logo, feature highlights, even the design of an “add to cart” button all count as “visual content,” which means they all run the risk of scaring away customers if they’re not properly designed. On the other hand, an elegant and creative company logo or design feature can leave a lasting impression on a potential customer, even if they’re not sure what it was they liked about it.
Free ways to professionalize the visual content you produce
- Whether for logos, sales, or social media posts, Canva is a free and easy-to-use tool that can help businesses of any size make their visual content pop.
- Brush up on your Photoshop skills. If you don’t already have Photoshop, consider a free alternative, like GIMP.
A more elegant solution for scaling your eCommerce business
Top notch visual and video content are incredibly important tools in your arsenal if you want to scale your eCommerce business — once you’ve attracted the right customers, however, you have to keep them coming back. If you’re interested in growing both your sales and market share, you need a seamless cross-border payment solution to handle that inevitable growth. If you don’t already have a global payments partner like LianLian Global, that can be difficult. A global payments partner can help ensure:
- Ease of use for eCommerce providers and their customers alike
- More elegant and efficient solutions to difficult global payments problems
- Time to focus on what really matters to your business
Discover a secure way to expand your eCommerce business into new and emerging markets.
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