Convincing A Reluctant CEO That They Need Video

Everyone seems to be sold on the idea of using video to market a business – everyone but CEOS and upper management. People in these positions often think that it isn’t a profitable venture, and fitting video into the marketing budget simply can’t be done.

But it’s your job to convince management that video is an important part of any marketing plan in today’s digital world.

Objections are a certainty, but it’s up to you to convince management that video can boost profits, increase brand exposure and be a vital part of core business marketing. The first step in convincing management to give video a try is to know how to respond to the following questions:

Do Our Customers Even Care About Video?

Managers, and those that seem to be in the “loop,” want to know who actually cares about video. It’s your job to convince them that online video has an immense value in the business world.

What’s the best way to convince a reluctant CEO? Statistics.

You want to provide the cold, hard facts to managers; facts they can’t ignore. You could tell them that your customers love video, Google recommends video and that every Fortune 500 company in the world is using video, but it will all fall on deaf ears without statistics.

So, what’s all the hype behind video?

• People that watch a video are 64% more likely to make a purchase.
• Video consumption is on the rise and accounts for 57% of all Internet activity.
• 75% of business executives will watch videos related to work every week.
• 54% of work-related videos are shared with colleagues weekly.
• 69% of business professionals and marketing professionals use video marketing.

And another interesting fact is that 31% (the entirety of business professionals not using video marketing) are planning to in the future.

Customers May Watch The Video, But Will It Make A Difference?

If all of the above statistics aren’t enough to convince your CEO or managers on video, they will likely ask “will video make a difference in our business?” This is where you need to be diligent and descriptive.

Higher-ups need to know that it will make the money – period.

Convincing higher-ups is as simple as telling them:

• 65% of all video viewers watch more than 3/4s of a video, boosting your personal branding at the very least.
• 52% of all marketing professionals state that video results in the best ROI.
• Video increases email marketing campaign engagement by 200% to 300%.
• Customers that watch the full video are 64% more likely to make a purchase.

And there’s room for small and medium sized businesses in video marketing. Small, unknown companies, have reached millions of views on YouTube alone without large marketing budgets or television campaigns.

Will Video Work In Our Niche?

Many higher-ups will come to the conclusion that since competitors are not using video, it simply isn’t a right fit for the niche. But just because your industry doesn’t use video, this doesn’t mean that you can’t profit from it.

Customers want to know more about the companies they do business with.

Every business must tell their story to consumers. This is the same way that large, multinational brands connect with their consumers. No matter the niche, video has been shown to be effective in both personal branding and building relationships with consumers that turn into long-term customers or clients.

We Understand, But We Can Fit Video Into Your Budget!

The final hurdle that you’ll come across is that companies don’t want to deviate from their current marketing avenues. In fact, many companies fail to maintain a high enough budget to fit in their current marketing activities and video.

And companies are reluctant to switch their strategies to video due to a lack of budget.

Unfortunately, no statistic that we can provide will help you make your case for why the budget needs to be adjusted to include video. The best thing you can do is:

• Conduct a survey of your customers to see the potential impact of video.
• Ask for a small budget to do a test run of video in your email marketing campaigns at the very minimum.
• Discuss with management the possibility of using video marketing for just two months while stopping the form of marketing that provides the lowest ROI.

You may also need to be a little extra creative at this time. You’ll have to work off of a smaller budget in most cases until you can prove your case for video. So, use social media channels to promote and track your videos. Utilize YouTube, Vimeo and other social channels to measure:

• The number of views.
• User engagement on social channels.
• Increase in revenue as a result of video.
• The percentage of video watchers that more likely to make a purchase after watching the video.

Once you have statistics that relate directly to your business, higher-ups and CEOs will not be able to overlook the need for video in the marketing world.