If content is king, video content is the emperor. Last year, video was the number 1 form of media used in content strategy, leaving blogs and info-graphics far behind.
The power videos have in the 21st century is hard to underestimate, and your competitors are taking full advantage of it. More than 87% of them use video as a marketing tool.
Why is video marketing so popular? Let's look a little closer at how it can benefit your company.
Video marketing isn't just a choice anymore. It's an integral part of a solid marketing strategy.
Video marketing isn't a new tool. It has been around since the 1940s when the first video commercial ran on a New York TV station during one of the Yankees games.
Fast-forward 65 years to the appearance of YouTube. It took Google less than a year to realize the utter importance of videos in marketing and buy YouTube for $1.65 billion. At that moment, video marketing as we know it today was born.
Video marketing provides companies a flexible and attractive medium with a high sharing potential. With 85% of a U.S. internet audience watching videos online and half a billion of the world's population watching videos on YouTube, it would be a big mistake not to capitalize on this tool.
Since videos have become an integral part of our everyday lives, your target audience is expecting you to use them. According to Wyzowl's survey results, 68% of people prefer to learn about new products and services by watching a video rather than by reading a text.
Besides staying ahead of the competition and keeping up with the latest trends, your company can reap the following important benefits of implementing a video marketing strategy.
According to WordStream, simply by placing a video on a landing page can increase the conversion rate by 80%. Meanwhile, including a video in an email can boost the click-through rate by 200%-300%.
People are expecting to see videos on your website or social media pages. When they do, they are highly likely to watch them. Short and engaging videos can move the client down the marketing funnel in under two minutes.
Google has been promoting the importance of video content for almost 15 years. That's why having videos on your website can help it receive higher rankings. Meanwhile, videos can help you achieve a 157% increase in organic traffic from SERPs.
Videos are a powerful weapon in the hands of an SEO expert. They don't impact the rankings directly but give your website a better chance of improving them.
Videos help your company improve the relationship with customers and build trust with potential clients. An average person has an easier time making a connection when they see other people speaking to them directly.
Compared to the black text against the white background, a video wins every time. Meanwhile, it's psychologically tougher for the user to turn off the video than to stop reading text.
Videos evoke emotions online better than any other medium. You can use the tone of voice, music, and facial expressions to your advantage. This marketing tool can help humanize your brand.
Videos do an excellent job boosting brand awareness, which is an integral part of your marketing campaign. You can use a video to tell a company story, arrange employee interviews, and share behind-the-scenes footage.
By presenting videos, you can do a much better job showing clients that you share similar values. When it comes to brand awareness, a picture is often worth a thousand words. Video is worth at least twice as much.
The popularity of YouTube is hard to underestimate. Your potential audience is likely to be using the platform to make buying decisions.
These days, video product reviews are much more popular than textual reviews because they provide an honest insight into the product and offer a unique opportunity to see how it looks and works in real life.
Embedding product videos on the website product pages also helps potential buyers make a decision. Four times as many consumers prefer to watch a video about a product rather than to read about it. Meanwhile, 20% of consumers may lose interest in the product if it doesn't come with video description.
Videos have an extremely high social share potential. Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined. Meanwhile, videos on a Facebook page increase user engagement by 33%. Simply using the word "video" in the subject line can boost the open rate of your email by 13%.
Shareability and word-of-the-mouth marketing go hand in hand. By making your content more shareable, you aren't just reaching a wider audience, you are giving that audience a chance to become your brand ambassador.
According to the latest Wyzowl survey, 89% of marketers say that video marketing gives a good return on their investment. With the amount of money any business is spending on marketing, an increase in the ROI can play a big role in the decision-making process.
Considering all the above-mentioned benefits and statistics, if you take full advantage of video marketing, the ROI of the campaign can increase tremendously.
If you decide to implement video marketing, you can benefit from the following tips.
Be Genuine — Not all videos for marketing purposes should be made professionally. Just the opposite, amateur videos appear more genuine, thus establishing a stronger connection with viewers.
Keep It Short — To get the job done, videos don't have to be long. Just the opposite, longer videos push viewers away. The majority of efficient videos for marketing purposes doesn't exceed 120 seconds.
Converse — People enjoy being talked to. Make the video personalized by speaking directly to the viewers. Address to them with a "You" and explain why your message matters to them personally.
Optimize for SEO — All videos must be fully optimized for SEO with tags, descriptions, and transcripts. While videos aren't the most important SEO tool, when optimized, they can contribute to the campaign's success.
Focus on the First 10 Seconds — The first 10 seconds of your video are the chance to catch a viewer's attention. So make them count. These seconds should be sufficient to address the pain points of your client and promise a solution.
Use Closed Captions — About 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. The statistics are similar for the rest of the videos since many people can't have the sound distracting them from other activities. Additionally, closed captions optimize your videos for the disabled audience.
If video marketing hasn't become an integral part of your campaign yet, it's time to welcome its benefits. The high ROI of this approach can help you achieve excellent marketing results.
For more information about video marketing and the way it can help your business, please contact us today. At Bristol Strategy, we provide high-quality video marketing services carefully tailored to the needs of each client.
