What is Video Marketing and why should you use it?

 If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth ten thousand.

Video is now an integral part of marketing strategies for businesses of all sizes. Once the preserve of large companies and organisations, it has evolved into an achievable, powerful tool to help businesses get their message across.

Here, we’ll take a look at video marketing and why it’s so important.

WHAT IS VIDEO MARKETING?

Video marketing uses video content to connect with your company’s target audience and promote your product, service or brand. While sales and service sign-ups might be the overall goal, it’s also used to encourage website visits and social media engagement, strengthen overall brand awareness, and foster customer loyalty.

It can also provide a means by which to strengthen customer service relationships. What was once a niche component of marketing strategies is now taking centre stage as brands seek to be more responsive to changing patterns of consumer behaviour. Consumers expect video content from the brand they are interested in and intelligent video marketing strategies aim to provide it.

Video marketing can be promotional videos for your company. They can be longer business-to-business videos outlining details of a new product or service. They might be short advertisements or brief viral-style videos to be shared on social media. If you’re a larger company, then you might use video as part of billboard advertising.

Increasingly, video content is becoming an expected feature on a company’s website and can be used creatively in short or long forms to achieve a range of marketing goals.

WHY VIDEO MARKETING IS IMPORTANT

Video is becoming the leading way for businesses to market their products and services. This is driven by internet use, the proliferation of smartphones, and the ongoing popularity of social media.

According to the latest online video consumption statistics, 92.7 per cent of global internet users worldwide watch digital videos every week. People watch music videos, product review videos, tutorials and a range of other content. In short, consumers expect brands to use video to market their products.

Given the amount of time that people now spend using their smartphones and other devices, if you’re serious about being seen, then video content is crucial.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF VIDEO MARKETING?

Traditional marketing channels have been superseded by more immediate and innovative means of reaching consumers. Social media has disrupted established ways of doing things in the marketing world with both benefits and challenges for businesses.

Video marketing ensures you get noticed, and when it’s done well it can give you the edge against your competitors.

Here are some of the key benefits of using video marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy.

• Increase sales and conversions

Watching a video takes less effort than reading, and, as a result, video content has greater levels of engagement than text. People watch videos, engage with your content and then make purchase decisions based on what they’ve seen.

The longer you can keep potential customers engaged with your content, the more likely they are to make a purchase.

Video can also be used to generate leads and encourage people to sign-up for campaigns.

• Video is uber-popular

The internet has become THE place where people watch video content, and they expect to encounter it on their social media. It’s estimated that by 2022, 82 per cent of global internet traffic will come from video streaming and downloads (Cisco 2019).

People are hooked on video-based content such as music videos, funny sketches, dramas or documentaries. After Google, the most used internet platform is YouTube, with users viewing more than 1 billion hours of video content on the platform every day.

Short-form video content from companies taps into the public desire to view video content.

• You can watch video content on the move

According to research by the World Advertising Research Centre, by 2025 almost three-quarters (72.6 per cent) of internet users will access the web solely via their smartphones.

Whether from home, on the bus, at work, or in a café, the content they access is most likely to be video.

Whereas text can be difficult to read on a portable device, video can be enjoyed anywhere.

• Video is easily shared across platforms

Video is versatile and lends itself to a number of different platforms, from websites and social media to being embedded within emails, as part of webinars and presentations, and embedded in blogs. Social media in particular is becoming increasingly dominated by video. This means that if your brand wants to be noticed and shared across social media, then you need to create video marketing content.

The content you create can be edited and revised for different audiences and platforms.

WHAT TYPES OF BUSINESSES NEED VIDEO MARKETING?

If you’re serious about building your brand, communicating with your audience and growing your business, then video marketing will help. Businesses across every industry commission and use video content as part of their overall marketing strategy. It is uniquely powerful when it comes to reaching potential customers, and when it’s done well, it takes on a life of its own.

Some of the industries that have invested heavily in video content over recent years include;

• Manufacturing

Manufacturing businesses are key users of video content as part of their marketing strategies. In a competitive sector, video is a great way to mark out your own unique selling point. You can showcase innovation, introduce new products and build an attractive and trusted brand.

• Travel and Hospitality

Travel and hospitality businesses regularly use video content. Similarly, so too do agencies and companies that promote particular regions and towns as destinations. It’s immediate and can be aspirational as well as inspirational, bringing destinations, hotels and activities to life.

