Videos have made a good stride in the field of marketing for the last decade. However, most people are still asking, "Is video marketing worth it?"
It is. For you and your business. Video marketing is great if you want to educate, generate more leads and convert your customers.
If you landed on this article because you're looking for a video marketing guide, you're in luck. This article will discuss the following:
1. What is video marketing
2. Some interesting statistics of video marketing
3. Why you need to do video marketing for your business
4. How to build your video marketing campaign strategy
Let's get started, shall we?
What is Video Marketing: Definition and Types
Video marketing is, in its essence, using videos to promote your products or services, engage everyone who views your digital social channels, educate your customers, and increase your reach to a wider audience. Marketing videos are emotionally engaging and it's a pretty good strategy to connect with your consumers and catch their attention.
Image taken from a Strikingly User’s Website - Drumpants.com
There are different types of video content marketing:
- Vlogs (video blogs). This is video content published about any topic.
- Video interviews. This is an interview performed using video calling software.
- Presentation videos. This is a popular multi-media content that shows the benefits of a product or service and utilizes the help of graphics, images, text, and narration.
- Live Streams. This is a type of marketing video where an event is sent over the internet in real-time without any previous recording.
- Video Testimonials. This is a video of a customer who talks about how a certain product or service has helped a customer; or how and why they like the product.
- Video Ads. this is a video marketing strategy that uses informative videos to promote a product or service.
- Product demos and reviews. This is a video that shows how a product works by showing it in action via video.
Marketing Video Statistics
Here are some important statistics for video marketing from Wyzowl.com:
- 86% of companies involved in the survey used video as a marketing tool, and the percentage is likely to increase in the coming years.
- An overwhelming 92% of businesses say that marketing video is a crucial part of their marketing strategy.
Image is taken from Wyzowl.com
- 25% of companies don't use videos in their marketing because they don't have time. There are also 16% of non-video marketers who don't use marketing videos because they don't know how or where to start in creating a video. Out of all non-video marketers, 5% of them can't convince their key decision-makers to use marketing videos.
- For first-time video marketers, 43% said that they used video content marketing because they were forced by new challenges, like COVID-19.
- 74% of marketing videos were explainer videos, while 68% are social media videos. It's quite interesting though, that only 26% of the marketing videos were customer service videos.
- A typical marketing video cost 40% of people $0-$500 to produce. However, 97%--a great majority--spent less than $10,000 on their videos.
- 62% of companies say that their video marketing success depends highly on engagement--likes, shares, and comments.
- There's 87% of marketers say that marketing videos have increased their traffic, and a whopping 94% say that videos have helped their customers and consumers better understand their product or service.
Benefits of Video Marketing for your Business
When YouTube launched in 2005. By 2009, businesses started gravitating towards YouTube as a marketing platform. The launch of smartphones also made watching videos more accessible and convenient. When the pandemic began, online media consumption increased by over 200% in the US alone.
But why is video marketing important? Here are a few reasons:
1. Video is the second most popular content type in social media that boost engagement.
YouTube and TikTok are all about videos. They exist primarily for videos. In recent years, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and other platforms have also started to adopt videos as part of their features.
Image taken from a Strikingly User’s Website - Fredhethert.NL
People are more interested in videos, specifically short ones. Any videos that are 5 minutes or shorter tend to have more views than those that last up to 10 minutes.
2. Videos stirs emotions.
Psychological marketing has been a trend for the past years. Marketers have focused on making a direct appeal to their consumers' emotions through the use of music, dialogues, and faces.
Videos create human connection and are more influential than reading a text or viewing an image.
3. Videos help retain information better.
If your audience hears something, they retain 10% of the information they heard for the next three days. However, if they associate the sound with imagery, like that in a marketing video, their information retention increases by 65% 3 days later.
4. Consumers prefer to watch videos than read product descriptions.
Why do you think so? The answer is simple--it's easier to understand how a product works if you actually see it on a video than reading about it in small letters that come in the product packet.
This is particularly true for products that require several steps to assemble or those that need a few steps to start up.
