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We recently published an infographic on how powerful video will become. But the future has already arrived. This has been a full-on video revolution year for marketers. According to Wyzowl statistics, 63% of businesses have started using video content marketing. Out of those 82% of businesses feel video marketing is an important part of their strategy. Video is progressing rapidly and will reach new heights sooner than we think. This trend is fueled by 83% of businesses believing that video marketing gives them a good ROI.

Undoubtedly, video marketing is one of the newest additions to your promotion toolbox. You might still have your doubts. Is it really worth to consider using videos for promoting your business? Do you have enough resources to create and use video content in your marketing?

The answer is simple: Yes, it’s worth it. Not only because everyone’s doing it but because video is one of the most versatile and profitable digital marketing tools out there. Here are 8 reasons why you should use video marketing right now.

1. Video Boosts Conversions and Sales

First things first. Videos can make you some serious money. Adding a product video on your landing page can increase conversions by 80%. And Treepodia team has made it sure that video works well regardless of the category in which you deploy it.

Video can also lead directly to sales. Studies show that 74% of users who watched an explainer-video about a product subsequently bought it. So better start crafting your exciting product videos now!

If you think about it, the effectiveness of video is not even that surprising. After all, vision is our most dominant sense. Most information transmitted to our brain is visual. So if already pictures can boost engagement massively, imagine what moving pictures can do to your business.

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2. Video Shows Great ROI

To get you even more excited, 83% of businesses say that video provides good return on investment. Even though video production is not yet the easiest nor cheapest task, it pays off big time. Besides, online video editing tools are constantly improving and becoming more affordable. And even your smartphone can make pretty decent videos already.

Another good news is that your videos don’t have to be perfect. It’s the content that matters! Latest research shows that users are mostly put off by videos that don’t explain the product or service clearly enough. Low quality and poor design didn’t matter nearly as much. So it’s fair to say that video is like pizza – when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good!

I Learned All My Youtube Marketing from Epic Meal Time (and You Can Too!)

Yes, you read that title correctly. That out of their minds, slightly alcoholic team over at Epic Meal Time were the first to teach me about YouTube marketing. As with all successful YouTube channels, they had to build their own channel themselves. There was no network backing them or an executive producer coming on board to show them the ropes. There wasn’t even anyone with any real experience!

Read the full story…

3. Video Builds Trust

Trust is the foundation of conversions and sales. But building trust should be a goal on its own. The whole concept of content marketing is based on trust and creating long-term relationships. Stop selling and let the people come to you by providing them interesting and useful information. I couldn’t have said it better than Mark Schaefer, the Executive Director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions:

The new era demands a focus on ignition, not just content, on trust, not just traffic, and on the elite people in your audience who are spreading and advocating your content.

Video does it all. Video content is likely to engage us and ignite emotions. And when we talk about elite people in the audience, YouTubers have become the most powerful social media figure to promote your brand. So, if you are serious about content marketing, you must be serious about video, too.

Promotional videos can foster trust as well. Some consumers are still skeptical about buying products and services on the internet because they fear fraud and cheating. But effective marketing videos present your products in a conversational form. That creates a sense of individual approach which is why 57% of consumers say that videos gave them more confidence to purchase online.

Read next:  Why Animated Video is the Best Strategy for Your Social Media

4. Google Loves Videos

Videos allow you to increase the time spent by visitors on your site. Thus, longer exposure builds trust and signals search engines that your site has good content. Moovly gives us whopping statistics: You’re 53 times more likely show up first on Google if you have a video embedded on your website. Since Google now owns YouTube, there has been a significant increase in how much videos affect your search engine rank.

Make sure to optimize your videos on Youtube for SEO. Write interesting titles and descriptions. Add a link back to your website, products, and services. Give potential customers the way to take the next step. And explore the world of interactive videos, to encourage actions even more.

5. Video Appeals to Mobile Users

Video and mobile go hand in hand. 90% of consumers watch videos on their mobile. From Q3 of 2013, mobile video views have grown more than 233 percent. YouTube reports mobile video consumption rises 100% every year. Since people like to watch videos on the go, and the number of smartphone users is growing, your video audience keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Also, Google tells us that smartphone users are twice as likely than TV viewers and 1.4 times more likely as desktop viewers to feel a sense of personal connection to brands that show video content or ads on their devices.

The growth of mobile video means, brands need to be sensitive to the personal experience people have on their smartphones. For example, give them a better choice in the video content they consume.

6. Video Marketing Can Explain Everything

Are you launching a new product or a service? Create a video to show how it works. 98% of users say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. That is why 45% of businesses who use video marketing said that they have an explainer video on their home page. Of those businesses, 83% said that their homepage explainer video was effective.

Trying to explain a difficult concept? Create animated videos. Animation can bring concepts to life that no text or live video can. Besides, boring talking heads are not enough anymore to break through the clutter. Animated videos are a perfect combination of entertainment, nostalgia, and simplicity. And they work.

Make sure you use a process that will get you results. Use these 20 pre-production steps to make your video content stand out from the rest. Check out the essential tips and examples of best practices on how to make a product demo video.

