You don’t need to be a video marketing specialist to see that videos are not only easy to digest, but entertaining and engaging – plus, you’ll know from your own social media consumption that social videos are pretty much the most shareable, attractive type of content there is.
People are visual – not only does this mean that you can catch their eye, and so their attention, with the movement of video, but they are also likely to remember more about a social or website video that they might about the same messaging in text form – some studies even suggest the difference is as huge as 85% (with 95% of the messaging within a video being retained, compare to 10% in text).
There are lots of other stats which support the assertion that videos are a hugely useful form of marketing, and offer the best return on investment (ROI):
And there’s another really big benefit to having a video marketing strategy, too – a website is 53 times more likely to rank on page 1 of Google organic search if it includes a video. Yes, you read that right – website videos positively impact on organic search rankings. There are some pretty compelling stats around traffic, time spent, and conversion rates, too, with one study showing that video increases organic search traffic on a website by 157%, and another which demonstrates that using video on a landing page can increase your conversion rate by up to 80%. Another shows that on average people spend 2.6x more time on pages with video content. Emails, too, can be more compelling with the right marketing video content – adding video can increase click rates by 300%.
Even if you’re not a social media marketing specialist, you’ve probably noticed from your own business and personal social media accounts that social videos get lots of attention – they should make up the majority of our feeds, in fact, given the stats. Impressively, social media posts with videos get 48% more views, and 1200% more shares than text and image content combined! They’re effective ways to drive leads, too. A sizeable 62% of people said they were more interested in a product after seeing it in a Facebook Story. Take note, however, that attention spans are short and sometimes video is perhaps being watched covertly – 85% of Facebook videos (and 40% of Instagram Stories videos) are being watched without sound, while social videos under two minutes long get the most engagement.
But why not just pop a great website video on your homepage, maybe one or two social posts, and have done with it? Why is a video strategy a better way to go? Well, aside from just how effective video marketing can be, if you’re going to invest in a day’s professional video shoot, you might as well get the best possible ROI for that outlay – and there are myriad different ways in which you might use the material that can be gleaned in just one day’s filming, to get maximum bang for your buck.
There are many different types of marketing videos; here are just a few of the most popular (and useful):
This is the type of website video that resides on your homepage, ready to initiate the uninitiated, and convey all those fabulous brand values that need to be shouted about. It’s a great vehicle for your purpose and mission statements, as well as to provide a broad-brush introduction to your product or service offering – but for maximum impact you’ll want to stick to the most powerful and important messaging and imagery (because sticking to the two-minute rule can be challenging for even the simplest brand story).
If your company’s niche is complicated (or particularly innovative), then chances are you’ll have to do a lot of explaining on your website so that prospective customers can even grasp why your product or service is relevant to them, let alone why your offering compelling. An explainer video is the perfect way to convey the need-to-know details about what it is you do and how you do it. You could film footage for this, or – and this is an especially good way of demonstrating more complex, abstract concepts, or showing a breadth of locations or situations (that might be expensive to film) – an on-brand animated video could be the best way to go.
When 72% of customers say they would rather learn about a product or service via a video, and 65% of people say they use YouTube to help them solve a problem, you know demo videos are really going to hit the spot when it comes to ROI. Product (or service) demonstration videos ad tutorials can not only be a great way for a prospective customer to learn about your offering, and engage positively with the brand, but they can be a great way to ease pressure on stretched customer service functions (especially if they’re always being asked the same questions). You can even make a number of similar-but-different videos of the same product or service, so that you can include fresh content in your video marketing strategy over time, or even tailor them to segments of your target market.
People buy from people, so getting your real-life staff involved in all your videos is a much better idea than hiring actors (and the bonus is, it’s more budget-friendly too). This type of video goes a little deeper – people want to know they can count on the expertise and good service within a business, and introducing the organisation’s most knowledgeable and passionate specialists can go a long way to build trust, smoothing the way for a sale. Worried your employees might be a bit nervous or reluctant? A good video marketing specialist will work with all stakeholders to ensure the best possible outcome, and that includes prepping people for the best performances they can muster in front of the camera!
Lifting the lid on day-to-day operations (or special events) with a social (and web) video that shows how your product is made, or how your service is delivered, can be absolutely fascinating – and not only builds trust but can result in some brilliant brand engagement (especially if your processes really chime with your target audience, for example, you might show how painstaking the production process is for high-end consumer goods, or how your team works in seamless partnership with a client to deliver the best bespoke service).
Having your previous customers jot down a few words about how happy they were with the service and/or product they received is a wonderful thing, but as the impact is proportional to the effort involved in giving their endorsement, imagine how powerful it is for a customer to give up a chunk of their time to do a video shoot for you! Again, nerves can be dispelled with the right choice of video marketing specialist, who will also make sure that your customer has as good an experience of the shoot day as of all their previous positive transactions with you.
All these marketing video types can make great cross-platform social media fodder (though tailoring to the type of customer found on each is of course advised), as well as being used to drive better click-through rates on emails, and boost both organic search results and conversions on a website. So with a little planning and forethought (we’re back to the importance of a video marketing strategy again) you can get an awful lot of benefit from just a single day’s worth of filming.
Business decision makers love online video because it gives them the most amount of information in the shortest amount of time
Robert Weiss
Storytelling via a video is a fantastic way to leverage maximum impact from your marketing budget, whether you’re promoting products or services to a B2B or consumer audience – but it’s critical that your video marketing strategy is tailored to what you can best convey and to whom. Whether you’re able to do this in-house and simply need to outsource filming, or whether you’re looking for a video marketing specialist to take care of your entire video marketing strategy, end to end, then we’re well-placed to help businesses in Colchester, Essex, and beyond.
We work with companies large and small throughout the UK, helping them to grow their businesses; one of the ways we do this is through video marketing, but of course we offer a broad spectrum of marketing services, from copywriting to website build, social media to PR.
Drop us a line on 01206 806336 or email [email protected], to find out more about our video marketing services.
