Fighting for the precious time and focus of customers is harder and harder every year as an ever-growing avalanche of content is shrinking the attention span. Audiences are getting used to being spammed, bombarded by ads, clickbait titles, becoming immune to “special offers”, fear of missing out, and other tricks.
In this shifting field of online content, video marketing is becoming a more and more important tool, not only in sense of advertising, but also in establishing contact with the audience, building trust, and making sure your online business can grow.
#1 Video Marketing is the present and the future
If the content is the King, then the video content is the king of kings. The years of pandemic and lockdown have only accelerated the trend of video content taking over the digital space. Along with Netflix and YouTube, Twitch has emerged as another video-content giant.
Facebook is losing its audience, as Millenials and Gen Z switches to video-oriented platforms, first Instagram, now TikTok. The future of video marketing is already here. More than 80% of all internet content is video.
Growing your online business, you simply don’t want to be fighting for the remaining 20% of the internet traffic. Video marketing is the space where you will meet your audiences, investors, clients, communities.
#2 Videos drive traffic
The audience for video content is simply put – huge. Video marketing statistics report that there are 245 million digital video viewers in the US alone. And those are numbers from 2020! In the population between the ages of 12 and 24, more than 96% of users are consuming video content.
Very interesting stats connect live videos with sales. Not only live videos are already at more than 20% of all the video content, but consumers report 65-85% more readiness to buy a product of a company that has live video on their webpage.
If you are worried about live streaming, OneStream Live Spaces helps your online business by hosting and scheduling live streams directly on your page, or social media platform of your choice. And if you prefer to go with real-time streaming, it’s as easy as setting up your broadcasting software and selecting streaming destinations from the OneStream dashboard.
#3 Videos help with SEO rankings
How do you conduct your research? Google, right? The same goes for your audience. Customers are looking for info, products, and services using Google’s search. That’s why SEO is still one of the most important activities when it comes to online presence, and it will remain so in the future.
Guess what, videos rank in search results from 2007. Google’s rankings take hundreds of different factors, but other than keyword relevancy, backlinks, on-page optimization, and domain authority, videos have their own rules that can boost your page’s ranking.
And yes, you have an online business to run, so instead of delving into the Google-mancy and trying to decipher the arcane mysteries of Google’s SEO rankings, you can partner up with experts like Shrushti. Simply placing any kind of video is not a game-changer, but when coupled with technical SEO and link building, YouTube optimization, and SERP features, you could be seeing your online business on the front page of the internet.
#4 Sharing your vision with the customers
Videos engage the audiences. Videos build trust. Among the best content for an upcoming online business can be ‘explainer video’. The audience loves learning how things are done, how your service works.
You can even turn a product roadmap into a video, as roadmaps can be powerful communication tools. To reinforce your product vision and offer clarity on your online business goals and priorities, videos are a powerful tool to share the vision.
#5 Videos as part of customer’s journey
Speaking of the vision and impact of videos, they can be powerful tools for onboarding clients. The customer journey can be made more engaging through the use of videos. Considering that videos are consumed mostly on mobile devices, it makes sense to make them your primary communication channel. If you didn’t design your customer journey yet, or if you are expanding outside of your marketing segment, there are enterprise-sales solutions that can help your online business.
#6 Videos have great ROI
While the production of videos once upon a time was not the cheapest task, the breakthroughs in video editing tools made it possible to create decent videos even using smartphones. Stats are once more showing top numbers, as 83% of businesses report good return on investment. A video is like a cake, even when it’s not the best, it’s still quite good!
Oh, and if you are not a videographer expert, or your online business is not harboring such talents in-house, there are plenty of branded content agencies that can help you bring your vision to the compact and impactful video format.
#7 Video increases conversions
Why do you do branding? To convert clients. Experience from even the most traditional businesses, like restaurants, has shown that with restaurant video marketing there is a huge impact. Brick and mortar businesses like restaurants have managed to increase clickthrough rates by adding video to e-mails by 300%.
Videos on a landing page can increase conversion by 80% or more, due to the fact that 90% of the information from the video is retained, compared to just 10% of the information from text.
#8 Social media loves video
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok. Every social media platform insists on videos. It is not only obvious in the way video content is prominently displayed, but also in the virality of the video content. Simply put, a video is seven times more frequently shared than any other link on Facebook.
People share emotions. If the content is entertaining, share comes naturally to users. The same goes for branded content. Emotionally charged, creative videos can go very viral. That’s why video marketing on social media channels is huge and is going to stay that way.
Social media is very mobile-friendly, and smartphones are in everyone’s hands, so it is no wonder 90% of consumers watch videos on their mobile devices.
Conclusion
Video marketing is going places. It is affordable, it shows great return on investment. Habits of modern users play into the strengths of video as advertising, a tool for communication, a way to connect users to your brand and get the biggest exposure.
Making video a cornerstone of your content strategy is no longer debatable. It simply makes sense, as the overwhelming majority of the action is on mobile devices, where video content is the norm. Whether you want to use video ads, live streaming, or carefully tailor your content to each broadcasting platform, you should definitely invest in video marketing to grow and nurture your online business.