Among the media available to promote your business, video marketing has become increasingly accessible even to small businesses. While once video marketing required a massive budget, modern technology has made it much easier and affordable for just about anyone to use video marketing.
Video marketing is just one more tool to add to your marketing strategies. It is a fact that video captures attention. Keep in mind that attention spans are short in the digital age, and you need to utilize every tool to grab attention and attract customers. Video marketing grabs attention, and this means conversions. Video marketing can be placed across all channels. From your own website to your social media and paid ads, video marketing needs to be a part of your marketing strategies. Video marketing can be used to reach and educate your potential audience in ways other marketing media cannot. What is video marketing? Why is video marketing important? And how can video marketing be used to build your marketing strategies? This guide will give you the basic information you need to get started with video marketing.
Video is simply the most compelling medium for social sharing.
Video marketing improves SEO and boosts conversion and sales
Each of these has its own best practices. These are detailed on each individual website. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the best practices of each and adhere to them.
As these channels become increasingly important to marketing, vertical video will grow in importance.
Video marketing is just one more tool to add to your marketing strategies. It is a fact that video captures attention. Keep in mind that attention spans are short in the digital age, and you need to utilize every tool to grab attention and attract customers. Video marketing grabs attention, and this means conversions. Video marketing can be placed across all channels. From your own website to your social media and paid ads, video marketing needs to be a part of your marketing strategies. Video marketing can be used to reach and educate your potential audience in ways other marketing media cannot. What is video marketing? Why is video marketing important? And how can video marketing be used to build your marketing strategies? This guide will give you the basic information you need to get started with video marketing.
What Is Video Marketing?
Video marketing is the process of using video to promote and market your product and your business. Video marketing can be used to increase engagement with all your digital channels. Modern internet technology makes it possible to place video marketing on your website, social media, paid ads, and every other marketing channel you use. With video marketing, you can reach and engage your audience in ways no other marketing strategy can.Why Is Video Marketing Important?
We got our first glimpse of the potential for video marketing in 2005 with the launch of YouTube. This platform made it possible for anyone to upload video to the internet freely and easily. In 2006 Google bought YouTube. By 2009 there were seven different ad formats on this platform. That means an exponential growth in the ways online customers access and view video. All of these formats provide opportunities for marketing. As the technology has grown to make it easier to make high-quality videos, so has the marketing potential of video as an online marketing strategy. At this point, video is the dominant form of online communication. As smartphone technology has taken over the way people use the internet and shop, videos have become an essential part of marketing. It is as easy as a finger click to find and view videos, and online shoppers use video far more than text or even images. Since the pandemic, online video consumption has grown 215 percent. Online audiences now spend an average of 19 hours a week on smartphones viewing videos.Video Marketing Benefits
With the kinds of online viewing of videos we now see, it seems obvious that video marketing is too important to ignore. Video marketing needs to be a part of your overall marketing strategies. Some of the benefits of video marketing include:Video encourages social shares
Video is one of the most popular content types on social media for increasing engagement. Platforms like YouTube and TikTok have been geared toward video from their beginnings. With the pressure of the success of these platforms, other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have begun pushing video. The Instagram algorithm now favors reels, or videos, over images. Even platforms that are not otherwise geared toward video have begun to emphasize video uploads. Here are some numbers to demonstrate the value and benefits of video marketing:- Tweets on Twitter get 10 times more engagement with video.
- It is estimated that 68 percent of video marketers plan to use LinkedIn in the coming years.
- Nearly one billion videos per day are viewed on Pinterest.
Video is simply the most compelling medium for social sharing.
