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Video marketing has evolved into a cornerstone of any successful digital marketing strategy. By way of substantiating this statement, it is worth looking at the following figures.
Statistics show that YouTube, the world’s largest online video platform, has more than 2 million monthly logged-in users. And viewers watch over a billion hours of video content and generate billions of views every day.
Why video?
The Digital Marketing Institute provides the answer to this question.
“Video is a versatile and engaging content format that not only gives us a real-life picture of what is going on; it’s also easy to share across multiple platforms.”
At this juncture, it is worth noting that this answer is echoed by the video experts at Spiel. Not only is video versatile, but it also drives customer conversions, increases sales, and drives sustainable growth to the business organizations that implement video marketing content as a primary driver of their digital marketing strategy.
Additionally, there are a vast number of statistics that add meaning to these statements. Here is a sample of these numbers.
- 81% of all businesses use video as a marketing tool. (HubSpot)
- 60% of all people surveyed would rather watch online videos instead of television. (Google)
- 59% of business executives stated that they would rather watch a video than reading text. (WordStream)
- More video content is uploaded in 30 days than any major US television network has created in 30 years. (WordStream)
While these statistics are a clear indication of the merits of creating video marketing content, let’s look at several other benefits of using video content to drive a successful marketing strategy.
1. Multimedia videos are well received by viewers using smartphones
Multimedia works particularly well on the smaller mobile device screens where reading reams of small-print text is not easy or even possible. This is particularly true of complex text where loads of multisyllabic words are used. As a result, video becomes compelling and catches the attention of these viewers.
However, even though the video construct catches viewers' attention, they will quickly move away from a poor-quality video. Thus, it is imperative to ensure that the marketing videos your company publishes are of the highest quality. Another essential point to factor in here is that the video's quality often translates into the viewer's perception of your products or services. Ergo, a poor-quality video equates to a low-quality product. While, in reality, this might be the exact opposite of the truth, what matters is the viewer's perception of your brand because this is the primary driver of customer conversions and sales.
2. Video enhances online learning
The Hubspot.com article titled “The State of Video Marketing in 2021 [New Data],” reports that “marketers feel more positive about the return on investment offered by video than ever, as it continues to strongly influence traffic, leads, sales, and audience understanding.”
In other words, video helps customers understand the brand’s products or services. Moreover, because of the large numbers of video content available for consumption online, marketers are no longer publishing direct sales pitch-type videos. The marketing message has changed from a message where the company tells its target audience to purchase its products to a statement where the company explains what value the product will add to the consumer’s life. Consequently, videos highlighting a specific aspect of a product have a more significant chance of increasing customer conversions and sales numbers.
3. Video gives consumers an insight into the company’s ethos, culture, and mission
The modern consumer values the role the company plays in ensuring the ethical and sustainable sourcing of raw materials, fair trade labor practices, and the emphasis the company places on its corporate social responsibility programs. Video marketing is a useful tool to invite the brand’s target audience to look at the company’s inner workings to allay the consumer’s fears that the company’s ethos and culture are not worth supporting through the purchase of its products or services.
As highlighted in the point above, the journey a prospective customer takes from a target audience member to a returning customer is no longer just about buying the brand’s products or services. Instead, it is about supplying the consumer with reasons why becoming a royal customer is beneficial to the customer and the world around the brand and the customer.
4. Video increases SEO metrics
Video content is not only useful to promote a brand’s products or services to its target audience, but it also plays a fundamental role in increasing the brand’s exposure on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The best place for the brand website is in the top three-pack or the top three to five positions on the SERP. Consumers do not really look at results below the top half of the SERP.
Statistics show that video content embedded on a website landing page increases the conversion rate by 80%. In other words, 80% of visitors to this landing page answer the page’s CTA (Call-to-Action). The CTA might be to sign up for a newsletter, or it might be to purchase the products available for sale on the website.
Furthermore, figures quoted by the Precision Marketing Group reports that a video embedded in an email can increase the click-through rate by between 200% and 300%. This strategy is particularly beneficial when embedding a “how-to” video or a video that shows one or more benefits of investing in the product.
Final thoughts
Based on this discussion, there is no doubt that video marketing content is integral to a successful digital marketing strategy. Not only does it speak directly to the consumer, but it also increases the value of the brand's digital presence by increasing customer conversions, improving an email newsletter's click-through rate, and driving the brand's website and social media channels up the SERP into the top three to five results. Therefore, there should be no reason not to add video content to your brand's digital marketing and content marketing strategies. After all, the numbers speak for themselves.