YouTube Marketing: How to Bring More Sales to Your E-Commerce Store Through Videos Step by Step

The impact of video on product sales is undeniable, with positive experiences with video ads increasing buyers’ brand associations by 139% and purchase intentions by 97%. If your target audience is between the ages of 25-44 and is predominantly male, then video is even more important.

But there is a common problem: few e-commerce sellers can successfully use video strategies. They often create videos without a clear goal and then leave them alone. After a few months, they get frustrated because they don’t get the results they want, and even give up. So how can sellers create YouTube videos for their e-commerce business and get sales from them?

The answer is: the focus of the video should be on the user's shopping journey.

Instead of creating random videos, you should target your YouTube campaigns to reach users at different stages. According to McKinsey & Company, there are five main stages in the buyer’s journey: awareness, familiarity, consideration, purchase, and loyalty.

Once you understand where your users are, you can create YouTube marketing video campaigns that are simple, strategic, and effective.

Here are some video strategies you can use at each stage of the customer journey, along with examples of eCommerce stores that do it well.

At first, potential customers don’t know who you are, and they don’t care. So how do you change their minds? The answer is to provide videos that educate users about your product in other ways, whether it’s by teaching, entertaining, or using influencers to recommend it.

One of the most common forms of content marketing is how-to guides, and videos are no exception. In fact, videos are perfect for how-to content, as they are visually and auditorily engaging. You can show potential users what they are interested in, give step-by-step instructions, and showcase your product in the process.

A great example is The Home Depot, which has created a library of instructional videos with over 1,400 DIY instructional videos on its YouTube channel.

The videos are helpful and entertaining, and while they never directly state that The Home Depot is offering a service, it creates brand awareness by clearly targeting people interested in home improvement.

Most Home Depot videos are 1-3 minutes long, but you can go longer if the subject matter requires it. How-to videos are usually longer, with an average length of about 7 minutes.

But if tutorial videos aren’t your style, you can create entertaining videos to attract new users.

Creating entertaining videos may require teamwork, but it can be a huge success. Videos that feature humor, funny behavior, or surprising experiments can attract target audiences through their pure entertainment value. Loot Crate did this by parodying an SPCA animal rescue ad, asking viewers to save the dinosaurs.

Loot Crate uses sponsored videos as well as fun videos to promote their products.

One of the easiest ways to expose new potential customers to your brand is through sponsored videos.

Loot Crate sponsored YouTube influencers to do funny unboxing videos. The fans of these influencers are the perfect target audience for Loot Crate products.

Sponsored videos are more popular than direct ads because they leverage the power of influencers. Native Union also made a sponsored video for its sturdy iPhone charging cable:

Once you’ve introduced your brand to potential customers, you should start focusing on getting them familiar with your products and getting them interested in what you have to sell.

This is when potential customers already know your brand and already understand what you sell. But what can you do to build their trust in your brand and products? The answer: Show off your store’s personality.

A great way to showcase your store’s personality is to film the personal stories behind your brand. By showing your struggles, you help users get familiar with who you are. This is how Daisy Jing promoted her e-commerce store Banish with her acne-filled video “Growing Up Ugly.”

Such videos will resonate with users who are also battling acne and showcase the humanity of the company.

Luxy Hair created a strong e-commerce brand by using a how-to video on the topic of hair removal products. This attracted new users who had never heard of Luxy and made them aware of the product. But in order to familiarize these potential users with the brand, Luxy created a simple welcome video to introduce the product and brand features to their new audience.

They feature a welcome video on their channel homepage, where new viewers might click through after learning about the product.

These videos add a personal touch to your brand and can help convert potential customers. Once you’ve familiarized potential customers with your brand, the next step is to get them to consider purchasing.

Once potential users are familiar with your product and brand, the marketing strategy will shift from entertainment to education. Your goal in the consideration phase is to show detailed information about your product and explain why potential users need it, such as using product videos or review videos.

The most basic form of video in the consideration phase is the product video, which focuses on showing the features and benefits of the product being sold. A good example is the promotional video for the Sony α6500 camera, which touches on the many features of the camera and how it can improve the user's photography experience.

If you’re not sure what to include in your video, look for reviews of similar products on sites like Amazon. Pay special attention to customer complaints and feature requests. Find some features that make your product stand out and present them as clearly as possible.

You also need to keep these videos short. Wistia found that on average, 80% of viewers will watch videos that are 30 seconds or shorter. The longer the video, the fewer viewers will watch it.

When sellers make product videos, the video length should not exceed 3-4 minutes.

Product review videos are similar to product videos, but are less formal and polished, and have a more “unbiased” feel. This particular video type is great if you wholesale products and sell through your store, as it lends more credibility than if you created the product yourself. A great example is this review of the Cobra 29 LX CB Smart Radio by Right Channel Radios, which sells the radio:

Right Channel also uses videos to show the pros and cons of radio to keep users informed. So, when should you show such video ads? The best strategy is to redirect these videos to audiences who are already aware of and familiar with your product and are interested in it.

After a user visits your website or YouTube video ad, you can show them YouTube ads related to products they were interested in. Masterclass is a great example of retargeting ads. They show ads related to products you’ve already seen, as well as other videos on similar topics.

  The goal of this stage is to guide users to the next step of purchasing.

At this stage, the potential user has already shown intent to buy the product. So what videos will ensure they make the purchase? You can look at trying to use related products and upsell products, as well as abandoned cart reminder videos. Both of these methods can be achieved using retargeting ads or adding a YouTube video link in a follow-up email.

Once you know the buyer is ready to buy, you have two goals to achieve: first, you want the buyer to complete the purchase process as seamlessly as possible, and second, you want to increase the total order value. You can achieve this through upselling and cross-selling. Cross-selling would be used to complement products, such as charging cables, to go with a new phone case. Upsell products can be higher-end products, such as waterproof and heat-resistant phone cases.

Sellers can use different backgrounds to present their products, including white background, studio, and lifestyle, among which white background is classic.

Product videos shot against a studio backdrop are much easier to customize:

Finally, lifestyle videos can show products and how they are used in real life, which is easy to resonate with users.

However, lifestyle product videos tend to be the most expensive and difficult to make well without multiple attempts and quality equipment.

Do you create emails to remind customers of abandoned carts, but do you redirect to YouTube ads? Such videos don’t need to be complex or lengthy, a simple reminder of the product itself can save an abandoned cart. A great example is the Nine Line Apparel Stout Hoodie video, which is short and humorous, but reminds the buyer and makes them think about buying the product:

The user has purchased a product from your store, but it’s not over yet. You still have to work hard to make them become loyal fans of your brand, buy more products in the future, and even recommend you to their friends. So what should sellers do?

Sometimes, a buyer won’t return to your store without a discount. But if there is a discount, he will place orders regularly. You can use basic promotions, such as 10%-15% off, or free shipping for returning customers, to encourage users to buy again. This does not require a huge amount of money to create a video. Instead, you can use a tool like Promo to create a simple video.

By simply overlaying text on a few product images, you can create a simple yet engaging promotional video that builds trust with previous buyers and keeps them interested.

A proven way to keep users loyal to your product is to show them how to try it out. NaturallyCurly does this brilliantly with a video where users happily explain how the product helps them manage their curly hair.

The great part about this type of video is that you don’t need a complicated setup or expensive video equipment to make this work. A simple white or neutral background will do. Wistia provides a guide to lighting setup using a simple DIY lighting kit:

It’s a simple and effective way to show a large audience how your product works and leverage their excitement to attract more loyal users and brand advocates.