For every eCommerce brand out there, delivering a seamless user experience is on top of their wishlist for 2023. Even though buyers are transacting offline, brands are trying to offer them a similar experience to what they would get if they were shopping in-store. While immersive experiences are not new for the eCommerce space, there are specific tweaks they may consider through website redesign services and provide a more personalized experience for the customer.

In simple words, an immersive experience can be defined as the personalization of content for your target audience to engage them at an emotional level. This can be done by using various modes and tools of multimedia. The more memorable and satisfying the experience is, the better the chances of boosting your eCommerce sales.

Before you approach a web design company to overhaul your eCommerce website to deliver an immersive experience to your customers, it is a good idea to be well-versed with the upcoming trends.

1 – Mapping the customer journey is critical

Understanding the customer journey is critical if you want to implement immersive experiences for your eCommerce website. After all, it is a customer-driven business, and delivering based on the unique needs of your customers can be the differentiator between your competitors and you.

There are several critical stages of the customer journey. These include:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Evaluating a product
• Making a decision

It is possible to introduce an element of immersion at every stage to make it a memorable experience for your customers. For example, adding a powerful slogan or video to create awareness about your product can go a long way in ensuring personalized messaging.

The next step can be creating an immersive experience based on the identity and demographics of your customer. Understanding what the requirements of your customers are, what they like to see, and what they avoid seeing can be an excellent way to develop immersive solutions and provide meaningful experiences.

This exercise is critical as it helps eCommerce platforms to understand whether they are in a position to offer something in line with the requirements of their customers. Since the ultimate goal is to deliver a memorable experience that hits the customers at the right place, businesses should focus on working out how best to do it consistently.

2 – Add animated navigation on your website

Browsing through your eCommerce website shouldn’t be boring for your customers. The idea should excite them and get them to check out the website without feeling like it is a humungous task they are undertaking. And what better than animation to achieve this goal? Overstimulating the audience by using clever visuals and animated elements can create a lasting impact, enhancing product recall.

Instead of relying on regular animation, it is time to embrace animated navigation. It allows you to guide the user through the entire website as if you are giving them a personal tour of the storefront. You can think of it as a perfect combination between animation and gamification. You can tweak the UX of your website to give the impression that the users are playing a game while they try to navigate. This can make the experience more memorable and entertaining.

3 –  Opt for curved frames whenever possible

A curved frame is every designer’s favorite as it allows seamless display without the image breaking or tearing at any point. It automatically evokes calmness and warmth, which are essential for delivering an immersive experience to the audience.

The easier you make it for the audience to scroll through your website, the better the chances of them remembering what they saw. These frames also add a cleaner and minimalist appeal to the website, increasing the chances of connecting to the viewer at a deeper level. Take inspiration from Soft Services, dedicated to offering products and guides to those with various skin concerns.

Looking at their website, you find no harsh edges in the framing. Instead, the flowing curves add more authenticity and a softer touch to the overall brand personality. This is critical for displaying the human side of your brand and delivering an immersive experience. Since the website aims to empower those who struggle with image issues and look beyond cultural taboos, it is important to showcase a pleasant digital experience through its website.

4 –  Don’t shy away from using saturated colors

A quick way to create a pleasant vibe and inject positivity into your website is by using the correct color palette. Colors can have a huge impact on the psyche of your audience and can help you give them a more enjoyable experience.

Superior visual quality is a critical aspect of creating an immersive experience. Studies have also shown that depending on the context within which various colors are used can generate different psychological and physiological reactions from the audience. For a superior viewing experience, don’t shy away from using a saturated color palette on your website. They can help your brand appear more friendly, optimistic, and approachable.

Moreover, adding different pops of colors throughout your website can do an excellent job of capturing the visitor’s attention and also nudge them to engage with your website more. In particular, you can use accent colors for interactive buttons on your website to draw the audience’s attention quickly.

5 – Introduce virtual shopping assistants on your website

Virtual shopping assistants can be a great way to take your customer service initiatives to a notch higher. Round-the-clock assistance provided on your website can generate an immersive experience and also make shopping a more personalized activity. These assistants can substitute the sales staff you would usually consult when shopping in person at a physical storefront.

Virtual assistants can offer recommendations based on the tastes and preferences questionnaire filled up by a potential customer. Using the results, they can suggest product recommendations from the website. For instance, if you sell smartphone cases or laptop sleeves, you can get the customer to fill up a quick questionnaire about the type of product they intend to purchase. You can then use the AI bot to show the available options and take it one step further by also showing them a comparison between the different models of the same product available on your website.

6 – Create a virtual reality environment

Immersive eCommerce can reach greater heights by incorporating elements from Virtual Reality.

