Video Content Marketing is rapidly emerging as one of the most valuable tools for any business. Whether you’re in the B2B or B2C landscape, video is a phenomenal way to engage, attract, and convert customers. It’s rich, exciting, and easier to consume than other forms of content.
What’s more, video marketing pays dividends. As the world of advertising becomes increasingly competitive, studies show around 83% of marketers now believe video is more important to their strategy than ever.
While demand for video has been growing for some time, it has seen a significant acceleration since the pandemic. With more people now consuming news and interacting with brands online, instead of in person, online media consumption has grown by around 215% in the US alone.
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Here’s why you should be investing in a video content strategy.
What is Video Content Marketing?
Content marketing is the art of creating relevant “content”, such as blogs, articles, podcasts, and social media posts, to engage, attract, and retain customers. Video content marketing focuses specifically on the video landscape, and the use of everything from long-form films to short clips.
At present, around 87% of businesses say they use video as a marketing tool. Used correctly, this format provides companies with an excellent way to share educational, entertaining, and inspirational content, in webinars, online courses, live videos, and more.
Video has a range of benefits compared to standard written and audio-focused content. Specifically, it allows companies to communicate with their audience in an almost face-to-face way, strengthening human connections and emotional investment. At the same time, video is naturally easy to consume and remember. People can recall 65% of what they see, compared to only 10% of what they hear.
What’s more, video appeals to virtually every kind of customer. 95% of B2B buyers said they wanted to see more video content from the companies they buy from. Plus, Gen Z, the youngest current generation, say they spend around 7.2 hours consuming video each day.
If you’re wondering whether video content marketing is right for your brand, check out these stats:
- In 2021, videos online had a reach of around 92%
- In 2022, the average person is expected to spend 100 minutes a day watching online video.
- 83% of marketers say they generated leads with video content. Plus, 52% of marketers say video is the content type with the highest ROI.
- 94% of marketers say videos helped their customers understand their product or service.
Video Marketing for Business
As video continues to showcase a host of benefits for today’s digital marketers, interest in the medium is rapidly increasing. By 2024, Statista suggests marketers will spend around 41.9% more on video campaigns. This should equal an overall spend of around $12.66 billion.
One of the best things about video is how extremely versatile the format can be. Companies have used videos for everything—from demonstrating products to providing how-to guidance.
For instance, if you’re looking for a convenient way to introduce your customers to your products and services in a straightforward manner, a product demo video like this one from CAT could be an excellent option:
72% of customers even say they prefer watching videos to learn about a product. Alternatively, you could use your videos to generate excitement about your upcoming release as part of a crowdfunding project. Videos are a great way to showcase all the values of your solution in a streamlined format:
Videos can also be a fantastic way to showcase social proof. A testimonial or review in the form of a video looks much more authentic than a written comment. Dropbox used an excellent example of a testimonial video to help capture new customers:
Plus, videos are great for demonstrating your thought leadership and expertise. How-to videos earn the most attention out of any video category on YouTube, and they help you to accelerate customer success, by showing your clients how to use the various features of your products:
There are even new forms of video emerging all the time, from live video streams popular on social media, to 360-degree video which allows customers to essentially “move around a setting” using their cursor or smartphone. Some companies are even experimenting with interactive video:
8 Reasons Why You Need Video Content Marketing
In today’s competitive landscape, connecting with your audience and generating sales requires the production of numerous creative kinds of content. Video’s potential for both capturing audience attention and inspiring conversions makes it a powerful choice for any brand. Here are the 8 main reasons why you should be investing in a video content strategy:
1. Videos Make it Easier to Understand your Product
It’s not always easy to convey the value and features of a new product to an audience. Words can only describe so much, and static pictures have limited potential when it comes to boosting understanding. However, 94% of marketers say video helps generate a better understanding of a product or service.
Not only can you showcase the features and capabilities of your product with video, but you can also ensure your audience understands how to use your solution too. Dropbox has a fantastic selection of YouTube tutorial videos that help customers make the most of their service.
2. Videos Generate Excellent ROI
While the return on investment you get from any video content marketing campaign will depend on various factors, most companies have found that video does naturally produce great results. Video is considered up to 1200% more successful than any other content, and viewers absorb up to 95% of the information they see on the video, making them more likely to purchase.
Not only does video generate great results from your audience, it’s also extremely affordable to create. These days, anyone can make video from a smartphone and upload it straight to a sharing platform. There are also various reels editing tools and inexpensive apps to help edit your content.