Video marketing improves SEO and boosts conversion and sales
Boost revenue
Marketers who use video marketing are growing company revenue at a rate of 49 percent faster over the course of a year than those who do not.Influences buying decisions
90 percent of customers say that product video helps them make buying decisions. An additional 64 percent say that watching a video compels them to buy. Another group reports that as much as 97 percent of marketers say that watching a video helps customers understand a product better than any other medium.Meets customer desires
Marketers now know that customers prefer video over emails, newsletters, social media images, blog posts, and downloadable content like PDFs. Customers simply prefer to be reached with video over any other media.Increase traffic to your website
People who use video as a marketing tool on their own websites have 41 percent more traffic than those who do not. Consumers use a variety of tactics when researching products and services of interest to them. These include search engines, visiting a company website, reading reviews, and watching videos. Videos can be incorporated into every one of these modes of reaching customers.More backlinks
Simply by embedding a page or a post with video triples the likelihood that your link will get backlinked.Increase conversions
Video gives you a 27 percent higher click-through rate and this leads to a 34 percent increase in conversions. Video on your landing page can increase conversions by as much as 86 percent.Types of Videos
The types of videos people are using for marketing vary greatly. Much depends on your specific marketing needs and goals. But there are some basic video types that make up a kind of bedrock of video marketing. These types of videos include:- Short videos that show off your brand’s personality
- Thought leadership videos that show your leaders are a source for industry news and insights
- Brand films that share your values and mission
- Explainers and how-to videos that provide relevant tips for solving your audience’s pain point
Business Goals Videos Can Help You Accomplish
As with any marketing strategy, video marketing helps you achieve your business goals. Having some specific goals in mind will help you as you implement video marketing. Some crucial business goals that video can help you accomplish include:Build brand awareness
Explainer videos on your website and social media are one of the best ways to build brand awareness. No other strategy garners the attention that video does, and a clear and attractive message in these explainer videos helps people understand what your brand is all about. What is more, video content is among the most shared content online. As you introduce messages about your brand, the tendency of online shoppers to share this video content will get your message well beyond your initial uploads.Generate demand with how-to videos and tutorials
One of the best uses of video marketing is to provide explanations for your product or service in the form of how-to videos and tutorials. It is often not enough to display your product. Sometimes you gain real interest by demonstrating how your product is used or what functions it performs. How-to videos and tutorials are some of the best video marketing content.Drive conversions with real customer stories
The most compelling message customers can get from video marketing is actual testimony from other satisfied customers. One of the reasons people read online reviews is to find out what others are saying about a product or service. By offering real customer stories in your online video content, you can convince most people that you are offering a valuable product.Engage customers to keep them satisfied
You want a good return on your investment, and so do your customers. You can use video marketing to re-engage customers to make sure they are happy with their purchases and to keep showing them new products and services that complement what they have already bought. Video marketing keeps your customers in the loop and offers them a line of engagement that continues to satisfy them even after the point of purchase.How Does Video Improve My SEO?
Video can and will help your website increase its rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs). Since video tends to instantly engage customers and keep them engaged, it increases the amount of time they spend on your website. Google tracks things like time spent on a website for its search engine rankings calculus. This is known as dwell time, and it is an important factor for Google’s search engine rankings. Video is amazingly effective in boosting your SEO. As many as 80 percent of marketers are now relying on video marketing to increase dwell time and SEO rankings. Statistics have shown that video content can increase the amount of time a customer spends on a website by as much as 88 percent.How to create a Video Marketing Strategy?
Awareness: Top of the funnel
The top of the funnel is your inbound methodology. This is the marketing and sales approach that focuses on attracting customers through your content and messaging. The top of the funnel is the place to determine what is most relevant to your customers and the types of things they find helpful. Your video content must address these ideas.Consideration: Middle of the funnel
Once you have attracted viewers to the top of the funnel, it is time to focus on conversions. This means collecting information from customers, and it also means engaging them in ways that address their specific needs. The keys to this stage of the funnel are to educate and excite. This type of video content may include:- A webinar filled with tactical advice
- Product demos sent by email
- Landing page promotional videos
- Case studies
- In-depth explainer and how-to videos
Conversion: Bottom of the funnel
The bottom of the funnel means conversions. Once you have attracted customers and provided them with reasons to get excited about what you offer, you need to close the deal with the kinds of video content that finally convinces them. The goal of this type of video content is to help your audience visualize your product for themselves. The kinds of video content you need at this stage include:- Testimonials of customers with relatable stories
- In-depth product demos
- Culture videos that sell viewers on your quality of service
- Personalized videos that explain exactly how your product could help their business
How Do I Distribute My Video?
There are a number of ways to distribute your video. You would naturally begin with owned media. These include:- Website
- Social media
- Emails
- Blogs
Paid distribution would include:
- Paid ads
- Display ads
- Outstream video ads
- Instream video ads
- Sponsored content
- Influencer content
Types of Video distribution Channels
Examples of video distribution channels include:- YouTube
- Vimeo
- Vidyard
- TikTok
Each of these has its own best practices. These are detailed on each individual website. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the best practices of each and adhere to them.
Video Marketing Trends for 2023
As you can see, video marketing is the most important medium for businesses right now. As video becomes increasingly important, marketers and content creators are looking toward the future for what comes next. Two of the most important trends in video marketing for 20023 include:Vertical video
Vertical video is intended to be viewed in portrait mode. This is to say that it is taller than wide. This is distinct from all other conventional video modes. The aesthetic of vertical video draws on traditions like landscape painting and the human visual field. Vertical video has not been favored in the past because it does not fit the aspect ratio of traditional viewing methods like film and television. However, vertical video is ideal for viewing on smartphones, and this is the mode more and more people are using to view video. Channels where vertical video is becoming important include:As these channels become increasingly important to marketing, vertical video will grow in importance.
