How Video Can Drive Your Marginal Gains In Business!
Here’s a bit of bad news for you – big, positive changes to either yourself or your company don’t happen suddenly*.
You’re probably not going to lose a stone overnight, and your business probably isn’t going to triple its revenues in a week either.
In simple terms, meaningful positive change takes time.
This realisation that things take time is the foundation upon which the concept of “marginal gains” – sometimes known as “the 1% principle” – is built upon.
MARGINAL GAINS AKA THE 1% PRINCIPLE
In short, “marginal gains” are tiny improvements, made over time, across all aspects of an organisation.
As the cycling coach and “marginal gains” pioneer Sir Dave Brailsford put it:
“The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”
This is why this method of thinking is commonly referred to as the “1% principle”.
Small improvements every day, everywhere, 1% at a time = a significant and positive aggregate impact over time.
Here’s a fantastic example of how “marginal gains” can play its part in achieving this aggregate impact from 2016 Formula One World Champion Nico Rosberg:
“I was a little bit over the weight so I thought ‘OK what am I going to do?’
“And the solution was to stop cycling and therefore lose my leg muscles. And so in the summer I was one kilo lighter.
“Then we went to Japan and during qualifying Lewis (Hamilton) was in front. I did my last possible lap and nailed it by three hundredths of a second. I got pole. Massive.”
This pole position put Rosberg in…well, pole position(!) to win the race which he duly did – giving him a 7 point advantage from that race at Suzuka.
At the end of the season, he had won the title by a mere 5 points.
That decision he took to lose leg muscle didn’t win him the championship on its own, of course, but it proved to be a factor in him achieving his goal – a “1%” improvement which ultimately led to success.
HOW VIDEO CAN HELP
So, you know that big changes to your business don’t happen overnight, and that you want to start implementing these 1% improvements across your organisation as soon as possible.
That’s great, but where do you start? Well, we think you can start with video, and if you’ll humour us for a few moments longer we’ll explain how.
We think that the key thing with “marginal gains” in business is that they’re all built upon something your competitors aren’t already doing, or not doing well and consistently.
After all, if everyone else is doing something, it’s the average, and you’re striving for more than that, right?
The really great thing about video is that you can use it to furnish pretty much every aspect of your company (regardless of its size, sector, or location) in ways that your competitors either aren’t doing or haven’t realised yet!
Here’s a few examples:
1) Your competitors may have pages on their websites about their products, but do they contain embedded videos showcasing their uses? Why is this important? 4 out of 5 shoppers say a video showing how a product works is important
2) Your competitors may have a presence on social media platforms, but do they share useful video content on there? Why is this important? Adding video to a company update on LinkedIn increases the chances of it being shared by 75%
3) Your competitors might have created specialist landing pages as part of their marketing campaigns, but do they have videos embedded on them? Why is this important? Including video on landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%
The “marginal gains” don’t stop there either – there are even some to be found concerning your videos themselves!
1) Does your video have subtitles on it? Why is this important? 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound, whilst it is estimated that there are approximately 11 million people in the UK with a hearing loss. Don’t let your video’s message get lost
2) Have you created a custom thumbnail for your video? Why is this important? We all make instant judgments about people or things. Your video’s thumbnail is its primary advertisement of your video and the thing viewers will see first. Don’t leave this promotion to chance with a randomly generated image!
3) Does your video have a clear, concise, and powerful “call to action” (CTA) at its conclusion? Why is this important? On average, 46% of users act after viewing a video ad. A video with a strong CTA will lead to an increase in conversion rates and ultimately sales.
All of these “marginal gains” are driven by video, can be implemented relatively quickly, and can see 1% improvements in many areas of your business. Now that all sounds pretty good to us!
Looking to make marginal gains in business via video? If so, why not drop us a line via our Contact page today?
* Unless you win the Euromillions and become worth £180m overnight – the chances of which are roughly the same as Matt getting through a workday without referencing ‘Peep Show’ in some way
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