Video is an essential component of any successful digital marketing strategy. With the rise of video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels, video has become the preferred content format for many consumers. In this blog post, we will explore why video is so important for digital marketing and how businesses can effectively incorporate it into their marketing strategy.
Video is More Engaging than Other Types of Content
Video is a highly engaging form of content that captures people’s attention more effectively than text or images alone. According to Hubspot, 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, and 95% of consumers say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. By using video to convey your brand’s message, you can create a more emotional connection with your audience, ultimately leading to increased brand awareness, customer loyalty, and sales. Here a few reasons for this:
- Video tells a story
Humans are wired to respond to stories, and video is a powerful way to tell them. With video, businesses can create a narrative that resonates with their audience and captures their attention. By telling a story through video, businesses can build an emotional connection with their customers, which can ultimately lead to increased brand loyalty and sales. - Video is more memorable
Compared to other forms of content, video is more memorable. Research has shown that people retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to just 10% when they read it in text. This is because video engages multiple senses at once, making it more memorable and impactful. - Video evokes emotions
Video has the power to evoke emotions in a way that text or images cannot. By using music, voiceover, and visual cues, businesses can create a powerful emotional response in their audience. This emotional connection can help to build trust and increase brand loyalty. - Video is more versatile
Video is a versatile form of content that can be used for a variety of purposes. From product demos to explainer videos, businesses can use video to educate, inform, and entertain their audience. This versatility means that video can be used at every stage of the customer journey, from awareness to conversion. - Video is more engaging
Video is simply more engaging than other forms of content. It captures the attention of viewers and holds it for longer than text or images. This engagement can lead to increased brand awareness, customer loyalty, and sales.
Video Improves Search Engine Rankings
Google and other search engines prioritize video content, making it an effective way to improve your search engine rankings. By creating high-quality videos that include relevant keywords and tags, businesses can increase their visibility in search results, ultimately leading to increased website traffic and conversions. The videos themselves, especially when hosted on YouTube can rank for key search phrases on their own both in YouTube searches and general web searches. But embedding these videos on pages of your website can also vastly improve that site or page’s performance in search results as well, because the additional video content makes the page a more valuable resource.
Video is Highly Shareable
Video content is highly shareable, meaning that it has the potential to go viral and reach a wider audience. By creating compelling and entertaining video content, businesses can encourage viewers to share their videos on social media, ultimately leading to increased brand exposure and engagement.
Video can Improve Customer Education and Retention
Video can be an effective tool for educating customers about your products or services. By creating explainer videos or tutorials, businesses can provide a more in-depth understanding of their offerings, leading to increased customer retention and loyalty.
Video can be Used Across Multiple Channels
Video content can be repurposed and shared across multiple channels, including social media, email marketing, and website landing pages. By using video across multiple channels, businesses can increase their reach and engagement with their target audience, ultimately leading to increased conversions and revenue.
How to Incorporate Video Marketing as Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Its evident video marketing is essential, but to fully reap the benefits of video marketing you need a solid implementation strategy. Businesses use different implementations when incorporating video marketing as part of their marketing strategy. Here’s how to start thinking about video marketing for your business.
Focusing more on narration
Video content needs to strike a balance between being educational and entertaining. If you focus more on educating, you risk boring your audience, while more entertaining content will not drive brand awareness. Videos are digital mediums of narrating a story. Create video content which takes your prospects from the beginning to the end of a fun but resourceful journey. Like every story you read, the storyline needs to be engaging and with a specific objective.
What is the purpose of making the video? Are you educating your audience on how to use a product? Are you trying to give your prospects a deeper understanding of your brand? Are you creating a review of a product or service? The video content you create should be able to build a storyline which reflects the message you want to deliver. Incorporating storytelling in your video makes the content more enjoyable, memorable and shareable.
Investing in Quality
When video marketing was introduced in 2009, with the launch of YouTube, there were limited tools and equipment to create video content. More than ten years later, many technological advancements and innovations have revolutionized video marketing. Individuals can access various tools and mobile applications to make video marketing content right on their smartphone.
