What is video marketing and how can it benefit my business?
Video marketing has huge benefits for your business, including added traffic, added sales, and an increase in brand awareness, but there's more - read on
Video Marketing simply means marketing via video. Video Marketing is one of the most effective ways for engaging potential customers, driving sales, and generating growth. Video marketing is used for advertising campaigns in social media because of its high engagement. It’s also used as part of an active YouTube channel for generating organic exposure.
Social media has played a key role in the upsurge of video sales content. The momentum and increased traction of social platforms made it a prime target for sales and marketing teams everywhere.
Video generates more engagement and retains more attention than still images and text. This was quickly realized by social media platforms and businesses alike, and that’s why the two entities are now so symbiotically attached. And this is why Videos are now an integral part of the most prominent websites, tools, and platforms we use.
Video marketing can be leveraged on any of these:
- YouTube
- Vimeo
- Google search
- Tiktok
- And many others
What are the benefit of video marketing?
Listen closely because we are about to unveil the reasons why so many businesses are doing everything it takes to set up their video marketing channel. Hint… it’s because of the relatively high barrier for entry coupled with surprisingly high ROI (which means less competition and more profit).
This article will not go deep into the “how”. That is for another time, but it’s definitely worth your while to learn how to start doing video marketing and even go deeper into video marketing strategies. I advise you to read these resources next.
So what are the benefits of video marketing? If you’re ready, let’s go into it.
1) Videos provide sales boosts
The whole point of advertising is to sell a product and make money – and advertising with video can generate a lot of revenue. Landing pages with a product video added to them have seen conversion rates go up by over 75%. That’s a massive increase compared to when video-free.
One of the perks of video is that it’s a medium that can be used within any industry sector to show off a product or a service. Explainer videos in particular have gathered momentum in recent years. These showcase a product or service in a concise but informative manner.
The problem is that shopping online removes the customer’s ability to pick a product up and examine it from all angles before deciding whether or not to buy it.
But there’s a solution. Explainer videos fill this void as best as possible by showing a product from every conceivable angle while relaying all the relevant information to the potential customer. A ‘picture paints a thousand words as the saying goes. A video depiction can say even more.
2) Video marketing has surprisingly high ROI
An in-depth report by Wyzowl, an animated explainer video company, showed that 87% of marketers reported a good ROI for video marketing. At the same time, video marketing has become more affordable and easier to make.
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Video production is generally considered to be expensive, and there is no doubt about that, but it doesn’t have to be so. You can record your sound and video by purchasing your own equipment and filming on weekends when the office is empty and quiet.
Also, simple editing may be good enough for many audiences, so it may be better to start and see if your videos resonate (and start asking for feedback) rather than attempt to get a perfect video on the first try.
You can create videos using simple tools like:
- Screen grabber/ screen record
- Video editor
- Video thumbnail editor
- Sound editor
There are some handy free options out there.
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If you do not want to record yourself you can contract a production company, but here is where it becomes expensive. These days, the market is laden with video production companies that established themselves to take on commercial video productions for business services and retail products.
Some production companies are, without question, incredibly expensive. A video lasting only a minute can cost thousands of dollars in some cases. But videos don’t have to be Game of Thrones in order to perform.
The truth is that oftentimes it’s on the contrary – the simpler, down-to-earth videos draw the most engagement and generate the most conversions. All the proof you need is staring at you from the top search results on YouTube.
This means that businesses can start creating videos on a light budget. And this opens the video marketing arena for small businesses, newly formed LLCs, and for solo professionals just starting up. If you’re a realtor – check out our post on effective real estate video marketing ideas.
Expense, to an extent, could of course be considered objective, all depending on the size and success of the company. But regardless of company size, old or new, spending money on video marketing is money well-invested because the ROI is more than worth it.
Some of the reasons for this surprising ROI:
- Videos are very engaging
- Videos have a high average converting rate
- Videos are highly shareable
- Videos can be reused across many digital channels (Social media, YouTube, website, help center, Sales demos, conversions, product onboarding, and more)
- Videos can be transcribed into articles or converted to audio for podcasts
Bottom line – it’s important to look beyond the short-term costs and see the bigger picture – the potential returns that are on the other side of the fence.
3) Videos help build a brand and develop relationships with customers
All successful companies need a loyal customer base that loves their brand. Creative video marketing is an important cog in the branding machine since people will give their attention to videos more than any other media. And attention is a prerequisite for generating relationships and ultimately earning trust and even love from your customers.
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Video can act as a window into your company. This allows people to feel like their seeing the heart and soul of your business while doing so in a way that’s fun and engaging. This is a highly effective brand-building tactic for any business, including your own.
This is especially true for online businesses since the online experience removes your clients’ ability to physically walkthrough, see, hear and touch your place of business.
