Envision yourself as a customer. Do you recognize the power of video in capturing your attention? Yes, video is taking over the marketing world. While hundreds of millions of people are surfing the internet, the combination of visual and audio elements is able to cut through massive amounts of information and create immediate connections with them. HubSpot found that video is 7% more memorable than images and 25% more than text. It’s time for marketers to tap into the power of video marketing.

Why should you use video marketing?

You have lots of freedom over the video content. From event videos to testimonials, the diverse video types allow you to deliver different messages and elicit certain actions from your audience. For example, if your purpose is to increase awareness of your business, videos focused on your brand identity would be an effective choice. In addition, you have autonomy over where your videos are going to live. You can not only embed them in your site but also add them in marketing emails. If your customers are active on particular social media platforms, post videos there, too. It all depends on your needs.

More importantly, video marketing can boost search engine ranking, traffic to your site, open and click-through rates, conversion rates, and ROI. For instance, videos embedded in landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%. Videos can also increase retention rates for information by at least 60%, compared to mere visual elements or sound.

Tips to create effective marketing videos

Be realistic and set achievable goals

Although video marketing is cost-effective, as you can shoot videos with smartphones today, you still need to be aware of the available budget, skills, and resources. Of course having professional production equipment and a video guru or team would be ideal. But if you don’t, that’s okay. Leverage what you have to create videos of the best possible quality, while maintaining authenticity.

Help your audience understand you

A fancy video does not guarantee success. The core of an effective marketing video is what you convey to the audience. Therefore, crafting a script beforehand helps you present information clearly and to the point. But this doesn’t mean a lengthy and business-like monologue. You should, instead, adopt a natural, conversational tone to engage your audience. Also, remember to keep your voiceover concise and avoid jargon and buzzwords so that everyone can understand you.

Create videos that people want to watch

People’s attention spans are short, so try your best to appeal to viewers as fast as possible. Otherwise, 20% of them won’t consume your video for more than 10 seconds. One of the popular ingredients you can add to your videos is humor, which evokes positive emotions and encourages your audience to stay.

On the other hand, people have more interest in unfolding stories rather than self-promotional ads. As a result, your videos should focus on inducing their curiosity as well as addressing their explicit and hidden needs. Just as you do in written content marketing, incorporate calls to action in the end of your videos.

Choose the most suitable hosting platform

So now you have an engaging video, but you need somewhere to post it. Consider the pros and cons of the dominant video hosting sites.

  • YouTube allows you to customize your channel, reach a large audience at no cost, and interact with them. But meanwhile, it may fail to “drive traffic back to your site from the platform” because so many irrelevant videos are out there. The accompanying ads are also likely to affect your audience’s experience in a negative way.
  • With limited ads and some business features, Vimeo is an increasingly popular option for hosting high quality videos. It has a more artistic interface, which turns your channel into a portfolio for your business. However, it does not have a huge audience base.
  • Vidyard and Wistia, built specifically for businesses, both support marketing and sales strategies with a variety of advanced tools.

While video marketing is growing exponentially, 87% of online marketers have already employed this strategy. If you want to further engage your current customers and attract prospects, optimize your marketing campaign with video content today.

 

Creative Spot is a full-service marketing and advertising agency in Columbus, Ohio. If you would like to learn more about how we can help your organization with video marketing, please contact us.

 

More references:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamcraig/2018/04/24/the-growth-of-video-marketing-and-why-your-business-needs-it/#59e0e5f67c2d