Digital marketing continues to evolve and the consumer appetite for authentic video is insatiable.
“…there’s still a proliferation of new content being created. But high-end, premium, curated content continues to be scarce.” – Jim Norton, AOL Chief Revenue Officer
According to Wyzowl statistics, 61% of businesses have incorporated video as a marketing tool. 66% of these companies were not using video a year ago. You may have already incorporated video into your marketing strategy but is it enough and is it the right type of content? If you haven’t or feel like you have not incorporated enough, here are a few reasons to start beefing up your video marketing strategy today.
1.) SALES
Video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more! If you think about it, the effectiveness of video is not even that shocking. After all, sight is one of our most dominant senses. Most information transmitted to our brain is visual. Visual storytelling heightens customer engagement by drawing the consumer in, capturing their attention and in turn sales. Add authentic powerful storytelling to the mix and consumers can’t resist watching. This speaks to point number 2.
2.) Video inclusion = SHARING & ENGAGEMENT
It’s human nature to share. Sharing thoughts and sharing experiences. In the book Into The Wild, by Jon Krakauer, one of the last journal entries of Chris McCandless during his time in the Alaskan wilderness read “happiness is only real when shared”.
Did you know that 92% of mobile video consumers share videos with others? Social sharing is all about how often people share your video, by linking to it, or retweeting, sharing your Facebook post, and so on.
Social sharing not only indicates a higher level of engagement but also extends the reach of your video, getting your brand in front of more consumers than you could access on your own.
3.) The lifetime value of a customer is 20% higher if gained through storytelling content*
Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to breathe life into your brand and often called one of the main components of a strong content marketing approach.
I have to repeat this, did you know that 92% of mobile video consumers share videos with others? What does this do for your brand? It’s building trust and trust is hard to come by these days. A recent survey by Hubspot showed that only 3 percent of people surveyed said they considered marketers and salespeople trustworthy. OUCH!
So, including authentic storytelling in your marketing campaign is imperative. Storytelling = Trust = Relationships = Valued & Committed Customers
*Lisa Stone, BlogHer, Trinity Ventures Case Study, 2016
4.) Using Video has a high ROI
Let’s take a look at some numbers.
51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI.
By 2019, Internet video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic.
60% of visitors watch video before reading text on the same webpage! And, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.
And, since 92% of all mobile video consumers will share that video with a friend, developing a video campaign with compelling, shareable stories shouldn’t be a hard sell for your brand. Besides, brand awareness, lead generation, and online engagement have all been shown to increase when video is used in email and web-based marketing efforts.
5.) Gen Z is all about video not traditional ad spots
By 2020 Generation Z will account for 40% of all consumers and today’s consumers will go to almost any length to avoid a digital ad (30% of all internet users will block ads by 2018).
Gen Zers are do-gooders; they want to make a difference in the world. Sixty percent want their jobs to impact the world, 26% of 16- to 19-year-olds currently volunteer, and 76% are concerned about humanity’s impact on the planet. So, your marketing message needs to be authentic and speak to what motivates the Gen Zer.
But, you better keep the message short because the average Gen Zer has the attention span of about eight seconds. They have grown up at a time when they’re being served media and messaging from every angle, and have adapted to quickly sorting through and assessing enormous amounts of information. Video is a versatile, engaging and shareable format — three points that any marketer today needs to break through the noise in a saturated digital marketplace.
6.) Google digs video
Videos are popping up everywhere in search engine results and, in fact, having video on the landing page of your site makes it 53% more likely to show up on page 1 of Google (Strother Communications Group).
Blog posts incorporating video attract three times as many inbound links as blog posts without video. (SEOmoz). Obviously, inbound links help video SEO and therefore, you are ranked higher in Google.
Video increases time on your site. When ranking sites, Google considers a web page’s “stickiness” as a key factor. The more time a person stays on the website, the better your search engine ranking in future.
Videos are insanely easy to share – Video content when posted on social media generates social signals (“likes” and “shares”), all this sharing can build valuable links back to your page, the more links, the more clicks to your page, meaning Google sees it more and ranks it higher.
The use of video on home pages, landing pages, and on blog posts has proven to increase engagement times by two minutes, which means visitors are more likely to seek out additional information. That’s a good thing.
Now, let’s bring it all home
In the 1989 movie, “Field of Dreams”, a farmer and baseball fan keeps hearing “If you build it, he will come,” and decides that if he can build a baseball field on his farm, then baseball players will come. The same applies to adding video to your marketing plan. “If you add it, they will engage & share.” But, you must be sure to give them the type of video content they crave. Then and only then will they watch & share.
Need inspiration, check out this bit of authentic storytelling.
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