• Property

Estate agents, letting agents, developers and other property businesses now use video as an expected part of marketing activities. Whether it’s providing a video tour of a property they are marketing or talking about a new development, video can help would-be buyers get a better idea of a property before booking a viewing.

• E-commerce

E-commerce businesses rely heavily on video content to promote their brand, showcase products and communicate key information about their products.

• Banking and financial services

Video helps banks and other financial institutions to build trust as well as showcase their products and services. Video content is often informative, helping customers with specific issues.

• Local businesses

It’s not just big brands that are using video content. Increasingly, smaller local businesses such as cafes, specialist shops and tradespeople are using video content as part of their marketing.

It can personalise the business, helping customers in the area feel more connected and fostering a sense of community. Video can be a way for smaller companies to compete with their larger national and international rivals.

THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF VIDEO MARKETING

Video marketing is a broad field that contains a range of different video types. Many businesses will use a combination of these different types to reach their audience and meet specific customer needs.

Some of the most commonly used types of video marketing content include:

• Product launch or demonstration videos

If you’re launching a new product or want to show how a current product works, then a product video could be the answer. Launch videos can sometimes be live, or you might want to offer a teaser video to spark interest in your product prior to launch.

• Explainer videos

These are more detailed than demo videos and can explain what’s unique about a product, how it works and the benefits it can deliver compared to the alternatives. This kind of content reassures customers that your product is relevant to their needs.

• Brand videos

Brand videos will usually form a part of a larger marketing campaign to promote and support your brand. They will express your brand identity and hopefully prove memorable. The goal of brand videos is to intrigue, inspire, and connect with customers.

• Event Videos

In the past, promotional events only really had value on the day with the people who attended in person. Event videos allow you to communicate the fun, excitement and interest of the event to a much wider audience.

• Interviews with experts

If your product is innovative, responds to a particular need, or has been championed by influencers and thought leaders in your field, then an expert interview can be a powerful marketing tool.

• How-to videos

Videos that explain how to use your products, or how they can be used more creatively, are highly popular. If you can produce videos that solve particular problems for customers, you can build and establish trust.

• Case studies

Case study content highlights how you solved a problem for a client, a partnership with another business that delivered results, or how your products met the needs of a customer where alternatives failed. Case study videos showcase how your products and services have been used in the past and provide social proof of your offering.

• Live videos

If you’re holding a promotional event or launching a new product, then live videos can be a compelling way to reach a wider audience.

In fact, there’s a practically limitless range of options when it comes to creating video content. Most businesses will use a number of different approaches depending on the nature of their business and the extent of their budget.

Even if you can’t compete with larger companies in terms of resources, it’s still possible to create varied and compelling video content that attracts the attention of your target audience.

HOW TO GET STARTED WITH VIDEO MARKETING

If you’ve decided that you’d like to incorporate video content into your overall marketing strategy, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Here are a few pointers.

• Create a plan

Firstly, create a plan for your video content. It usually makes sense to keep it simple initially, so choose a type of video marketing that you think will best fit your business, such as an explainer video or a brand video.

• Set measurable goals

Decide on what you’d like to achieve with your content. This can help inform and direct the creative and production process at a later stage. Your goals should be clear, actionable and ultimately measurable.

• Think about your audience

Your video content should reflect your brand. If you're a young, lively brand image, then your video should be similar. If you have a more serious and authoritative brand, then your customers will expect to see this reflected in your content.

• Sketch out your ideas

Your ideas don’t have to be detailed at this stage but the more ideas, and the clearer they are, the more helpful it can be if you choose to work with a video production company.

• Call in the professionals

Anyone with a smartphone can make basic video content, but if you’re serious about your video marketing, then you should consider using the services of a professional video production company.

Even if you have some basic editing and production skills, creating your own content is likely to be time-consuming. It will also have to compete with professionally produced videos from your competitors.

A professional video production company will have access to the latest equipment and will be experienced in advanced production and editing techniques. They will ensure that the footage that’s captured is used in as creative, compelling and targeted way as possible.

Professional production companies can be more cost-effective than you might imagine as the content they produce generates more business.

A COST-EFFECTIVE WAY TO MAKE AN IMPACT

Creating videos for social media is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways for smaller companies to make an impact with video marketing. If you create compelling videos that highlight your brand, reflect your personality and showcase your products and services, then it can strengthen engagement with your social media channels. This, in turn, leads to conversions and sales.

Contact Eight Engines today to find out how we can help you create compelling video marketing content for your business.