Video is taking over, and it’s not showing any signs of stopping. Online video content is taking the world by storm and marketing agencies around the world are using this trend to their advantage. It is projected that video traffic will account for 80% of internet traffic within this year. Can you believe that? Well over half of all internet traffic will be spent watching videos. Not shopping for clothes, not doing online courses, but they will be watching video content.
It only makes sense that marketing agencies are moving more and more of their online content into the video space, and we’ll be exploring this today. In this article, we’re going to be looking at why video content for marketing is more important than ever, but before we do, we’re going to be looking at how and where the content is being best used.
How Video Content is Used
There are so many different ways that video content can be used in the marketing world including:
- Share about Products and Services
Marketers can use videos to allow potential customers to visually see the products in use and learn about all of the different specs it has to offer.
- Train and Educate
You can also use videos to train and educate viewers through tutorials on unique ways to use a product or answer frequently asked questions from forums or websites. These may also be the ever-popular “how-to” videos that many people enjoy watching.
- Increase Brand Awareness
Some marketers decide to go a completely different route by simply putting out content just to get the company on the map. From entertaining to funny, you can do any kind of video to grab attention and get people to notice your brand.
- Increase SEO (search engine optimization)
SEO, search engine optimization, is incredibly important when it comes to getting more traffic on your website, and many are starting to realize that video content can actually have a positive effect on your SEO.
To learn more about how video content is used in the marketing world, click here.
Types of Video Content
Now that we’ve look at how video content is used in the world of marketing, it’s important to understand and explore the different types of content that can be used when coming up with a video marketing plan.
Marketers focus on making different types of content depending on their social media strategy and what they think will best appeal to their target audience. Here are some of the types of video content grouped by how it is being used.
Share about Products and Services
- Demos
- Product Reviews
- Customer Videos
Train and Educate
- Educational Videos
- Webinars
Increase Brand Awareness
Videos that increase brand awareness can be utilized in a variety of different ways. For example, live streams may be used to inform customers about a new product release, educate them on some behind the scenes information, or simply to entertain. But, no matter how a brand chooses to use the following, the main goal is to increase their brand awareness.
- Social media Posts
- Live Streams
- Vlogs
Where Video Content is Marketed
You may now be wondering, where do you find all of these videos that companies are putting out? Well, the answer is...it depends.
Again, it all comes back to the company’s social media strategy and their ultimate reason for creating video content to be consumed. For us, there are two primary places where content can be found.
Brand Website
The first place that you would hope to find videos would be on the brand’s website. Again, video content can really improve your SEO, and it always can help to make your landing page, or any other page for that matter, a little more interesting.
Marketers may have a video with client tutorials on the landing page or a creative video introducing the team on its “about us” page. Having something visual to watch while checking out your website, is a huge draw to potential customers. It allows them to put a face with your brand and get a better idea of what you are all about.
Social Media
There are so many different forms of social media out there, and it’s important to select the right platforms for your business and cater to your target audience. Here are some of the most popular platforms that encourage video content.
- YouTube
When it comes to the best of the best in terms of visits and views, YouTube is where it’s at. In our article on YouTube stats, we found that 60% of people prefer Youtube to television. Can you believe that? Along with this, there are over 2 billion logged-in monthly subscribers to the platform.
When thinking about upping your video content game, definitely consider creating a YouTube account for your brand. The good thing about it is that you can even embed your YouTube videos onto your website.
While YouTube can be utilized to put out a bigger variety of content, we see Instagram as more of a platform to share your story and connect with your audience in terms of video content. Unless using IGTV, your videos are limited to under one minute, so it’s important to keep that in mind as well.
One thing that is really on the rise is Instagram Live. This is a great way to connect with your audience, tease new products or services and so much more.
Facebook can be seen in a similar light to Instagram. There is also a Facebook Live feature that your brand can utilize.
Emails
More and more companies are now incorporating more visuals into their email lists. When clicking on a video to learn more about a product or service, being met with a video seems to be bringing positive responses from customers. As stated earlier, if you have a YouTube account, you could even embed your YouTube video in hopes that they’ll click and visit to learn even more about your products and services.
Importance of Video Content
Now that you see how and where video content is being used, it’s not time to look into why. Why are more and more marketers utilizing video content? Well, there are several reasons why video content for marketing is more important than ever. Here are the top reasons.
- Views
Over 75 million people in the U.S. alone watch videos online each day, and the numbers are going to do nothing but continue to climb. As we said above, people are starting to prefer watching YouTube over traditional television, so it only makes sense that marketers move their strategies to online videos.
Video content is getting this much traction, it only makes sense that marketers utilize this when promoting various brands and services.
- Time
While it is incredibly encouraging for marketers to see the sheer volume of people watching videos online each day, it is even more incredible to find that the average person spends 84 minutes per day watching said videos.
Not only are consumers logging into social media and watching various video content online daily, they are spending over an hour a day doing so! This is an incredibly amount of free time in front of a computer screen (or phone screen) that marketers could capitalize on and get their brands in front of their target audience.
- Attention Grabbing
At the end of the day, videos simply grab an audience’s attention much better than reading an article or blog about a product or service. Don’t get us wrong, those are still important in the world of marketing, but incorporating videos into those avenues and more is on the climb.
If a consumer is looking into your website or your brand, and they see a video, it will grab their attention.
- Convenience
We found that 70% of shoppers prefer watching a video to learn more about a product and will actually use the video to influence their purchasing decision. Why? Well, because it is convenient. It’s convenient to be looking at a product and to simply click on a 30-60 video explaining it rather than reading through all of the information trying to find what they want to know.
Audiences today want content that is delivered quickly and (preferably) with visuals, and video content does just that.
At the end of the day, there is no stopping the power of what the people want. If people are spending the majority of their time and energy into watching online video content, then marketing agencies are going to go where the people are.
As the world of video content continues to grow and evolve, it will definitely be interesting to see how this will continue to change marketing strategies in the years to come.