3. Videos are Good for SEO
According to Forrester, video results are 50 times more likely to be ranked organically on the Google search results than text-based content. Adding video to your landing pages, product pages, home pages, and anything else you can think of will boost your chances of grabbing Google’s attention.
That’s because Google wants to ensure it’s offering the most engaging and relevant content for its searchers at all times. Adding various SEO components to your videos can also accelerate your growth. For instance, you can use keywords in your tags, titles, and meta descriptions.
4. Video Boosts Conversions
Perhaps more than anything else, every marketer wants to generate conversions. Fortunately, video is great for convincing customers to buy. According to some studies, adding a video to your product landing page can increase your conversions by up to 80%. What’s more, further research reveals that around 74% of the users who watch an explainer video about a service or product end up buying.
Videos are great for encouraging positive conversions because they provide your audience with a more comprehensive view of what they’re getting. Videos can show your items from all angles, outline the benefits, and even share testimonials from other clients at the same time. Just look at the world-renowned Dollar Shave Club ad, for instance:
5. Video Strengthens Trust
Though customers are becoming more accustomed to shopping online, they’re still nervous about trusting brands with their personal details. Video gives a face and a voice to your business, which provides your company with a more human element. Through video, you can put your customers at ease with a friendly tone and a face. Moreover, adding voiceovers using text to speech software can infuse your videos with an additional layer of your brand's unique voice.
At the same time, videos help to answer the questions your customers might have about your product or service before they make a purchase. According to studies, around 57% of customers feel video gives them more confidence when purchasing online.
6. Video Appeals to Mobile Users
In 2021, the number of unique mobile internet users reached around 4.32 billion. This means more than 90% of the world’s population accesses the internet from their phone. Fortunately, most videos today are perfectly suited to the mobile platform, which means your customers can continue to consume your content anywhere.
Video is actually much easier to consume than other forms of content on a smartphone or mobile device. It doesn’t require customers to zoom in on small paragraphs of text. Plus, with captions, you can even connect with people who aren’t using sound for their content.
7. Video is engaging
The average viewer will continue watching a video less than 60 seconds in length until the very end. Alternatively, a lot of customers will automatically click away from blocks of text after a while. Most customers want the research they do into a product, brand or company to be as simple and straightforward as possible. Video is a great tool for delivering information fast.
You can engage just about any audience with video, without having to ask them to read any lengthy pieces of information. Plus, you can reach your customers anywhere, via email, social media, your website, or video-sharing sites.
8. Video is Great for Social Media
Video can also help turbocharge your other marketing efforts. According to studies, around 76% of mobile social media users say they would share a branded video with their friends. However, you’ll need to make sure your content is valuable and entertaining if you want to generate these results.
As an added benefit, there are a ton of tools available for social media which allow you to share videos quickly and conveniently. You can post live videos on Facebook, reels on Instagram, and shorter videos on TikTok, depending on your strategy.
How To Get Started In Video Content Marketing
The good news for today’s businesses is that setting up a video content strategy is much easier than it seems. You don’t necessarily need a fancy camera system to get started. Many companies are producing and publishing video straight from a smartphone.
However, as with most marketing strategies, it’s important to ensure you have the right plan in place to ensure success. Here are some quick tips to set yourself up for a great result with your video content marketing schedule:
- Know your target audience: Before producing any kind of content, it’s important to get a clear view of who you’re trying to target and attract. If you don’t have them already, make a set of user personas outlining the specific demographic and behavioral data you’ve collected about your clients. This will help you produce content more relevant to your viewers.
- Set goals for each video: Having a clear goal for what you want to achieve with your video will make it easier to monitor the metrics and KPIs you need to determine whether your plan is working. Ask yourself whether your video is intended to draw traffic back to your website, boost sales, get people talking about your brand, or generate leads.
- Decide how to produce your videos: Different videos will require different levels of production. A high-quality webinar will take more work than a simple social media video. You may need to invest in a better camera for some styles of video, as well as editing tools, so you can make your content as professional as possible.
- Determine where to distribute your videos: Once you’ve started to produce your video content, you’ll need to plan where you’re going to share it. You might create content directly for channels like YouTube. Alternatively, you could opt for videos that you’ll place on your website, or share on webinar platforms.
- Track your results: As with all forms of marketing, it’s important to track the results of your videos in terms of clicks, engagement, conversions, and anything else that may be relevant to your business. Keep a close eye on which types of content generate the best results for your company, and double down on the videos with the top ROI.
Dive into Video Content Marketing
Video content marketing is becoming a must-have for all businesses hoping to attract, engage, and convert their customers in today’s competitive landscape. If you haven’t started investing in video yet, now might be the perfect time to start formulating a plan.
