When using video to get people to act, it’s vital to recognise the way they will make that decision. Marketers call it the "buyer journey". In agriculture it's called the "adoption cycle". It's all the same - the only difference is the kind of action that is the objective.
Buy. Reduce. Adopt. Move. Wear. Stop. Eat. Change.
Videos produce action if they connect with the viewer’s decision-making process.
So, when thinking about video content, first think what stages will my audience pass through on the way to deciding?
In a classic sense, there are four broad stages in any decision cycle.
Decision cycle
- Awareness of needs
- Collecting information
- Evaluation
- Implementation
For some decisions, certain stages are barely visible. This especially applies to decisions of less importance to the subject. "Oh, a new flavour - I think I'll try it!", sees the buyer jump from awareness to implementation, seemingly without the information or evaluation stages. Sure, those stages are present - quick glance at the ingredients, check the price - but they don't require any real time or effort.
For more substantial decisions, such as big ticket B2B marketing and practice change, though, the stages are typically far more drawn out. The relative importance of the information gathering and evaluation phases makes it critical to get the application of video content right at those phases.
Wrap up
Do you need to create video content for every stage of the cycle? Possibly not. Identify where the blockages are and targeting those stages in the cycle to ensure that you are seeing the intended benefits of your video strategy.
Need help to work out how to apply video content strategically? We'd be glad to help. Just get in touch.
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