If you’re having trouble convincing your C-Suite to use video marketing, we’re here to help. You may be fighting the perception that video marketing is a huge commitment. Managers think that video is time consuming, hard to track, and requires a lot of attention to detail. However, video marketing is a lot easier than they think, and it can reap huge rewards.
According to Wyzowl, 87 percent of businesses now use video as a marketing tool. Video has been seen as a powerful asset to consumers, with 79 percent of people say a brand’s video has convinced them to buy a piece of software or app.
Video is the present and the future, and it is absolutely necessary for every brand and company to be using video to its fullest potential. There are so many reasons why video marketing works, but here are five reasons why you and your brand should unequivocally be using video in your marketing strategy.
1. Social Platforms Love Videos
48 percent of people said they’d be most likely to share video content with their friends, ahead of any other type of content. That means if you want to make an impact on social, you’ll need to be posting videos.
The social opportunities for video are growing everyday, from posting on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin, to creating live videos, stories, and virtual reality. This flexibility allows you to pinpoint the exact content and distribution method that reaches your audience best.
In addition, video is much more engaging to social viewers than any other type of content. For example, Facebook notes that “many creators who post videos on Facebook prompt discussion among their followers, as do posts from celebrities.” In fact, live videos on average get six times as many interactions as regular videos. Incorporating video into your posts drives higher engagement and interactions. Instagram and Twitter videos also automatically play in your newsfeed, making videos more eye catching and consuming to followers than just text.
2. Mobile Viewers Love Video
A study recently released by Deloitte found that Americans collectively check their smartphones upwards of 8 billion times per day. And, according to JWPlayer, more than 75 percent of worldwide video viewing is mobile. That means to reach that giant mobile audience, video is the way to go.
“The growing range of content that’s available from on-demand services like YouTube, Netflix or Facebook Watch is also encouraging viewers to watch more frequently on smartphones and tablets while on the go,” according to Mobile Marketer. Readily available video content makes it easy for users to engage on social media, and the demand for fast content is rapidly growing. Therefore, big companies like Facebook Watch and Netflix are constantly adapting to meet the demands of their audience.
3. Video Commands More Attention
There are so many things in the world that are demanding a consumers attention — and there is only so much attention to go around. Because video uses both visual and aural stimuli, it dominates static advertisements in capturing audience attention. By catching your viewer’s eye, video can raise awareness and possible ROI.
In a heat map study done tracking consumer eye movement and attention on the search page, published on Moz.com, videos were shown to be particularly powerful in capturing eyeballs compared to static ads, even when these videos were not the first results.
On top of this, the average user spends 88 percent more time on a website with video. So if you’re trying to use your website to make an impression, a video is a sure way to do it. You can easily track your website metrics by using Google Analytics.
4. Stronger Emotional Connections
According to Entrepreneur magazine, branding is “the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products.” Emotional branding then, is creating an emotional connection to one company that separates it from the rest, creating brand loyalty over time.
It is those emotional connections that create higher ROI and audience engagement. According to Medium, 94% of respondents said they would be highly likely to recommend a brand they were emotionally engaged with. You can use video to reach the audience on an emotional level, while also pushing your product or message.
For example, Green Buzz Agency produced “A Boy and His Dog,” which shows how with the help of Make-A-Wish® Mid-Atlantic, Cooper received a service dog to help him with his seizures caused by Dravet syndrome. By interviewing the parents to hear not only about the struggles of raising Cooper, but also their gratitude for Finn, we gave the audience an inside perspective into Cooper and his family. Additionally, this video premiered at the annual Evening of Wishes Gala, helping Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic raise over $720,000 to help support local wishes.
While traditional marketing methods are expected by audiences, video is a new experience, every time. Most people can still recall a video or commercial that made them laugh or cry, even if they saw it months or years ago. If making an emotional connection is the most effective method to get a consumer to take action, videos are the most powerful way available to deliver the message.
5. Video Drives Organic Traffic
By 2021, 82 percent of all consumer internet traffic will be from video. According to Moovly, a brand is “53 times more likely to show up first on Google if you have a video embedded on your website. Since Google now owns YouTube, there has been a significant increase in how much videos affect your search engine ranking.” But 75 percent of people will never scroll past the first page on a Google search. So here are some tips on how to get your video on the first page of google:
Put your keywords in your title, description, and in your actual video.
This will help Google rank your video on its relevance to what the user is searching for. Google Trends and Adwords are both helpful tools in generating keywords for your video. Remember to also include the keywords in your actual video, for example as narration at the beginning. Google has voice recognition software that picks up on the words that you’re actually using in your video and determines which keywords it should be ranking for.
Get traffic to your video.
You made great content, now share it! You can do this by posting your video on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and including it in any blog posts or pages on your website. Adding a call to action to your post may help others share it too! You should also try to embed your video wherever you can, whether that is on an outside blog post or website.
Conclusion
All this is to say, if you’re not using video, you should be. It is one of the most effective ways to reach audiences in this digital era, especially on mobile and social platforms. In the end, it makes the most impact on your viewers, and that will only help your bottom line.
Updated on January 24, 2020.