Video marketing – It’s time to step it up!
Don’t worry, I’m not going to lecture you with my own insights about video marketing and how and why you should do it. I’m going to regurgitate (great word that) for you the eyebrow-raising stats that were presented at a recent marketing conference. I would like to pretend I already knew all of these but even if I did, hearing them again isn’t a bad thing as a reminder of how important it is to include video in your marketing strategy for 2020 and beyond.
Some interesting points:
- How many words does it take for a person to be as engaged as they are with the content of a 60-second (that’s one-minute) video? Well, my answer was an embarrassing guess of 1,000 words. Wrong! Try 1.8 million!* Our reaction to visual content is a staggering 60,000 times faster than text!
- How many more video shares are there on average compared to images and text? Again, an eye-watering 1,200%!
- What is the second biggest search engine? YouTube. You can’t afford to ignore this one either: the algorithm effectiveness of video is stronger than any other media. Plus (of course) it’s owned by Google so these two dominate the top two spots.
- Video is projected to constitute over 80% of all web traffic by 2020.
- 87% of online marketers are currently using video content in their digital marketing strategies.
- Embedding videos in landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%.
- Who are you going to get to do your promo videos? Jump PR (well I must sell us somewhere in this blog). We are increasingly using video to show off our clients’ thoughts and products in a more personalised way. Particularly popular is shooting on the first morning of a tradeshow. Personalised and chatty videos taken (mostly) unscripted amongst the buzz of the first day are more interesting to your audience than a scripted interview at your office. Look at some of our recent videos here.
So, it’s obvious that you can’t ignore video going forward. It’s no longer an afterthought or a minor part of your overall marketing plan. It’s central to all your campaign efforts – especially your social strategy.
But don’t panic! For most videos, the simpler and rawer it is, the more authentic the content seems (as our tradeshow examples show). And that’s what really matters to the viewer. Better yet, video production doesn’t have to be complicated as you can shoot great quality footage with your smartphone and a simple app.
Look at a clip from this video we shot five years ago and how it’s aged in length and script. And that took multiple people to create, a lot of equipment and a great deal of time. So much can now be achieved with so little and quickly. The caveat? There’s still a skill to getting the right message across, quickly and succinctly. And there are still key, fundamental skills required to maximise the effect regardless of technology.
*Stats from conference taken from Forrester research.
Victoria Orford