Using Video to Increase Sales: What Every Tourism Marketer Needs to Know

Did you know that 65% of sightseeing and tour businesses say that finding new passengers is their top challenge? While the goal of your business is to sell tickets, companies hit a roadblock, at times with their online marketing, which results in minimal conversions and lost business. In this post, we’ll show you why you should join other businesses by adopting a commonly used tactic that grows revenue 49% faster: videos.

Recently, one of our customers shared their success with this strategy, and how they’re reaping great results with huge increases in sales. They’re approaching marketing differently by posting sightseeing and destination videos, placed beside “Book This Tour” buttons. By making this simple change, they’ve seen a significant increase of 300% in online sales conversions.

We’ve given you some information that is especially helpful for sightseeing businesses looking to find new customers. Below, we’ve given you statistics about the reach and benefits that videos can provide your business, in addition to statements on why you should incorporate videos in your online marketing campaigns. Lastly, we’ve given you some valuable tips from Distribution Center Magazine and Inc.com that we’ve adjusted to help you implement your video content. We believe that using videos in your marketing efforts can be incredibly beneficial, allowing you to show your customers’ multiple sides of your business.  If you want to increase sales, keep reading to see how businesses have found success using videos, and how you can too.

Statistics

• 69% of marketers claim their budget is switching towards digital marketing (Syndacast, July 2014)
• Globally, total Internet video traffic (business and consumer, combined) will be 79% of all internet traffic in 2020, up from 63% in 2015. Additionally, consumer Internet video traffic alone will be 82% of consumer internet traffic in 2020, up from 68% in 2015 (Cisco, 2016)
• Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users (Aberdeen, 2015)
• YouTube has over a billion users – almost one-third of all people on the Internet – and everyday people watch hundreds of millions of hours, generating billions of views (YouTube, May 2017)
• A minute of video is worth 1.8 million words according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research (Forrester, January 2009)
• With proper optimization, videos increase the chance of a front-page Google result by 53x (Forrester, January 2010) and video now appears in 70% of the top 100 search result listings (Internet Retailer, March 2014)
• After surveying 1,014 US online-video watching adults, 96% of all respondents say they find watching a video helps them make an online purchase decision and 74% say they are more likely to purchase after watching a video that explains the products they are looking at online (Animoto, December 2013)
• 68% of YouTube users watched YouTube to help make a purchase decision (Tubular Insights, January 2017)
• 65% of marketers say digital video is growing in importance for driving offline sales, and more than half see it as a superior tool for building brand awareness and favorability, telling their brand’s story, and connecting with consumers emotionally (MarketingProf, June 2017)
• Visitors who view product videos are 85% more likely to buy than visitors who do not, based on OnlineGolf.com results (Internet Retailer, April 2010)
• com found that viewers who chose to view video converted at a 400% increase over those who did not. Ice.com also credits video with decreasing merchandise returns by 25% (Internet Retailer, December 2009)
• 87% of marketers are seeing a positive ROI when using videos to drive sales (MarketingProf, June 2017)

Why Incorporate Videos?

• “Video as an emotional connector accelerates the consumer experience. Video is such a great differentiator for us and has provided tremendous momentum to our digital marketing strategy.” – Erich Gail, Chief Operating Officer of the Cardinale-Group of Companies
• “Video enables you to keep the audience engaged to the extent that it can dismiss the information that is conveyed through text.” – Chris Bowser, Chief Executive Officer of Online Auction Learning Center
• “Users are more likely to share and re-share video than other forms of content. It is a great tool for businesses and professionals to showcase their vision, expertise, products, services, company news and announcements for maximum outreach.” – Swatl Johsl, Huffington Post
• “Video marketing works as an accessible and digestible form of content that is eye-catching, engaging and shareable.” – Syndacast

What You Should Do

If you’re including videos in your online marketing strategy, we cannot emphasize the importance of quality over quantity. While they can make a huge difference for your company, don’t rush content in an aim to increase your conversions. You’ll see a greater payoff if you take your time in the preparation and creation of your video than if you just throw something together. Do some research, invest in professionals to produce and film your videos and work collaboratively to come up with topics, ideas and scripts.

A great way to introduce videos into your marketing efforts is by creating video customer testimonials. If you want to make an impression on potential customers, ask some of your current and returning customers if they’ll share their thoughts of your company on video. It’s more valuable for potential customers to hear your praises from others rather than a sales pitch.

Once you’ve started incorporating videos, a fantastic addition would be offering your potential customers a brief video showcasing aspects of the tour and locations to give them a preview of what to expect. You can take this concept a step further by having a staff member lead the video to give the customer a more personal experience

Lastly, videos can be a fantastic resource when building awareness. Are you coming out with a new and exciting tour for your customers? We recommend filming snippets or hints about what the new tour will include and share it via social media with special offers or discounts for those who watch.

Videos Convert

While we’ve shed some light on why (and how) you should include videos in your online marketing strategy, we know that taking this step forward will only improve your business and sales. Remember that what matters is setting yourself apart from your competition, increasing ticket sales, and providing an unforgettable experience to your customers.