For instance, you can play around with the idea of offering NFTs to your customers for the products they wish to choose. If you sell hoodies on your website, you can have a virtual tryout option for your customers to get a feel of the real product. You can have a virtual assistant provide recommendations about different options for the hoodie. You can allow your customers to purchase the hoodie as  NFT to get a digital copy of them wearing a hoodie and also sell them the physical hoodie.

 7 – Creating content that boosts your SEO is still relevant

Content will continue to reign supreme in 2023. It is important that you have content that is valuable and unique to make a better impression on your target audience. In particular, paying attention to SEO remains a key area that businesses can’t ignore.

There is a greater need for semantically related keywords and cluster-related keywords to be included in e-commerce content.  After all, Google is a sophisticated search engine — not only does it crawl websites based on keywords and phrases, but it also emphasizes similar relevant keywords in search queries.

For locally operating businesses, this can be a goldmine – say, if you are a Los Angeles-based eCommerce brand, hiring a web design company in Los Angeles to design your content and optimize local search phrases that are most likely to resonate with your local audience can help you achieve top ranking web page for your website.

Conclusion

The upcoming trends discussed above indicate that it is imperative to hop onto the bandwagon to make the browsing experience of your audience smoother.

If you are unsure where to begin, get in touch with a web development agency that can revamp your eCommerce website to provide an immersive experience to your target audience.

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In this post, we’ll explore the importance of storytelling in video marketing and how it can help your brand thrive in a crowded marketplace.

An Introduction to visual storytelling

Visual storytelling has been a powerful way to communicate messages for centuries. Humans have always looked for stories from the earliest cave paintings to modern-day advertisements. This fundamental tendency makes up modern branding, as businesses recognize the power of narrative to engage and persuade their target audience.

In the digital age, storytelling in video marketing has become an essential tool for businesses to communicate their brand message effectively. Using visual storytelling techniques in video marketing, companies can create emotional connections with their audience and stand out from the competition.

For example, Nike’s “Dream Crazy” campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick is a prime example of powerful visual storytelling. By weaving together images of inspirational athletes with Kaepernick’s message of empowerment and perseverance, Nike created an emotional connection with their audience while promoting their brand message of “Just Do It.” This campaign generated significant buzz and helped solidify Nike’s socially conscious and progressive brand position. It even won an Emmy, illustrating just how powerful its approach was.

Ways to leverage storytelling in video marketing

Nike is but one example, however. So before delving into its sheer value, here we’d like to explore ways in which you may use visual storytelling.

Offer visual social proof of your business.

Initially, storytelling through video marketing can be a powerful tool to showcase social proof through customer reviews and testimonials. By featuring customer stories in video form, businesses can give their target audience a visual representation of their product or service’s positive impact on real people.

This helps build credibility and trust with potential customers and creates an emotional connection that can drive engagement and conversions. The advantages of customer testimonial videos are that your customers can contribute to your video marketing efforts by sharing their experiences with your product or service in a way that resonates with your target audience. By featuring these stories in your video marketing content, you can leverage the power of social proof to build brand credibility and trust while creating engaging and compelling content for your audience.

Humanize your brand through video.

Second, storytelling in video marketing is an effective way to humanize your brand by showcasing the people behind the business and their unique stories. By highlighting the experiences of real people, companies can connect with their audience on a deeper level and create a more personal relationship with their customers.

For example, the online retailer Zappos has used visual storytelling to humanize their brand by featuring employees and their personal stories. In one video, Zappos employees talk about their passions outside of work and how they translate to their company roles. By doing so, Zappos not only showcases the personality and values of its employees but also highlights its commitment to delivering excellent customer service. This helps create a more personal and relatable brand image, ultimately building customer trust and loyalty.

Capture more leads using video marketing.

In addition, storytelling can be a highly effective way for businesses to capture more leads – as video marketing trends show. By crafting a compelling and engaging narrative through video, businesses can attract and convert more leads.

For example, a company selling a fitness product might create a video telling the story of a customer who struggled with weight loss until they discovered the product, highlighting its benefits and how it helped them achieve their goals. By showcasing the transformative power of the product through storytelling, the video can inspire potential customers to take action and sign up for more information or make a purchase. By leveraging storytelling in video marketing to create compelling and engaging content, businesses can capture the attention of their target audience like never before.

Increase website conversions using visually attractive content

Finally, visual storytelling can be a powerful tool to increase website conversions by creating visually attractive and engaging content. By incorporating compelling narratives and visuals into their video marketing strategy, businesses can capture the attention of their target audience and drive them to take action.

