In the recent years, we have seen a pivotal shift in marketing. More and more people are now investing on online technology and learning countless techniques to keep up with consumer trends. It seems embracing digital marketing has become an important part of a business or an individual’s success. The possible reason behind this is the connected consumer phenomenon where anyone can be online anywhere, and not tapping into that majority market will obviously have dire consequences.
Multitudes of innovations on engagement strategies are now in play like article writing, social media posting, Infograph publishing, and video marketing. As you can see, traditional marketing has evolved to adapt to current customer communication trends. People nowadays want personalized content journey, and out of all the content marketing strategies mentioned above, video has become the medium of choice.
Why many businesses are shifting to video
On Facebook alone, there is a reported 8 billion video views on September 2015, a significant rise from the 4 billion video views on April 2015. Cisco has predicted that by 2019, 80% of all Internet traffic will be from streaming videos, up from 64% in 2014. And a recent survey done by research firm Demand Metric has shown that 74% of B2B marketers report better conversions in video content.
As shown by these numbers, video is quickly dominating not just entertainment needs but also consumer needs. Now that more and more companies are making use of it, it’s also clear that video is the future of marketing. But let’s further explore why businesses are shifting to video.
1. Videos help build better relationships with customers
We always see poignant videos being shared on YouTube and Facebook every single day. Companies have used these platforms to show advertisements and to relay their brand story to the public. But more than that, videos can be used to strengthen the relationship that you have with your customers or attracting more potential consumers by educating them and relating to them. Your videos can speak to consumer emotions like creative campaigns or acknowledging pain points consumers go through and then offering a solution. You can even use videos to demonstrate how to use your product and its benefits. A research firm called Ascend2 conducted a study on video marketing. They reported at least 8 effective types of video content used:
- Customer testimonials
- Demonstration videos
- Explainer/tutorial videos
- Thought leader interviews
- Project reviews and case studies
- Webinars
- Video blogs
- Event videos
It isn’t surprising that customer testimonials are the most effective since social proof has become a driving force even outside of video marketing.
2. Use videos as a tool for B2B markets
Video auditions aren’t the only thing you can send out to people deciding your fate, you can also do this with other businesses you want to partner with. What appeals more to buyers are sellers that make them pause and think. Yes, statistics and case studies will help your pitch but nothing really beats emotional connection and buyer education which videos can easily achieve. Not only can you show how your products work, but also what other clients have accomplished when they partnered with you. This can also save you time in the long-run since you can easily archive these videos, create a playlist, make it accessible for the company you’re working with.
3. Videos can now have personalized content
Ever since the beginning of digital marketing, personalized content has always been a key factor. We always see guides telling digital marketers to address the customer directly by putting their names on your email marketing, saying their name when answering their comments on your social media post, and so on. Now, personalized video is on the rise and it has enabled businesses to create video content that is unique to each individual viewer. This personalized video technology can allow you to weave company or customer names seamlessly into the video and show content that is relevant to them.
4. The power of video analytics
Like they always say, there is power in numbers. Social media and website analytics allow us to determine whether our post was able to get the engagement we are trying to accomplish from our customers. It’s more than just being viewed, it is the comments, the shares, the likes, and so on. The same is true for video analytics. Video analytics will not just tell us the number of people who pressed play, but also the actual engagement it got. You can track the viewing habits of your customers: what videos are relevant to them, what kind of video will get more responses, and so on. By knowing these things, businesses are able to think of actions that are based off of actual data and use that to create content that will match customer behavior.
Image from Digital Marketer
Importance of Video Marketing
We all know that once a video has gone viral, it practically lives on forever. After a few years, people can still recall what happened in every McDonald’s or Coca-Cola’s video ad, and it looks like they aren’t going to change their strategy much. In fact, smaller companies are starting to emulate this kind of practice. This is because it rakes in the numbers, and more viewers mean more, mean more shares, and eventually more potential consumers. It seems video marketing is becoming one of the best tools to use for business campaigns. Here we consider why video marketing is so important now.
1. Videos are not time consuming
The great thing about videos is that it doesn’t take a lot of time to consume its content. Not that there’s anything wrong with articles and blog posts, but there is a pressure to get the audience hooked at the first sentence which means a lot of time used to create an awesome content, and a lot of time used for the audience to read it. A video is the more efficient choice, the pressure of getting the audience hooked is still there but you can easily do it by setting a certain mood at the start of the video. You can make use of lighting graphics, or voiceover to influence what the audience is supposed to feel, then show them your product and the problems that it can solve. You can show all of these in under a minute and still get the results that you want.
2. The most practical means to show your product
When it comes to demonstrating how to use products, nothing beats videos. Like we’ve said before, you can take advantage of video to show the product at work. It’s more than just showing them step-by-step instruction on how to use your product, it is also showing your product solving a problem most of your consumers have experienced, and showing them that your product works. Additionally, video production is believed to be expensive, and in some cases it really still is. But because of technological advancements, cheaper means to produce a video has been made possible. So not only is it practical to demo your product, it has a more practical cost with results that are satisfying.
3. Easily tell people what your company is about
The great thing about video marketing is it lets you take the marketing cloak off every now and then. Nowadays, people research more about their company, they browse through their pages to know that a company can be trusted before buying their products. You can definitely do that with video marketing, and in only a few seconds, you will have conveyed to the consumer what your company’s character is more than just the content, everything about the video from the lighting, the words used, the personality, and so on influenced how you will be viewed by people. So take this opportunity to show what you really are.
4. Become a thought leader
Because information is accessible, it’s safe to say people nowadays have done research about your industry and different companies involved in it. They are informed with on-the-surface facts, and this is important to know because you can take this as an opportunity to cover a topic you know no one has done before or at least no one in your audience has even thought of. Because they know the most basic stuff, you probably already know the basic questions that come into their mind. Avoid that, make use of this opportunity to answer questions they haven’t even thought of and how your product can help.
Final thought
Video marketing, like all content marketing, has the potential to change how a customer can view your company. It is at its peak and you should explore the many possibilities video marketing can offer. Learn more about what it is and prepare strategies that will enable you to go beyond what you expect from it.