I suppose if the Cobbler’s kids had no shoes, then I shouldn’t be surprised that the Audio, Video, and Lighting (AVL) industry doesn’t use video well to reach potential customers. And yet, here in the 21st century, I am surprised and disappointed in the spotty to non-existent use of video as a content marketing medium for vendors to use in reaching church buyers and influencers. This industry should, frankly, rock at using audio, video, and lighting to raise awareness, demonstrate capability, and define value for the product and services that are built around and with these technologies.

To reach more buyers and increase engagement with prospects, video is statistically a must-have medium for vendors on their websites, in product demos, in emails, and in digital advertising. Video isn’t optional if you want to increase conversions and make more sales. Here’s some eye-popping research data from a variety of sources listed by each:

• Video (even a thumbnail with a ‘play’ icon) in an email leads to 200 percent to 300 percent increase in click-through rate *Forrester
• Including video on a landing page can increase conversion by up to 80 percent *Unbounce
• 46 percent of users take some soft of action after viewing a video ad *Online Publishers Association
• Combining video with full page ads boost engagement by 22 percent *Rhythm and Insights
• 90 percent of users say that product videos are helping in the decision process *Insivia
• After watching a video, 64 percent of users are more likely to buy a product online *ComScore
• 50 percent of executives look for more information after seeing a product/service in a video *Forbes
• 73 percent of B2B organizations using video report positive results to their ROI *ReelSEO
• 87 percent of online marketers use video content *Outbrain
• YouTube stats show mobile video consumption rises 100 percent every year *YouTube

Video for the Audio Vendor

I recently saw a video ad for Sennheiser’s new TeamConnect wireless, portable audio devices for audio and video conferencing and excitedly Tweeted to my followers “James Bond tech meets high quality, wireless audio for audio/video conferencing! Way to go @SennheiserUSA!” Why did I promote this from Sennheiser? I wasn’t paid to do so; I was motivated to do so because they made a fantastic video and demonstrated the ease of use and sleek-techy design of a product I know would be used by my friends in businesses and churches alike. This video ad embodied far more than any product picture of downloadable PDF on the acoustical parameters of near-field audio; it elicited an emotional response!

The power of video to motivate influencers or buyer behavior is key. Of course, the fact that the video in the above example was produced very, very well helped a great deal in building my excitement, but that’s an article for another day. The fact that video was used very well here by a vendor is, in my opinion, the aberration and not the norm for the AVL industry.

I searched for videos on Google for the term “church audio issues” in the hopes that I’d find vendor content at the top of the list. Nope. In fact, the top video is a hand-held smartphone video recorded by a pastor in a medium-sized church, talking about audio recording problems with sermons. Nothing against this guy, but a video with 250+ views shouldn’t be at the top of that search.

The current bar for video content is very, very low. Vendors: are you paying attention? This is opportunity knocking on your video screen.

Video for the Lighting Vendor

The lighting portion of the industry didn’t fare any better. The top video for the search term “lighting used in churches” is from a lighting guy at a larger church in Oklahoma. In the description of the video, entitled “Church Lighting & Effects Example”, the video description reads: “Uploaded on Nov 19, 2011 – I originally posted this as a private video intended for internal use as a demonstration of effective lighting, effects and environmental projection to our church staff. However, I failed to set privacy settings correctly.” 5 years later, this is the top searched video with nearly 100,000 views to date. And it was posted by mistake. And it was footage of another church in Tennessee.

100k views and the above video wasn’t even supposed to be seen by the public. What would happen if lighting vendors put a little bit of effort into content that helped pastors and techs searching for “lighting used in churches” and intentionally put it up on YouTube (and Vimeo…and on Facebook, and on Twitter, and on Instagram, and on their website landing pages…)?

Video for the Video Vendor

The professional video portion of the AVL industry has long been present at major trade shows like NAB and Infocomm. The one subset of this industry that should use video more than the audio or lighting vendors, sadly, are not making waves with their video content.

Interesting to me is one company that was seen as an ‘outsider’ to the AVL industry: GoPro. They’ve captured the imaginations across multiple generations and have redefined what is possible with video capture. From extreme sports to drone cameras to anytime, anywhere personal video with stunning quality, this is my default for a company that really knows how to leverage their technology to create and enable stunning content made by and with their technology. For grins, below is my current favorite video from GoPro, which captures a compelling story far away from the sponsored daredevils associated most with GoPro.

Video Isn’t Optional

The case is clear, the stats speak volumes, and the video content itself proves its worth. Delivering video is harder than other mediums due to the time and resource commitment, but that should only motivate the AVL industry to do it better and more often than any other organization because Video is part of the very business of this industry!

And once vendors use video more effectively and more frequently, the next step is to write and produce more targeted and focused content. As Andrea Fryrear with MarketerGizmo rightly announces in her article about video usage in marketing, Length is Still Strength: Why the Rise of Video Content Doesn’t Mean You Can Stop Writing, video enables whole new levels of content and usage.

Come on AVL industry; up your video game!

What has been your experience with using video to promote your products and services? Share your views and opinions in the comments below.