7. Video Engages Even the Laziest Buyers

Video is a great tool for learning, but it’s also super easy to consume. Today’s life is too busy to have time to read long product descriptions or dig deep into services. The modern customer wants to see the product in action. Video preference is one of the most important driving forces of using video in your content marketing.

Video marketing can capture a wide audience, and it works on many levels. Even the laziest ones. Make sure you target not only to the eyes but also to the ears of the potential client. Your competitive advantage gets double power!

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8. Video Encourages Social Shares

In the 8th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report Michael Stelzner stated that 60% of the social marketers used video content in 2015 and 73% of the total respondents planned to use it in 2016. And they sure did.

Social networks also encourage video content with their new features. Facebook has launched 3600 Video, Live Video, and Lifestage (A Video-Centric App for Teenagers). Instagram put in place 60-Second Videos & Instagram Stories, Twitter has Periscope. And YouTube is the second most popular social network in the world.

However, in a social media context, video marketers must remember that people share emotions, not facts. 76% of users say they would share a branded video with their friends if it was entertaining. So create fun entertaining videos to encourage social shares. Emotions are not exactly ROI but social shares can increase traffic to your site, and you can take it from there.

Bonus Tip 1: Video Ads Work Wonders

Hear this: the average click-through-rate of video ads is 1.84%. That’s the highest CTR of all digital ad formats! And for a 15-second non-skippable YouTube video ad the completion rate is 92%. For skippable video ads, the rate is 9%.

Video ads are also highly effective on social media platforms. Facebook, clubbed with Nielsen, projected the value of video ads on its platform. They learned that 74% of the total Ad Recall can be achieved already within the first 10 seconds of the video. So, fight against banner blindness by making video ads instead.

Bonus Tip 2: Video Is Rocking Email Campaigns

When you’re creating videos already, make sure you to incorporate them into your email marketing campaigns. An introductory email that includes a video receives an increase click-through rate by 96%! That’s a great way to stand out from competition and get your message across.

Read next:  Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites and Apps [August 2018]

11 Top Video Trends in 2018

1. Majority of consumers prefer video content to reading. Consumer preference will lead to video explosion in content marketing. Video will be used more for converting and lead generation. A lot of potential buyers don’t want to talk to salespeople. This is where video can influence sales in later stages.

The popularity of video also means that more content at the top of the funnel has to be in video format. In B2C it’s almost obvious. But B2B-people are people, too. Video content is more likely to keep the audience in the comfort zone, and they will not engage in system 2 thinking. System 1 autopilot mental state should lead to less critical thinking, less friction, and more conversions.

2. The content quality is very important, but the production quality is not that important. Production quality and technical aspects have to be OK but not world class. Better production quality is correlated with more trust, but it can’t make up for the lack of substance. So, Facebook Live videos, webinar recordings, and other video material with good enough production quality will work as long as the content itself is engaging.

3. The acceptance of good enough production quality will lead to a massive amount of video content created ad-hoc on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

4. This will lead brands to start thinking strategically about the video. How different video formats and channels can support each other. How to create cornerstone video content that can be atomized, expanded, and combined with other content formats. Finding ways to get the most mileage from their videos.

5. Storytelling will be more important than ever. People can read through a list of facts or instructions in an article but present that in a video, and you will lose your audience. The flow of the presentation and emotional connection to the viewer are going to make or break a video.

6. Testing in video marketing. There are no set rules of thumb. When brands are figuring out their approach to video a lot of experimenting needs to take place. Long vs. short versions in different channels. Animation, talking heads, actors, CGI. How to present introductions, hooks, and calls-to-action in the video.

7. Videos need to be optimized for specific platforms and different use cases. For example, sometimes we need to look at videos without sound. Subtitles or on-screen text that convey the message when there’s no sound. Research from TV ads shows better message recall when the ad has the same language subtitles.

8. Live video streams will become an important part of the video content. In its original live format and promoting the recorded material after the event. Bring live events to their audience, hold a live Q&A session, interviews with influencers help to engage and build brand awareness.

9. Video=Youtube. Facebook will try to take video leadership from Youtube. Youtube is a great place for independent content creators and brands to build their following. Monetization has a clear solution on Youtube and not on Facebook. Facebook needs to find a way to bring big Youtube stars to its platform.

10. Videos will also be used in personal sales and support. This can be done in two ways. First and the more scalable option is to use pre-recorded clips with sales or support people. The second option is to record short messages for specific needs so that (potential) customers can watch them at a convenient time.

11. The ROI of video marketing. Top of the funnel video content can be hard to measure, but more videos will be used in the sales process closer to the actual conversion. Video will speed up sales cycles as prospects think less and act sooner.

Conclusion

Video advertising is becoming more and more affordable and widespread. Video adoption grows partly because advances in technology but also because it’s easy to spread across the globe. Making marketing videos for your business requires creativity and knowledge of human psychology. The cocktail of these components makes it possible to create real miracles of advertising at minimal cost.

Emotionally charged, creative video advertising can be spread on the Internet in a matter of days, getting millions of views. And this is the whole point of video marketing: the only creative survive!

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