Whilst video marketing is undeniably becoming the most attractive and successful form of marketing for many organisations, marketers seem to miss opportunities sometimes by not having a clear call to action. Having a clear call to action is key when planning your video project. Whether your goal is to encourage donations, sell a product, encourage people to use your service or sign up for a conference, it is vital that your video content gives your audience a clear reason why they should take a desired action.
There is a plethora of call to action styles that can be adopted in video format:
Text
The first being placing annotations that present a clickable piece of text to your audience, for example, a pop up asking the viewer to subscribe, like or comment on the video or simply to click on to another video. A key benefit to using text call to action in your video is it is quite a straightforward process that doesn’t take particularly long to do as well as the fact that they can also be placed anywhere and at any point in time in your video.
Narrator/Voiceover
Another way a call to action can be posed to a viewer is through the voice of the narrator. This can at times be more effective in prompting action, as a voice (particularly one that is credibly attached to your cause) can elicit and more emotional response from the listener. Placing a clickable image in your video that can be customized and strategically positioned is another way of presenting a call to action to the audience. Image call to actions are useful in the sense that they allow you to complete creative freedom in how you wish to align the colours and general style of the image with your brand. Figure one highlights the difference in conversion rates for an image and text call to action.
Figure 1
The words that are used for the call to actions must be compelling and wholeheartedly convince the audience to click. As exhibited in figure 2, words like ‘sign up’ and ‘register’ have the highest rate of success in converting individuals, because they offer a clear and simple course of action. These words and similar actionable language should be used in videos as they are useful in persuading users to take actual action.
Figure 2
In terms of measuring the effectiveness of a video call to actions, Audience Retention in YouTube Analytics displays when a viewer exits a video. This vital information provides feedback on which forms of call to actions are working and which aren’t. For example, if a high frequency of viewers are leaving the video when the narrator mentions a call to action, then clearly it isn’t appealing to viewers. These analytics can also be used to effectively know when is the best time to best place a call to action, for example, if most people leave before the end of the video then it would best to place a call to action in the middle. Figure 3 reveals at one point call to action conversions most frequently occur in videos.
Figure 3
Ultimately a well thought through and well placed call to action can increase the number of click-throughs, sign ups, enquiry and active interest in your charitable goals.
Face to Camera
This is a great way to activate people. By talking down the barrel of the camera the viewers are in direct eye contact – up front and personal. This is a really effective way to inspire people to take action by asking them directly in an authentic and passionate manner. Generally we try to encourage our clients to steer away from autocue, as reading is invariably less emotive and impactful than a heartfelt, off the cuff message.
We would love to hear about your next video project! Talk to us about how you think this hybrid style of video would work for your organisation.