Research strongly supports this notion, too. According to a study by Vidyard, businesses that use video on landing pages see an average conversion rate of 86%. By using compelling storytelling and incorporating calls to action within their video content, businesses can increase website conversions by capturing their audience’s attention and compelling them to take action.

The Power of Storytelling in video marketing

While the examples above have likely outlined the importance of great storytelling, here we can consolidate it further. In no particular order, consider the three following perks it brings.

It promotes branding

First, visual storytelling can be a powerful tool to improve branding efforts. According to a study by HubSpot, 54% of consumers want to see more video content from brands they support.

By showcasing their brand as relatable and authentic, businesses can build a stronger connection with their audience, increasing brand recognition and loyalty. Ultimately, it can be a powerful tool for companies to build a brand identity that resonates with their target audience.

It increases brand awareness and improves lead generation.

In addition, storytelling in video marketing is a powerful way to increase brand awareness and improve lead generation. Businesses can create emotionally resonant content by creating engaging and shareable content that resonates with their target audience. Video content is also highly shareable, with social video generating 1200% more shares than text and image content combined.

Furthermore, according to a study by Vidyard, video content generates 66% more qualified leads per year than other forms of marketing. By creating shareable video content, businesses can increase their brand’s reach and awareness, leading to improved lead generation and conversion rates.

It increases conversions

Finally, visual storytelling is a highly effective way to engage website visitors and increase conversions. A study by EyeView corroborates that of Vidyard, finding that including video on a landing page can increase conversions by up to 80%. By incorporating visual storytelling into their conversion strategy, businesses can create a more engaging and compelling user experience that drives visitors to take action and ultimately grow their bottom line.

Video content is also highly effective at communicating complex ideas and concepts in a simple and accessible way, making it an ideal tool for educating and informing potential customers. Video engagement rates confirm this, as a study by Wistia finds that videos that are up to 2 minutes long have the highest engagement rates, with an average retention rate of 60% for a 2-minute video.

Conclusion

In conclusion, storytelling in video marketing is a powerful tool that businesses can use to create engaging, emotionally resonant content that drives results. By incorporating compelling narratives and visuals into their video marketing strategy, businesses can capture the attention of their target audience and drive them to take action.

As the digital marketing landscape continues to evolve, the importance of visual storytelling will only become more significant. In today’s highly competitive marketplace, businesses need to find new and creative ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors and connect with their target audience. By embracing the storytelling opportunities video marketing offers, businesses can improve their brand awareness, lead generation, and, ultimately, their bottom line.

We hope you found this article on storytelling in video marketing informative. If you have a video marketing project that you’d need specific help with, please contact us today. Our teams are available seven days a week and will be more than happy to assist you.

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That said, like most marketing tools, video marketing comes with both universal and industry-specific benefits. While everyone can reap the former, increasingly more marketers focus on the latter. For them, entertaining a new tool comes down not to its general appeal or performance but to what it can do for them. If you’re among them or otherwise involved in the eCommerce industry, this article is for you.

Key benefits of video marketing for eCommerce

Since video marketing comes with an array of benefits, here we’ll highlight the seven most notable ones for the industry. In no particular order, our picks are the following.

#1 Higher conversion rates and more sales

Starting with the ultimate metric of success, video marketing directly increases conversion rates and final sales. Many web professionals and Website Design Companies would vouch for the fact that video marketing improves conversion rates. In turn, more sales improve customer lifetime value (CLV). Notably, using CRM alongside it also has the potential to be quite valuable toward this same goal. Delivering valuable, relevant video content throughout the customer journey is exactly the goal video marketing seeks to achieve, after all.

The impact of CRM on customer lifetime value would warrant its own article to cover thoroughly, but simply consider video marketing’s standalone benefits to conversion rates:

• Using video on landing pages can increase conversions by 86%
• Websites that use video have a 4.8% conversion rate, compared to 2,9% for those who don’t use video
• 44% of potential buyers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it

There’s no doubt about it; video marketing boosts sales.

#2 Better customer retention 

Conversions aside, video marketing also directly enhances customer retention rates. As outlined above, it finds applications throughout the sales funnel, including:

• Initial marketing, e.g., social media video content
• On-page experience, e.g., product videos
• Post-sale engagement, e.g., tutorial/how-to videos

In combination, these applications significantly improve the user experience (UX) and help foster loyalty. This is among the key benefits of video marketing for eCommerce, as it’s a vital metric for the industry. To illustrate this, simply consider the following:

• It costs 7x more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one
• Despite being 21% of one’s customer base, loyal customers account for 44% of total revenue and 46% of orders
• Existing customers are 50% more likely to try out a new product than new customers

In turn, loyal customers often become brand ambassadors, raising your brand awareness.

