Video Content Is Growing
If your business isn’t using video in online marketing, you’re not only in the minority but you’re behind the times, a place you don’t ever want to be. Worst of all, your business is already at a competitive disadvantage.
Video content usage today is at an all-time high. With over 4 billion videos being watched on YouTube alone every day, video consumption is growing for both business and consumer. A 2018 Hubspot survey shows that 4 of 5 businesses with online marketing integrate some form of video. Up from 63% just a year prior, this shows how quickly businesses are getting on the bandwagon. Video is projected to claim more than 80% of all web traffic by 2019.
One reason for video’s increased popularity may be linked to consumer trends. Watching online videos has become a part of our everyday lives given the increased processing power in our electronics and bigger data bandwidths available. In fact, the average person watches 1.5 hours of online content daily. About 15% say they watch 3 hours of video a day or more.
Start With A Strategic Purpose
Having purpose is good. Having a strategic purpose is better. Asking yourself and your team “Why?” at the beginning means you’ll spend less time and effort on marketing projects that are off the mark. Do you want to leave people thinking your brand is warm and fuzzy? Are you trying to overcome some short-term negative media impression? Is there an experiential gap between your product or service that video could fill in?
Using videos can help address a variety of communications objectives. Most businesses (97%) report videos help customers understand products and services. Embedding videos on landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%. A different 80% report video content increases website session time. Three-fourths say it helps sales, with equal numbers saying it drives traffic. Respondents also add that including video in marketing emails can even boost click-through rates–some say by as much as 200-300%.
From a consumer perspective, video educates visitors and helps make purchase decisions:
- 95% of consumers watch explainer videos to learn about products or services and 74% of those that watched ended up purchasing
- 90% report that product videos help them make purchasing decisions
- 81% admit to being convinced to buy products/services from a brand’s video
- 69% say watching video has convinced them to buy software or apps
True Benefit Lies in Emotional Engagement
Using video in marketing content allows brands to reach their audiences in ways that inspire, evoke feelings, and appeal to their needs in a real, authentic way. Video content provides businesses with an opportunity to express themselves using content and context, well beyond words. Brands are bringing the consumer to the fore by sharing experiences to tell brand stories. This brings the theoretical individual personas to life for consumers, differentiating the brand from the competition.
Every major platform has a video component. Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube all have different functionalities for their userbase. Ultimately, regardless of the platform, opportunities to leverage video are growing.
Beyond facilitating purchase decision, using video adds an emotional element that:
- Helps create a more memorable experience
- Makes communication more visual, authentic and entertaining
- Results in making a stronger consumer/brand connection
We Live Our Lives In Video
It just makes sense. Video content is simply human nature. For some time now, we’ve been tracking across various channels the growing popularity of visual imagery generally, and video content specifically. Most people with access to both video and text (72%) prefer video to learn about a product or service. Video content promotes awareness, recall, engagement, and sales. With creativity still playing a key role, if the content is found enjoyable, an even greater percentage (83%) share with their social networks. Almost all surveyed (85%) say they’d like to see more video from brands in 2018.
So, What’s Next?
It’s important to think about what your brand needs to be. Attention spans continue to shrink with consumers meaning that the “entertainment factor” is the primary filter for viewers to continue watching. Technology’s reach and pervasiveness are broadening. More and more time is spent on mobile and social, less and less on reading, hearing, and truly consuming content. It’s now not simply about what we say, it’s whether or not it’s entertaining.
We have to make stronger, more relevant connections in more engaging ways. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video can be worth millions. At least, if done well, it should be.