The popularity of video has increased rapidly in recent years, along with the effectiveness of video marketing across all digital platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and even LinkedIn.
This guide will go through everything you need to know about video marketing, from what video marketing is, why it’s now the new big thing, and why you should start utilising it!
What is Video Marketing?
In the most straightforward words, video marketing uses videos to market your products, service, or brand across one or more digital platforms.
But is video marketing worth investing in?
Yes, absolutely, video marketing is worth investing in! And now is the right time!
Using video marketing, you can reach more prospects, raise awareness about your brand, services, product offerings, influence consideration, increase sales, and grow your business.
We often come across questions such as, do we even have enough resources to create videos, would people even watch them, and would it even work?
The answer to all the questions above is: yes! Keep reading to find out why.
So, what’s the big deal with Video Marketing?
According to HubSpot, more than 72% of consumers online now prefer learning about brands, products, or services through video. Because people want to consume in video format, businesses are naturally expected to provide video content to their users. In fact, during the pandemic, videos were expected to be so popular that Cisco’s annual report estimated nearly 82% of all content created online would be video.
Videos work great if you are looking to increase your digital presence and want to get discovered by new users. Content that includes videos will help boost website ranking, and landing pages with videos are known to produce better conversion rates.
Untimely, running a video marketing campaign will help your business:
- Reach more users, and increase brand awareness
- Build trust and credibility
- Influence consideration and buying decisions
- Improve conversion rates and returns on investment (ROI)
A whopping 84% of marketers now say videos have helped produce more leads, and 78% say videos have directly helped increase sales. With such statistics in mind, video marketing is something you do not want to disregard, especially now!
The Growth of Video Marketing
So, what caused video content and marketing to be so popular and effective, and why now?
An increase in mobile usage combined with the popularity of social media platforms has led to growth in video views.
Users across social media are watching videos on mobile now more than ever. Nearly every one of us owns a smartphone, and almost every time we are on it, we use it to watch videos, whether that be streaming from YouTube or on social media platforms.
With the increase of mobile usage and the rise of video-based social platforms and added features such as Tick Tok, Instagram reels, Snapchat discovers, and YouTube shorts, it’s no wonder why videos consumption has now seen an enormous surge. This is evident when looking at Tik Tok’s exponential growth since 2018, where the platform has nearly tripled in size and now has over 1.2 billion active users.
Pandemic = rise of video consumption.
The pandemic has shifted the way users behave digitally and accelerated the video content appetite. This is because, amid pandemic, users online were leaning more towards content that was firstly relatable and, most importantly, helped ease the lockdown pressure.
Similarly, shopping habits are now also immensely influenced by video content. Audiences now like to watch reviews tutorials and follow social media trends from Tick Tok, YouTube and Instagram before making any purchasing decisions.
Additionally, features such as Instagram and Facebook shops, YouTube now in talks to pilot test shopping from live streams brings massive opportunities for businesses and marketers to get the most out of video marketing.
Finding the Right Strategy
The latest statistics and the results of our recent video campaigns have demonstrated that video marketing is a powerful marketing approach. If you are looking to invest in video advertising or looking for the right approach, here are some of the key points to consider:
- Identify your audiences and the correct platform.
There are numerous platforms where you can run your video campaigns. Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Tick Tock are some examples. However, you must start where your audiences are most active and likely to engage with you.
It is also encouraged to repurpose videos on different platforms. You can post it on YouTube, add it with a blog article, post it on Facebook, and run a shorter version of the video as an ad on LinkedIn all at the same time. Make sure that each post or ad is tailored to each platform.
- Understanding what types of videos will work best for you.
From demos and video case studies to explainer videos and testimonials- there are ranges of video content you can create- identify which would resonate best for your audiences. If you have the resources available, mixing up different videos is recommended for the best result.
It is also crucial to think about the aim of the videos. Are you simply trying to attract new users? Or are you trying to educate and delight by offering helpful content or aiming to turn them into a lead?
What type of video you create will depend on what your aim is.
- Creating Videos
Video creation doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. There are now numerous tools available that may be within your budget and allow easy video creation. Tools such as Animoto, VideoScribe, Evaer, and Biteable are some of the options.
However, when creating videos, ensure that it is engaging and attention-grabbing, precisely the first few seconds. Make sure it is authentic where possible, and make them short but sweet, which provides just the right information.
Another crucial thing to consider when creating a video is to design for mobile first! As mentioned earlier, now most people are watching videos through mobile devices. We don’t want videos that are cut off, too small or too large, or low quality.
Know the video resolution and aspect ratio for the platform you have chosen and consider minor things such as how people hold their phones, should you add texts to the video and how short it should be, is the logo and branding visible, etc.
- Optimise and Test!
Make optimisations changes where necessary. Our suggestion is to run ads for around 2-3 weeks, review the key metrics and make changes accordingly, whether it’s making changes to your CTA, testing with different video clips, trying different audiences, captions, ad copies, etc.
Test, Test and Test! Try a/b testing to get the most out of your video campaigns. A/b test with different videos, platforms, messaging, landing pages, CTAs, and more to find the right combination that delivers the best result.
- Defining what video marketing success is for you.
Identify the key performance indicators of your video campaigns and understand how you want to determine the success of your campaign. For instance, if you are looking to attract new users, KPIs such as views, view rates, cost per view, and average watch time may be the right metric.
However, if you aim to generate leads or drive sales, you will want to keep an eye on metrics such as click-through rate to the landing page, conversion rates (i.e., how many leads and prospects were generated), and returns on ad spend.
Here are some more points to keep in mind:
- Be mindful of the length of the video. Keeping videos short and sweet is the key to grabbing your viewers’ attention and engaging them.
- The visuals and content of the video in the first 3 seconds matter the most. Keep it to the point, try to add good visuals, or immediately deliver the solution to your user’s pain points.
- Identify the platforms that would work best for you. Yes, videos are effective across all platforms, but that doesn’t mean you should be running video campaigns everywhere. Understand where your ideal customers are most active and start there.
- Include videos with written content. Some people might find it easier to watch the videos and others to read. Including both in one will help you keep both types of audiences engaged.
At ExtraDigital, we have been creating video content and running video campaigns for a long time, and the results we are seeing are impressive!
For Jon William Stables, a UK-based equestrian and timber building manufacturer, the usage of video advertising resulted in a 14% growth in social users and a 10% increase in engagements.
Summing up
It is indisputable that video marketing is one of the best marketing strategies for all businesses, no matter what industry you are in or your size. The rise of mobile users, social media platforms, and changes in consumer behaviours have made video content and video advertising a powerful marketing tool.
Now, video marketing is immensely popular right now, which means it can be effective, but there are also a lot of other videos online. So, having the right strategy is the key to not letting your videos become a needle in a haystack.
At ExtraDigital, we have been running and delivering outstanding results with video marketing for clients across all industries. Our marketing experts have experience providing the right strategy to match your business goals and have experience creating and editing videos to make them suitable for any platform.
Ready to transform your business with video marketing? Contact ExtraDigital’s Video Marketing experts today.