Video marketing fills the void made by the loss of physical space. People can often be skeptical about any type of business and financial transaction online: invisibility induces distrust and anxiety.
Marketing using videos is the perfect way to help your customers become familiar with your company and to assure them of the legitimacy and sincerity of your business activities.
How does building brand awareness through video marketing benefit my business?
- Clear and positive brand values bring brand identification
- Brand recognition builds trust and preference
- A Brand story keeps your brand memorable
4) Videos marketing gets you in front of practically everybody
Smartphones and video are a match made in heaven (is it heaven though?). More videos are watched via mobile devices than anywhere else. 5.22 billion people use a mobile phone today, equating to 66.6 percent of the world’s total population.
And with smartphone use continually growing, so do video viewing. According to a video streaming report by App Annie 2020 had around 920 billion watch hours worldwide and over 40 billion in the US alone. This means that the potential audience for any business gets bigger and bigger with time. The time to start video marketing is now (I’d say yesterday) before the competition gets impossible
5) Video marketing gets you more attention than any other media
The truth is, for most of us mobile devices are like another limb nowadays. If our phone is not in our hands it’s in our hands’ reach, and it commands our attention more hours than we care to admit every single day. If you’ve ever lost your phone or had it go out of commission you know the frustration and anxiety that immediately follows. The struggle is real!
Video advertising industry leaders are reporting that mobile is beating PC in the ability to engage users and retain their attention. And according to Google, users are twice as likely to feel connected to brands and products when seen on mobile devices compared to regular TV or computer screens. After all, we’ve come to associate our phones with ourselves.
The bottom line is that the connection between a consumer and business in the digital age is tied to your survival, and mobile video marketing paves the way.
6) Video marketing is prime traffic and lead generation channel
With Google now showing videos in many of their search results, video can draw in a lot of traffic. Interestingly, in their The State of Virtual Selling report, Vidyard claims that almost 90% of pros leveraging video either maintain or increase their productivity.
These facts taken in the context of the attention and time given to videos by people everywhere naturally translates into traffic and sales. 60% of video marketers claim they have leads generated by their videos, and 27% report this channel achieves bottom-line sales.
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Knowing the potential benefits of video marketing, the question now shifts from “should I create video content?” to “how do I distribute my video content?”. YouTube is the obvious choice for publication, but that same YouTube video can be distributed through social media, on your website, and in your PR.
If you don’t have a YouTube channel for your business but want to have one, go see our post on how to start your own YouTube channel.
A note on optimizing your videos for conversions
While it’s important to optimize your YouTube videos for clicks using cards and description links, you should not overdo it. Videos that become too promotional will very quickly have viewers skipping forward. Marketing videos need to retain attention, not divert it elsewhere.
7) Video content is highly shareable
Videos are engaging content, we covered that. But what didn’t say is that this makes it very compelling for sharing. A short piece of engaging video content can go viral and travel on the winds of shares. Not all your content will go viral, but having just one blow-up every few months can promote your product or your brand like nothing else can.
This ripple effect is one of video marketing’s most robust assets. It’s the digital equivalent of old-school word-of-mouth (if each of us had a million friends), and ‘word-of-mouth’ is still the best way to build trust and commitment in people’s minds.
Recap
- Video marketing gets major engagement: Sound and vision combined with information that is relayed with clarity will retain viewer attention – and is more likely to be remembered afterward.
- Video marketing is a worthwhile Investment: Video productions can be expensive – but that can also be done cheaply. Whatever the cost though, the ROI makes it money well-spent and one of the best investments a sales team can make.
- Video marketing is great for building your brand: Video as a medium is great for passing options, values, and ideas, so it gives your brand depth you can’t get otherwise.
- Video marketing gets you an astounding amount of eyeballs: as mobile phone use gets more widespread and video streaming services get faster and better, people are viewing more videos than ever before with the average person seeing the equivalent of 2 whole days of video time every month.
- Video marketing gets actual leads: Most marketing pros report getting actual deals closest generated from their video content as well as a lot of traffic.
- Shareability: Videos have a higher probability rate of being shared and passed around than any other form of content. A unique, informative video stands more chance of being passed around than a static ad.
In conclusion
All the ingredients that form a video make it a win-win for marketing strategies. A well-thought-out, creative video can showcase a product and capture the imaginations of people around the world. Even if the language is foreign and not understood, powerful images and illustrations can still generate great interest and cause people to look further into what they have just seen. We have the ability to share information from the palm of our hands, with the press of a button, to anyone, anywhere, at any time. This alone makes video a potent tool for marketing, before even getting into a more detailed approach.
Now you know what it is, just click the link to find out how to get started with video marketing. The bottom line is that video marketing can only benefit a business – and there has been no better time than now to use it.
