The world we live in today is more visual than ever before. Long gone are the days of long-worded newspaper or magazine advertisements. Not even still images have the same power they used to.
Today's average consumer wants to consume with their eyes -- and you have a window of just 8-10 seconds to capture their attention. We get it, that sounds like a lot of pressure. But if you're not making the most of video marketing, you could be missing out on valuable consumer interaction.
So, what is video marketing anyway and how does it benefit your business today? This blog unpacks everything you need to know about this marketing medium and how to maximize its use for your business.
What Is Video Marketing and How Does It Work?
The premise of video marketing is quite simple. Your business creates video content that aims to promote your brand and company. It might also promote your products, services, offer useful how-to demonstrations, or customer testimonials.
With video marketing you can also live-stream business events and create entertaining content that engages your audience -- it doesn't always have to be about business.
The ultimate goal is to create awareness around your brand/business and create a rapport with your customers. While video marketing might sound simple on the surface, it is a little more complicated than that.
This is because data drives video marketing. The only way to gauge whether your marketing efforts are paying off is by tracking your customer engagement and metrics through analytics.
Some of today's most popular forms of video marketing for businesses include:
- Educational videos, i.e. tutorials on how your products work, explainer videos, or industry update videos
- Company culture videos, i.e. live-streaming events, brand videos to promote your company ethos
- Product videos, i.e. product demo and product launch videos
- Testimonial videos, i.e. customer and employee testimonials that vouch for your business
With this in mind, what does it take to create a truly engaging video marketing strategy that delivers the metrics you're looking for? Here are some of the top principles to remember:
- Storytelling: your audience needs to connect with a storyline to feel engaged. Think about what stories you want to tell and how to tell them
- Engagement: telling a story is not enough on its own. You need to research who your audience is and tell your stories in an engaging way that appeals to them
- Concise and consistent: your marketing videos should not be too long. In fact, the shorter, the better. Keep your videos concise and the quality consistent
There's no limit on where you publish your videos and how many platforms you use. The more platforms you use to publish and promote your marketing videos, the more exposure for your business. So, think about embedding video on your website, publishing to YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and yes, TikTok!
Finally, you don't want to overlook the importance of video marketing analytics. Take the time to track consumer engagement. Study the statistics on what videos/content perform the best and why. Then create your marketing strategy around these metrics!
Why Video Marketing Works: The Undeniable Benefits
So, you might find yourself wondering, what is the hype over video marketing based on, anyway? Well, in today's visual, fast-paced world, video content is king.
Yes, the written word still has some power, especially in the world of SEO. But when it comes to marketing, there is no other medium that trumps video.
In fact, up to 93 percent of businesses that use video marketing believe it's one of the most important parts of their marketing strategy. And today, more than 83 percent of businesses use video marketing as a reliable tool for business promotion.
If you aren't part of this 83 percent, you could be missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with your audience.
Not only this, but video marketing is far more accessible than it's ever been before. With today's amazing smartphone functionality and improved internet connectivity, the global population can access video marketing in a heartbeat.
Here are a few more reasons why video marketing is so beneficial for your business:
1. Engagement
Video is one of the best ways to create a true connection between your brand and your average customer. This is through the power of compelling storytelling.
You're able to strike an emotional cord with your audience and build a rapport this way. It's this emotional connection that draws in your audience and builds brand trust.
2. Translate Your Message Quickly
It's no secret that the attention span of most consumers today is very limited. But with video marketing, you can overcome this. Most of the time, you can translate enough information to your audience before they lose interest or become distracted.
Before a consumer clicks away from your video, you have the chance to explain concepts to them in a concise and engaging way. While they might not watch your entire video, you could have still said enough to make an impact on them in at least 1-2 minutes.
3. It Promotes Good SEO
Sure, written content is still king when in the realm of SEO -- especially targeted keywords. But this doesn't mean that visual mediums, such as video cannot promote and support your SEO practices.
Video marketing is actually a brilliant medium for building high-quality backlinks to your website. This is due to an increase in video likes, shares, and video tagging.
In short, all of this engagement works in your favour and helps search engines keep track of the quality of your web pages. Also, the longer a customer spends on your web page, the higher the ranking of that page, too.
4. It Helps Your Customers Retain Information
Despite the fact that the average consumer today has a short attention span, it doesn't mean that they don't remember or retain the information you've shared with them. Your customers might not retain information they've read or overheard very well.
But when it comes to imagery and video, this statistic changes drastically. Information shared via an image or video results in retention rates of up to 95 percent, versus just 10 percent via text.
5. Today's Average Consumer Prefers Video
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, your customers prefer video marketing over any other kind of medium. This is because much of the world today already watches and digests information via video.
So why would you spend time creating content that your customers don't want to see? It's simple -- give them what they want.
The Importance of Video Marketing Analytics
As mentioned earlier, your video marketing analytics are key to ensuring all of your video production efforts pay off. By tracking the right key performance indicators (KPIs), you can assess what's really working for you, and what isn't.
Some of the most important KPIs you want to monitor include:
- Video demographics: who makes up your audience? What type of content would appeal to them the most and who should feature in the videos you create?
- Video views: this is important for obvious reasons, you need to gauge whether you're sharing your videos on the right platforms
- Website interaction: how much does your audience interact with your website after they've watched your video?
- The duration of views: how long does your average consumer watch your videos? The longer they watch, the better the video resonates with them
- Device type: where and how is your audience watching your videos? Are they watching via mobile phone, laptop, or desktop computer?
- The conversion rate: how many customers actually follow through with a call-to-action after watching your video content?
These metrics help you to keep a watchful eye on what performs well and what doesn't work. Basically, you can keep your thumb on the pulse of what your audience enjoys watching and concentrate on creating the right type of content.
Outsourcing vs. In-House Content Creation
There is no hard and fast rule on how expensive or cheap your video marketing needs to be. Depending on how you choose to create your video content, the costs will vary.
There are two main choices you have as a business. You could handle all of your content creation in-house. This means investing in the right video equipment and software to handle video production. You might need to hire actors for your content or enlist the skills of your employees.
This is a great idea because it offers longevity, as well as full creative control over your content. However, if your business is completely new to video marketing, it's often worthwhile outsourcing the job to a reputable agency.
Why? Because they have the knowledge and expertise to ensure your vision comes to life. Not only this, but they have most likely worked with a business like yours and know what works best with your audience.
Allow an agency to tackle the hard yards for you. You can also save yourself the time, money, and effort of repeat in-house content creation if your videos aren't up to scratch.
Crewcible: Your Go-To Video Production Experts
So, what is video marketing? In a nutshell, it's an undeniably powerful tool that all businesses should use to not only promote their brand, but connect with their audience on a much deeper level than ever before.
If you're looking to outsource your video marketing, Crewcible has you covered. We focus on an array of services include video strategy, production, creative direction, and post-production.
Check out some of our work to get an idea of what we can offer you!