More businesses are using content marketing to build an audience, rise up through the search results, and ultimately generate revenue. Video is an increasingly important content format for digital marketing.
But many businesses are not utilising video in their content marketing strategy, which could be a mistake. Whether it’s an educational or information video, or simply an “about us” video that details your company – video could make a big different to your content marketing efforts.
The Statistics for Video in Content Marketing
Mobile video traffic is expected to grow 55% per year until 2020 according to Ericsson.
Hubspot has found the following statistics that show the true power of video in content marketing:
- 92% of mobile video consumers share videos with other people
- 1/3 of all online activity is spent watching video
- 75% of executives watch work-related videos on business websites at least once a week
- 59% of executives would prefer to watch video over reading text
So how can you use video in your content marketing, and what makes it such a great format to appeal to your audience?
Social Video Explosion
Facebook is going all out in promoting video content within the newsfeed.
Eight billion daily video views take place on Facebook, with videos that auto-play within the newsfeed itself. Not only this, but Facebook is pushing Facebook Live – its live feed of video feeds from users.
Consider that Periscope from Twitter is also gaining popularity in the live video space, and YouTube is going from strength to strength as a social platform, you can see how major brands view video as the future of content on any device.
Emotional Marketing
Video content is the easiest medium in order to evoke an emotion with your audience.
Many videos which make it popular, especially those that go viral, evoke some kind of reaction. Usually they are funny, relatable, or evoke some other strong emotion.
Videos offer many attributes beyond traditional content – including different music, tone, and human expressions.
Consumer decisions are often made based on emotion, and this can be a great asset to your marketing strategy. B2B decisions are also increasingly made based on emotional connections, too.
High Engagement
One of the best parts of using video for content marketing is the engagement rate is higher, and there are many ways to engage.
On most social or video platforms, users can like, comment, save, or share your videos.
Viral videos evoke a reaction of some kind – usually they are funny, relatable, or evoke a strong emotion.
Microsoft states that most people have an attention span of just eight seconds – so it’s important to engage with your audience when possible.
With a video, viewers are 10 times more likely to engage with a video than a blog or social post.
Great for Marketing Funnels
Whatever you want to use videos for, videos are a real asset to marketing funnels.
Whether you’re using them at the top of the funnel as ads to drive traffic, or supporting assets as part of your content, they can really help to drive potential customers further down the funnel.
Videos are especially useful on landing pages, providing targeted content for a specific audience, and will help to boost the conversion rates of your funnel.
Keep Your Customers’ Attention
While everyone has a diminishing attention span in an online world, videos can help demand the attention of your customers.
If your video is professional and interests your customers, you can be sure to keep their attention throughout. Just be sure you make the video length suitable for its purpose.
Technology Now Favours Video
With Facebook auto-playing videos that grabs your attention while browsing, to YouTube providing a hub of endless video content covering every topic imaginable on any device – it’s clear that technology can finally provide video content wherever we are.
Wherever your audience likes to hang out, you can grab their attention with video. If it’s social media such as Twitter or Facebook, an auto-play video can grab their attention within the newsfeed.
Everyone now has a smartphone, and use them everywhere. With 4G networks and more data available, there’s no reason that people won’t watch your videos wherever they are.
Measurements
While you can measure the performance of your marketing campaigns through web analytics and other tools, videos often offer extra measurements that can be very useful.
For instance, in some formats you can measure the click-through rate on your videos, where visitors stop watching, and how many times people have viewed your videos.
This is useful in order to determine when your marketing is working, and how you can improve.
Improved Retention
Getting a suitable message across through video content can improve the retention of your viewers.
Most people will watch the majority of a video. However, the same cannot be said for other formats.
For instance, written content is often invaluable. Despite this, many people will skim written content, or not have time or the attention to read the whole thing.
This is where video can ensure you get your entire message across, if you can captivate your audience.
Online Videos Differs from Television
Online videos have many different properties than traditional video ads on the television, which can be very beneficial.
For instance, many video ads on TV and elsewhere can be seen as intrusive. When it comes to ads on social networks or on other sites, audio is often only allowed when clicked or engaged with. This means your brand won’t be associated with annoyance.
Another big plus is that although your audience may not be able to listen, you can display text or other visuals which means viewers can understand your message even if they can’t hear.
When putting together your next marketing campaign, it’s worth considering how video content can help you gain better results. It all still depends on your industry, the type of content you can create, and what message you wish to convey – but consistent and high quality video content can prove a huge asset to brands online.
If you’re looking to enhance your digital marketing efforts, and gain better results online, get in touch with the team who will be happy to chat how we can help.
