This time next year, you might just be watching this article instead of reading it.
Video has quickly become one of the most effective ways to reach consumers where and how they want to be reached. And it’s not hard to figure out why. With technology changing by the nanosecond, consumers have higher expectations than ever before. It’s not enough to provide them with the information they want to see—it needs to be served up in a way that’s easy to digest, with a side of super entertainment value, thank you very much.
Video isn’t the future of content marketing…it’s the right now of content marketing.
If you are not taking advantage of the marketing opportunities that video offers, you should know that your competitors are. It’s time to figure out how video fits into your overall marketing strategy.
Why?
Video’s reach is unparalleled.
Numbers don’t lie…Facebook and Snapchat each boast more than 8 billion video views a day. By late last year, Periscope users were watching 40 years’ worth of videos every day!
We’ve all heard the stories of seemingly typical videos going life-alteringly viral. It’s the stuff that legends are made of. But your own video content doesn’t need to go global in order for it to be a success—if it is effective in reaching your target audience, and it appeals to them enough that they engage with it and are compelled to share it, you win.
Every social network can’t be wrong.
Of course there are a growing number of platforms built for the purpose of sharing video, like You Tube, Vine, Periscope, and Meerkat. But it seems every big social platform has also jumped on the video bandwagon–Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have all expanded their video features to attract the video-hungry masses.
Your competition is probably not wrong, either.
Research shows that approximately 61% of businesses are currently using video in one form or another to support their marketing efforts, and that 92% of B2B companies plan to incorporate video marketing into the mix this year.
Brands across industries are recognizing that video marketing allows them to build brand awareness and loyalty like nothing else can. Video provides an outlet to authentically share your brand’s story, and putting a walking, talking face to the name. It also allows businesses the opportunity to ‘lift the veil’ and allow potential customers to get a taste of their internal culture and to experience the personality of the brand in a way that the written word, no matter how well-written, never could.
Video gives brands a more interactive way to showcase their product or service—and they are taking advantage of it in spades. There are probably one or two how-to video sitting on your Facebook News Feed right now, and chances are, you just might watch one!
ROI
Simply put, video marketing works, and depending upon how your brand decides to put it to work for you, it can yield some pretty staggering results.
- More emails get opened when they contain ‘video’ in the subject line.
- Search engine results improve when media-rich video content is included.
- Shoppers who view videos are nearly twice as likely to make a purchase than those who don’t.
- Online users are more apt to share and re-share video than any other form of content.
The Bottom Line?
If your brand is not creating video and promoting it on social media, you are missing out. It’s time for your brand to tap into the power of video.