Even though there are many options for video-making equipment, it’s best to ensure you pick one with high-quality video production. Mobile phones and cameras are convenient for making simple marketing videos. The content should be designed and edited to stand out and deliver the expected message. You can opt to hire an individual to focus on video production or an agency. Most companies prefer hiring freelancers due to their flexibility and affordability. A high-quality marketing video requires high-quality tools and professional expertise in the field.
The Length of the Video
Your marketing video shouldn’t feel like a film. Consumers have a short time attention span. Hence all your digital marketing content needs to be brief, direct and fun. Long videos might not achieve the expected desired attention from your prospects. Social media platforms understand keeping videos short, especially when promoting a brand. Most social media platforms will allow businesses to create 60 seconds videos on their platforms when marketing their brand.
There is great competition for consumer attention on various digital platforms and channels. Are long videos useless? No. Long videos are also beneficial and have their place. If you are creating a video on how to assemble a chair, your video will be long and detailed as possible compared to a video of you showing a product catalog of the same chair.
The length of the video is greatly determined by your message and the digital platform. Social feeds are wonderful platforms for short videos, encouraging consumer engagement and lead conversion.
Creativity
Digital marketing calls for intense creativity and flexibility. Video marketing is one key aspect of digital marketing that demands intense creativity when making content. There are many ways of creating and editing marketing videos. Coming up with different and creative marketing videos will increase consumer engagement and experience. Social media is one essential channel that promotes immense and unique creativity. Prospects tend to share videos they find creative and entertaining. The internet community has the power to trend a video in minutes, attracting more than one million views. Gaining the attention of the online community requires creativity. Boring and monotonous content tends to get very mediocre views with zero shares. Flexibility means you need to be updated and promptly create content relevant to the trends. Common trends include music, correct tags and even catchphrases.
Types of Marketing Video Contents
Now that our mobile networks can handle streaming HD video without buffering and quality loss, video marketing is very prevalent and preferred by mobile users. There are different types of marketing videos you can create for your brand. The video type you create is determined by the message you want to deliver to your audience, but these should give you some ideas about how you can start to use video in your marketing.
Live Streams
Live streams allow a brand to broadcast live to their audience like in traditional TV, and to interact one-on-one with fans and prospects through digital platforms. They are most efficient when launching a product or holding an event. During the live streams, prospects can be part of the live stream. They can give feedback through the comment sections and even join the talk on the live stream. Companies have the option of recording their live streams for prospects who might have missed the live stream.
How to Videos
Consumers require proper care and maintenance tips for various products. Companies can increase customer engagement by creating video content guiding buyers on how to use their products effectively. The videos can also explain how buyers can assemble a product before use. How-to videos offer a straightforward and cost-effective way of encouraging after-sales engagement with your buyers. You can also teach additional skills that your buyers might need in handling the product. Most top brands selling technical products include how-to videos on the eCommerce platforms selling their products. How-to videos are more targeted at consumers who have already bought the products.
Social Media Stories & Reels
Social media platforms have the most innovative video marketing resources. Brands can create short and fun marketing videos for their products and services. Stories remain on your profile for 24 hours and are very good for giving prospects frequent updates about upcoming events like sales and discounts. Facebook and Instagram are famous for their stories with great edits and effects. Reels were already gaining popularity as a short form vertical video medium and then TikTok perfected the model. Now everyone is consuming short, vertical soundbites in video form.
Product Videos and Demonstrations
Product videos are different from how-to videos. Product videos give an actual real-life situation where the product is being used. Buyers see what they should expect when they purchase the product from you. How-to videos are more detailed and more prolonged. They cover various aspects of the product and can even include some skill learning. Product videos are more targeted at prospects.
Client Testimonials
Client testimonials in video content are becoming very popular. The beauty and skincare industry has greatly benefited from using clients’ testimonials videos. The videos tell prospects of the successful journey the loyal customers have had with your brand. Client testimonials increase the brand’s authenticity and trust in the market.
It’s Time to Start Using Video
Video marketing continues to enjoy growing popularity thanks to evolving digital interaction. Consumers are now looking for resourceful, fun and trendy content during their buying cycle. As the digital audience craves more video content, brands need to tap into the potentiality of video marketing and increase their digital footprint. There are different types of marketing video content you can use to convey different messages to your audience.
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Talk with our Signal strategists to learn how we can make quality video content for your brand to educate consumers, sell products, and grow your brand.