#3 Better search engine visibility

That said, conversion and retention begin with lead generation. A vital series of practices in this regard is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as it boosts online visibility.

If you’re unaware of the practice, SEO optimizes content and pages for search engines. It does so by adhering to search engines’ ranking criteria, primarily including page authority and content quality. In turn, it allows businesses to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more traffic.

In this regard, too, video marketing shines through. Websites using video are 53 times more likely to rank on the first page. In addition, the average user spends 88% more time on pages with videos. Time on page is a key user engagement signal which enhances SEO – so the more you satisfy customers with video, the more likely you are to attract more customers through a better SEO score.

#4 Improved lead acquisition

Once you’ve attracted the attention of potential customers, the next step comes in lead acquisition. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the benefits of video marketing for eCommerce also extend to this phase.

As the above sources show, video marketing directly enhances engagement and facilitates lead acquisition. Examples of relevant statistics here include:

• Adding a video to marketing emails can boost click-through rates by 200-300%
• 50% of online consumers start considering a purchase after seeing a product video
• More than half of social media users engage with brands after seeing a video

These types of interactions all constitute an engagement with your brand. Whether you’re using video marketing on TikTok or email, many marketing channels stand to benefit from it – and acquire more leads.

#5 Raising brand awareness 

Still, before all marketing optimization efforts can begin, your brand needs to become known. Through robust SEO, word-of-mouth marketing, and other means, all businesses’ first and most crucial goal is to generate awareness. Almost half of all marketers cite brand awareness as their campaigns’ primary goal.

There are two primary ways to generate brand awareness; SEO and social media marketing. And as we highlighted above, the benefits of video marketing for eCommerce make it a perfect fit for both:

• Pages with video rank higher in SERPs. They allure visitors to stay longer and often incite engagement. All of these factors reassure search engines of a page’s quality and boost its SEO score.
• Social media marketing thrives on video. Most platforms are strongly visual, and video attracts the eye; Facebook alone has more than 8 billion video views per day. Video incites engagement, often generating leads – which is why influencer marketing is thriving.
• On-site video content caters to both crowds. Whether visitors make it to your website through search engines or social media links, videos will keep them engaged and make their visit memorable.

No matter which way you go about it, video marketing can be an invaluable asset for your brand awareness campaigns.

#6 Building credibility and trust

Beyond first impressions and positive initial awareness, businesses need to establish themselves as credible. Search engines value credibility, and so do customers. Here, too, video marketing can help immensely.

Consider such types of trust-building and trust signals as:

• Showcasing your expertise on video. Use educational videos, as they best demonstrate that you’re an authority in your field, and customers appreciate them dearly.
• Offering customer testimonials as trust signals. Most customers read reviews, and customer testimonial videos are a highly digestible form of trust-building.
• Proving your professionalism through video production quality. No matter the type of video or its use, high production quality speaks volumes about a business all on its own.

Once you establish your credibility, customers and search engines alike will prefer you over the competition.

#7 Future-proofing for mCommerce

And finally, rounding up the benefits of video marketing for eCommerce, we can conclude with its affinity for mobile devices. After all, this is a highly notable perk for the eCommerce industry regarding future-proofing.

Indeed, mCommerce seems set to make a sizable impact on the industry. As increasingly more consumers use mobile devices to make purchases, in many ways, it already is:

• This year, it’s expected that 8% of all retail transactions will take place on mobile devices.
• Since 2017, mobile traffic has consistently surpassed desktop traffic, according to Statista.
• Shopify forecasts that social commerce will rise by 5.2% this year, reaching $101.1 billion.

In specific cases, this trend may be even more notable. In 2016, for example, Google outlined a shopper who saw 89% of all her e-commerce retail interactions occur on mobile devices. If this is indicative of where consumers are heading, mCommerce will indeed emerge shortly.

What this trend outlines is the need for businesses to better cater to mobile users. Thankfully, video marketing aligns itself perfectly with this need. More than 60% of YouTube’s views are on mobile devices, and studies show that users prefer to consume video on mobile devices. For them, video marketing produces higher view completion and engagement rates, driving brand awareness to success.

Conclusion

In summary, leaning into video marketing today is, arguably, the best way to future-proof eCommerce. It’s a powerful marketing tool with an inherent affinity for both SEO and social media marketing. The benefits of video marketing for eCommerce expand to brand awareness, lead acquisition, customer retention, and more. While brief, we hope you found this article informative and, hopefully, inspiring. If you have a video marketing project in mind that you’d need specific help with, please feel free to contact us today. Our teams are available seven days a week and will be more than happy to assist you.

Description: From higher engagement rates and credibility to enhanced SEO, discover the most vital benefits of video marketing for eCommerce.

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