As a digital marketing technique, Videos can communicate what words and images cannot. Videos are hugely popular – according to YouTube over 3 billion videos are viewed a day and more than half of daily internet users will watch a video of some sort – so businesses need to make video marketing a part of their overall marketing strategy.
Businesses can increase user interaction on their website by using video and keep visitors on the site for longer. This helps increase site’s dwell time, which, in turn, can improve your site’s rankings and also help you to promote your products and ultimately generate sales if there is a correct call-to-action, which is not too salesy.
Video content marketing is here to stay, and as such, you need to invest in it to yield better returns. Thus, for this read, let’s look at the benefits of online video marketing, its latest statistics and video marketing tips.
Let’s begin!
1. What is Video Marketing? Why Use it and its Benefits?
In simple words, video marketing refers to promotion or marketing of product/service or a brand through a video. This can include explainer videos, how-to videos, customer testimonial videos, etc.
In the beginning, customers were satisfied with words, then they needed images, and now they crave videos. Undoubtedly, videos are one of the most exciting ways to engage with your audience. We don’t think there should be any debate about should I or shouldn’t I use video for business marketing. The debate should be about how to make the best use of this trending digital marketing technique to accelerate your business growth.
It is high time that businesses move out of the last century and have a video marketing strategy if they want to stay ahead of the competition and enhance the customer experience. This, in turn, will help you to generate organic traffic and boost conversion.
Benefits of Video Marketing
- With easy access to the internet and increase in the use of smartphones, businesses can reach their target audience any time, anywhere through video content, thus making it a cost-effective marketing channel.
- Search engines love videos. So by using this marketing technique, businesses can significantly improve their click-through rates and open rates, thereby increasing conversions.
- Videos allow you to connect emotionally with your audience, which, in turn, helps builds trust and credibility.
- It encourages social shares, so if your video goes viral, it can help boost your brand’s visibility, helping you garner new customers while keeping your existing customers engaged.
- It helps improve your website’s ranking on SERPs, increase traffic as well as it is a great way through which you can get more backlinks for your website.
2. Latest Video Marketing Statistics
- 92% of marketers say that video marketing is an important part of their marketing strategy. (Wyzowl)
- Videos drive 300% more traffic and help to nurture leads. (MarketingSherpa)
- 57% of consumers say that videos gave them more confidence to purchase online. (MediaPost)
- Video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more. (Slideshare)
- 50% of consumers want to see videos from brands … more than any other type of content. (HubSpot)
- 93% of brands got a new customer because of a video on social media. (Animoto)
- On average, people spend 2.6x more time on pages with video than without. (Omnikick)
3. What Role Does Video Marketing Play in Social Media Today?
Social media marketing is now having a great impact on search results. Once you have video footage on YouTube or Vimeo for example, it is very easy to then embed the videos either into your website or on social media platforms such as Facebook and to share the video which then has the potential of going viral.
To give you a perspective on the impact of social media video marketing, here are some statistics;
- Over 2+ billion people use YouTube, which is about one-third of the internet. (YouTube)
- 62% of people said they were more interested in a brand/product after seeing it in a Facebook Story, with 50% people being more inclined to online purchases as a result of these stories. (Marketing Land)
- Compared to text and images, social media videos generate 12 times more shares. (Wordstream)
- Almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. (Google)
As you can see, by incorporating videos into your marketing strategy, you would be able to boost your ROI. More importantly, video marketing is an actionable way to connect with your audience and interact with them face-to-face; a way to humanise your brand or give it that extra edge.
Further reading: How to Create an Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy
4. Effective Video Marketing Tips
- Keep videos short, a minute or 2 at the most and ensure that it is of a high-quality, which will help improve your play rates.
- Make sure you optimise the video for SEO in your YouTube channel by using correct tags and titles; this will help with search results.
- If it’s very badly filmed, then don’t publish it, as it can do more harm to your business than good.
- Use it for promotions and to show off products, but also use it to show off people behind the brand, give people your expert advice and so forth – it is all about giving something back, gaining trust rather than always trying to sell something.
- Don’t forget to include a descriptive call-to-action (CTA); ‘Follow/Like the Page’, ‘Subscribe to my channel’ etc.
- No one likes a boring video, so be creative. Use humour, have an engaging script, cut down the sales clutter rather be informative and helpful. All this can help you to generate qualified leads.
- If you are selling products/services, then how-to videos, tutorials and demo videos can help influence a customer’s decision to purchase, without you having to coerce them into it with a sales pitch.
- Another great way to increase brand awareness and boost social sharing is to encourage your customers to create & share videos while they are using your products/services.
- Lastly, don’t forget to track and measure the performance of your videos. Analyze important metrics like views, % of visitors, shares etc. This will provide you with insights that can help you to enhance your video marketing campaign.
Should You Create Your Own Videos or Hire a Professional?
Equipment and editing software is now affordable and user-friendly. Also, a lot of the simple stuff can be done on YouTube itself. You can, of course, shoot and edit your own video and sometimes this can be very effective as “live” events are being captured, and that’s what makes them special.
However, if you are going to use a video to promote your business, then it is usually best to sit down and plan it, script it, shoot and edit it professionally. Alternatively, you can purchase video footage from photo and video stock websites.
Searching for Video Marketing Services in Surrey?
We can help you create explainer or animated videos for your business. From planning and researching to scripting, production and going live, we offer full-fledged video marketing services that take care of each minute thing, ensuring that your video makes an impact and helps you achieve your marketing goals.
Get in touch with us today!