5. Marketing videos engage and convert consumers.
After watching a certain video--testimonial, explainer, how-tos--customers are 85% more likely to buy the product. If you like money and you want to increase your sales funnel, video content marketing should definitely be on your list.
Create an Effective Video Marketing Strategy for your Business
Image taken from a Strikingly User’s Website - Zapping Versions
All brands need a video marketing strategy--this fact isn't new. Right now, what's more important is to know the importance of video content marketing in EVERY platform and channel.
If you don't have a strategy yet, don't fret. Let's show you how.
1. Find your target audience.
Before you start buying equipment and start shooting, the first thing that you need to figure out is your audience. There are two things that you need to ask yourself:
- Who is my target audience?
- What platforms is my target audience spending most of their time on?
Everyone is bombarded with video and user-generated content all the time. If you haven't yet, you need to start building your buyer personas and target them with your videos.
2. Connect with your key decision-makers and stakeholders and plan for the video.
Everyone who is involved in the production of the video should be aligned in terms of goals. This specific step will guarantee that when the marketing video production starts, everyone is moving in the same direction.
You can create a survey form using Google forms or Strikingly's custom form to survey your stakeholders to align them with your video's objectives:
- What is the goal of the marketing video? Is it to sell more tickets? Increase product purchase? Generate leads? Launch a new product?
- What do you want your audience to do after they watch your marketing video?
Strikingly's custom form can be easily added to your Strikingly website and sent to your stakeholders via email. Yes, even surveys need to be projected nicely to encourage your stakeholders to respond.
3. Build a timeline and set a budget for your marketing video.
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
Building a video can be a time-consuming process. it can be expensive too. To help you be more effective with your cost, try to plan your video as part of your project management process.
Obviously, a timeline is needed. Divide your marketing video production into smaller segments, assign people in charge, and determine how much time each segment needs.
Remember to consider the unexpected challenges you might encounter when building a timeline. This will guarantee that if you experience any obstacle, you can still deliver on time. On the other hand, if the challenges are minimal, you can deliver ahead of time.
Sounds great, right?
4. Choose the best platform where you'll distribute your video.
There are different platforms where you can publish your marketing videos. Don't try to focus on just one. If your business is on Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin, make sure to post on all these platforms.
Of course, publishing on different platforms also poses significant challenges. Each platform has its own video format, and it would be difficult and expensive to accommodate each. As a general rule, publish on YouTube and stick to the standard format.
You should also take advantage of each platform's promotion feature. Videos don't promote their own, and it's up to you to promote your marketing videos.
You should always publish on your website. If you don't have one yet, sign up with Strikingly and build your own business website. It's ridiculously easy to use, and we have 200+ templates for you to choose from.
Image taken from Strikingly
Adding videos is also a no-brainer. If you have your video on YouTube, all you need to do is get your marketing video's YouTube URL, and copy and paste it into a Big Media section on your Strikingly editor. Yep, you don't need to learn how to code to add videos on your Strikingly website.
5. Create messaging and choose the right type of video for your company or persona.
Your videos will always communicate a message--and this message should be clear. If you're not sure where to start, you can start looking at your competitors' marketing videos and see what messages they're trying to convey in their videos. Don't imitate them. Try to take inspiration from them.
You should also take into account if your video helps your buyer during each stage of their buying journey. For example, if they just landed on your website, your video messaging should be different for customers who abandoned their cart.
6. Pick which metrics you want to track and how to measure success.
You can only know if your video marketing is successful if you decide on your metrics. Remember, your video marketing goal should align with your video's tone, messaging, and objective.
You have to choose specific and measure key performance metrics for your marketing videos to measure the success of your video marketing campaign. Some video marketing statistics that you can use are as follows:
- Play rate
- Social sharing and comments
- Video completions
- View count
- Conversion Rate
- Click-Through Rate
- Bounce Rate
- Time-on-Page
Video marketing is daunting, overwhelming, and expensive. It might require you to take some time to perfect a successful video marketing campaign. Take some time to practice and have more patience. Your first video might not make it, but your next will.
