You’re more likely to do business with someone you’ve got a good feeling about, right? It’s human nature: We trust what feels welcoming and approachable. Effective customer acquisition efforts are all about creating that positive, familiar relationship with someone even before they become a paying customer.
If you’re thinking that sounds tricky, it really doesn’t have to be. Seeding that “good feeling” among your leads can start with something as simple as incorporating video into your marketing strategy. Video has the power to humanize your brand, showcase your personality and build trust — all critical elements of new customer acquisition.
Whether you want to introduce your product, present a special offer or simply make a memorable impression, video has a unique way of engaging people, putting a face (or voice) to your brand and making it approachable. Continue reading to discover how video marketing can revolutionize your approach to growing your customer base.
The Customer Acquisition Equation: Where Video Fits In
At its core, the customer acquisition process is all about turning strangers into loyal customers — and doing it in a way that makes sense for your brand’s bottom line.
Every business owner or marketer knows that acquiring new customers comes at a price. This is often measured as your customer acquisition cost (CAC), which includes marketing costs, sales efforts and any other resources spent on turning leads into customers. The goal is to keep that total cost low while maximizing the number of new customers you bring in.
This is where video shines as a cost-effective way to engage, educate and convert potential customers. When done right, video can not only boost the number of customers but also attract more valuable ones. Video content resonates deeper, engaging higher-quality prospects who are more likely to stick around and have a higher customer lifetime value (LTV).
Video campaigns are also data-rich. From view counts and click-through rates to completion rates and conversion tracking, there are lots of metrics you can monitor to measure performance. These insights tie directly into your KPIs, allowing you to gauge how effectively your video campaigns are contributing to your customer acquisition goals.
How Video Can Improve Your Customer Acquisition Strategy
Now that we’ve laid the foundation, let’s take a look at a few ways video can elevate your customer acquisition strategy.
Build Familiarity and Connections Through Video
The magic of video, you see, lies in the fact that it can make the unknown seem familiar. Think of how people develop feelings for fictitious TV characters and why they cry at holiday commercials. For new customers encountering your brand for the first time, this kind of connection can be transformative. Video can create a sense of intimacy, making it incredibly easy to develop and maintain a relationship with customers at the acquisition stage and beyond.
Scientifically, it makes sense. Psychologist Albert Mehrabian found that 93% of communication pertaining to feelings and attitudes is done nonverbally. So when someone’s raving about a product or service they feel strongly about, anyone listening is going find more meaning in their body language (55%) and tone of voice (38%) than the literal meaning of their words (7%).
That’s why it’s so important to be multisensory in your approach to customer acquisition. For example, the Interactive Video by EE below showcases its new branding and offerings in a much more dynamic way than any old press release could.
The visuals and sound make the experience more emotionally captivating while interactive elements invite viewers to explore what’s relevant to them. This immersion makes the viewer feel like part of the brand experience, fostering a deeper connection that encourages action.
Pro tip: You can train AI on your unique content through a process called retrieval-augmented generation and have it generate on-brand scripts and storyboards for your videos.
When viewers are visually and aurally engaged with a brand’s messaging, even if it’s one they’ve never purchased from or worked with before, a connection is formed. And when viewers repeatedly see similarly toned video content from the same brand across multiple marketing channels, that connection deepens. Over time, this builds a sense of familiarity and trust, so by the time they’re ready to do business with you, it feels as if they already know you.
Tap Into the Shareability of Social Video
For brands, social media is so much more than just a source of entertainment — it’s a powerful customer acquisition channel that’s great for visibility, engagement and community-building. Marketing campaigns specifically modeled for social media have a unique advantage: They can be liked, commented on and shared, increasing the number of potential customers they reach.
In 2024, for the first time, social video accounted for over 10% of Americans’ time spent on digital media. Meta has a major role in driving this growth, with its platforms accounting for more than 40% of US adults’ social video time.
No doubt, social media as a whole has largely become a “video-first” space. More than 51% of users’ time on Facebook and Instagram was spent on video in 2023. And it’s not just casual scrolling — these users are actively engaging with video content, making it a prime opportunity for lead generation and building lasting customer relationships.
The shareability of video allows your loyal customers to do some very valuable leg work for you. If they watch a video and find it entertaining or informative, they’re sharing it with their networks which likely contain new leads. In other words, social media marketing can act as a sort of digital referral program, where the brand introduction is made not just with strong content, but with the added trust of a social connection.
