The Value of Videos in Marketing
Videos have become the new currency of online content. Almost 5 billion videos are watched online every single day and research shows 84 minutes per day is the global average for video consumption.
Clearly, videos are a part of our personal daily online lives. However, businesses are learning that videos can be a profitable marketing tool.
Adding a new ingredient to your marketing mix
As a marketer, your primary goal is to get your audience to cross the finish line with you and convey your message. Even if you are advertising the best product in the world, if no one is listening, no one is buying.
So how do you get people to listen? You make it as easy for them to hear as possible, and this means speaking to them via multiple channels.
Websites and marketing campaigns often rely on text and graphics. However, relying on too much of any one ingredient is a recipe for disaster. While graphics convey information succinctly, and text explains and elaborates, adding video to the mix is a way to reach customers who absorb information visually and tune out when they see too much text. On average, viewers retain 95 per cent of information if they watch it it, but only 10 per cent of the when they read it.
If a customer doesn’t hear or understand your message, your chances of converting them are slim. For many companies, conversion rates increased after adding videos to their campaigns. Small businesses that used videos saw a conversion rate increase an average of 40 per cent. Additionally, start-ups saw email sign-ups increase by 67 per cent.
Customers want to speak to a face, not a bot
Marketing isn’t just a one-way dialogue. Truly successful businesses create conversations with their customers, and videos allow you to talk to your customers personally, making them useful for connecting in a more personal way than an email or graphic allows.
Customers are about 10 times more likely to engage, embed, share and comment on video content than other posts.
Additionally, small businesses and start-ups both saw their social media activity increase between 60 and 70 per cent after adding videos to their online content. Start-ups also saw a 50 per cent increase in user time on site and user comments after they added videos to their online content.
Simply making a video and sending it to your customers will not get these results. Companies succeed when they understand how to use and apply videos to improve their existing marketing campaigns to build a conversation with their customers.
Larger corporate companies reported that user engagement increased almost 75 per cent on average when they used videos to speak to their existing customer bases.
Don’t let your videos fall flat
When you think of videos, think outside of the box. There’s more to online content videos than product tutorials and advertisements.
The companies that experience the most success with videos are those that aren’t afraid to try something new. Incredible commercials and video campaigns stick in a customer’s memory for years, but videos that lack creativity bore your audience and can hurt brand loyalty.
Remember, videos aren’t only for the consumer. You can integrate videos in company presentations and communications to stimulate discussion across colleagues and liven up meetings.
Don’t forget that videos are versatile. Use them not just for advertising, but as a tool for building internal communications, increasing brand loyalty, showing a more human side to your company or creating open, personal dialogue with your existing customer base.