The travel industry often uses video in this way. For example, Delta Air Lines crafted a year-in-review campaign for its SkyMiles Medallion members. Decked out with cool stats about each member’s year with the airline (including miles flown and number of cities visited), the Personalized Videos became a perfect opportunity for travelers to humblebrag on social media.
Embedded with share buttons, the campaign generated more than 400,000 videos as members showed off their videos with friends and family. Even more, the views led to valuable engagements, with Delta Air Lines seeing a 60% improvement in customer acquisition and a 5x improvement in click-through rates.
If you want to take social sharing to another level, you could even collaborate with influencers. By forming partnerships with creators that your ideal customers already follow, you can better reach your target audience.
Idomoo’s Dynamic Video Ads and unique integration for Facebook take targeting to another level. Dynamic Video Ads leverage Facebook’s data to segment users into highly specific audience groups based on demographic data, user behavior, preferences and more. It ensures the right video is shown to the right viewer seamlessly and at scale.
This means prospective customers can see different videos than existing customers, nurturing them further down the customer acquisition funnel with the most suitable types of content until they’re ready to act. The effectiveness of Dynamic Video Ads blows standard video out of the water. Idomoo’s integration has let advertisers see results like 3x higher video completion rates and a 7x greater return on ad spend.
Use Video To Educate Consumers Before They Buy
According to the latest survey data, 82% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video, with the format claiming the top spot when it came to how people preferred to learn about a product or service. It’s easy to see why: Videos are engaging, easy to consume and capable of addressing consumer pain points in a way that feels personal and relatable.
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Adding video to content marketing — a popular customer acquisition method focused on providing valuable information to guide buyers — can make this approach even more effective.
Research from the Aberdeen Group highlights the “hidden sales cycle,” or the new norm of customers educating themselves online before even speaking to a sales team or making a purchase. This means that brands need to meet potential customers where they are — on the brand website, landing pages, in their inboxes through email marketing, on social media — with helpful, informative videos.
To showcase this, what better place to look than the education sector?
Knowing that financial aid packages can be confusing, the University of Dayton crafted explainer videos. By presenting the numbers in an approachable and visual way, the video builds trust and confidence in the institution. For both parents and students, this kind of transparency and clarity can make all the difference in choosing a school.
Of course, educational videos aren’t limited to academics. Ecommerce brands, for instance, can use video to showcase products in action and address common questions directly on product pages. Video can even help businesses improve their site’s search engine optimization (SEO) rankings by increasing time spent on a website and encouraging sharing.
Ultimately, whether it’s a product demo, pricing breakdown or brand introduction, video is a powerful way to educate and empower customers. And the more empowered they feel, the more likely they are to move forward with confidence — whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for a service or even choosing a college.
Craft Better Customer Experiences With Video
Beyond educating, video can also be a major CX tool. And when it comes to customer acquisition, the right experience can make all the difference.
Take this Personalized Video by Vitality. They use data-driven video to break down a new prospect’s quote, complete with interactive features that let the viewer explore exactly what they want to learn about. From coverage details to mental health resources, the viewer is in the driver’s seat to pick their preferred topics, making the insurance video tailored and relevant.
This kind of video sets the stage for greater customer retention and customer loyalty in the long run. By making the customer experience seamless from the start, you create a foundation of support that keeps people coming back. A customized video like Vitality’s explains the fine print and shows prospects that a brand is invested in their experience, both of which reduce the risk of churn down the line.
Start the Customer Journey With Video
Chances are, if you’re reading this article, you love your company and want others to feel the same way. Customer acquisition should be as authentic, passionate and informative as the people who put their energy into making your brand as great as it is.
Video provides the best channel to convey the maximum amount of emotion and opportunity as you engage with your target audience. Here’s a summary of the key points to keep in mind as you optimize your marketing efforts:
- Visuals and tone are crucial to establishing an emotional connection. Video allows you to humanize your brand, helping them relate to your message even before making a purchase.
- Video is incredibly popular on social media, driving high engagement across platforms. This shareability of social video can boost brand awareness and spark interest in your product or service.
- Video is a powerful educational tool. Use it to convey key information that will make potential customers confident in moving forward.
- Personalized Interactive Video creates memorable experiences. When tailored to individual preferences and interactive, video leaves a lasting impression that drives customer loyalty and engagement.
Our Next Generation Video Platform takes video to the next level. It incorporates data, automation and, if desired, AI to supercharge the video production process. Better yet, you can seamlessly integrate it with your CRM, making it easy to deliver highly targeted and relevant video experiences at scale. To find out more about our easy-to-use platform and how we can help you reach your customers and drive action, contact us below.
