Video marketing has gained a lot of traction over the past years. The popularity has become even bigger as a social media platform, like YouTube, has taken over the internet.
In this year, more than 82% of internet traffic is occupied with video content. This further suggests how people have become more used to watching online videos than other types of content.
But, what does it mean for marketers?
Video content can be a great tool to leave a good first impression on your audience. People will be more likely to engage better when it comes to receiving information in the form of videos. That’s because a video can deliver messages faster in a unique, entertaining way.
Should you use a video marketing strategy for your business?
As the name suggests, a video marketing campaign utilizes compelling visuals and intriguing narration to convey the brand’s marketing message and connect with your audience in no time.
Marketing videos, like explainer videos and how-to videos, enable your prospects to understand your message in a way text-based content or static images don’t. So, rather than forcing your visitors to read a bulky, plain text-heavy article on your site, having marketing videos can lessen their burden from it.
A study states that visitors read only 20% of your website page, often resulting in a higher bounce rate. In comparison, having video content can significantly help your site’s performance as more than 65% of internet users prefer watching online videos.
Here are other statistics by Animoto you should know about video marketing.
- 1 in 4 customers lose interest in a company that doesn’t have videos
- Four times of customers prefer watching a product video than reading the article
- 50% of customers will likely read a newsletter with a link to videos
Pros of Video Marketing
Grab attention fast
A video marketing campaign is a perfect strategy for capturing attention. As the video itself is already popular on the internet, many people won’t find it hard to watch the content.
Moreover, you can get extremely creative with marketing videos. There are many types and styles of video that you can recreate in order to hook your audience. One of the insanely famous video types is tutorial videos.
This how-to video ranks the first among thousands of videos on YouTube. Simply type how-to, you’ll find a lot of recommendations on the platform’s search engine, indicating that many people have already looked for the similar query.
Increase awareness
Brand awareness is crucial for every business. After all, it’s the start of every customer journey when entering your marketing funnel. Without effective branding, it can be pretty challenging to acquire customers in the long run.
Tom Leighton, COO from Sofary Lighting says “Incorporating video marketing campaigns will help spread the word about your business at your fingertips. Gone are the days where you needed to pull the old-fashioned method of introducing your company in public. A marketing video will do it for you in a matter of minutes”
A video marketing strategy doesn’t necessarily mean you can plug shameless promotion. Many marketing videos have gotten more creative these days that they don’t look like advertising anymore. Thanks to the storytelling method it has. Your prospects won’t even notice that you “sell”them your product.
Boost SEO rank
Website is an online representation of your business. It’s a must-have marketing tool for any business in today’s business landscape. Who doesn’t have a website anyway? It helps you gain the trust of your potential customers.
People still perceive a site as an important place when learning about a new brand for the first time. After all, that’s where they can find detailed and trustworthy information about the company.
However, with so many businesses competing on the same product, it can be daunting to get people to visit your page. There are hundreds of competitors bidding for the first result page.
Michael Robinson, Security Expert of Cheap SSL Security says “Without excellent content, it’s impossible to let the search engine place you in the strategic search position. Text-based content isn’t enough to drive visitors to your page. That’s why videos are used to hook your audience”
Video content can help improve your SEO score and let visitors discover your page easier.
Improve conversion rates
Every marketing video is infused with a prompt named call to action to guide viewers to take the desired action. Hence, allowing you to encourage the viewer to take your desired action, helping you to achieve your video marketing goals.
With a call to action, you can place or add engaging copywriting that asks your prospect to become customers voluntarily. As the purpose of marketing videos is to educate and engage with the audience, people can be easily hooked when they find a benefit from becoming your customers.
That’s why business owners use this marketing strategy as they can see how it helps them generate leads in a short time. They find that more people are turning into customers right after watching the marketing videos.
Cons of Video Marketing
Professional production can cost you big
Although marketing videos can bring so many benefits, they are actually expensive to produce. Unlike text-based content, when you can just write down and publish your marketing promotion, creating videos takes time and requires many resources, including a big budget.
If you’re still pumping up operational costs like creating QR codes, you should think again that making videos is a long-term investment.
Producing marketing videos requires planning as you need to consider what type of video content you’re going to make. Generally, there are two styles of video content: animated videos and live-action.
Every style has its own advantages; however, there’s one fundamental issue you should take into account. Producing videos means that you’re an expert or have a professional to handle them. This is where the initial cost begins as you’ll either spend money on a video editor or video production company to help you make the video.
The whole production is time-consuming
Whether you’re making the video on your own or pass it on to an expert, making a professional marketing video will take some time. No matter what type of video content it is, you’ll experience a pretty complex process.
Suppose you’re working on an animated video. You’ll have to spend time developing the storyline, writing the video script, making the storyboard, finding the voice actor, choosing the template, and more. This phase doesn’t include the production and post-production stage, where you work on finalizing your video.
Ryan Dalal, CEO & Founder of Merge PDF says “Making a live-version video can also be time-consuming as you need to consider and find the right actor that fits your brand. Not to mention that shooting time can dramatically change. For example, if you want to shoot outdoors, you may consider the weather. If it changes, like not supposedly raining, you have no choice but to stop the filming”
Hard to update
The advantage of creating articles is that if something has shifted, you can quickly edit and revise them without taking so much effort. In a blog post, you’re also able to edit some errors the moment you publish it online. Hence, allowing you to make an update faster.
That’s not the case with video content. Once posting it, you can’t simply make a change without taking the video down. You need to send it to the editor first when updating on something. This, however, takes time and costs you even more as your video undergoes the process from practically the beginning.
May not appeal to everyone
It’s true that video content captures attention way faster than typical blog posts. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone likes your video.
Or, your videos simply don’t match with how people align with new information. If your audience is result-oriented, watching a video can bore them in an instant. Typically, people with this behavior tend to skim through an article to find the final verdict or conclusion.
In a video, they can’t freely skip to some point as they may lose important information midway. Unlike blog posts, a marketing video may not place essential information at its end as the call to action is there. Hence, confusing people who want to rush and skip through the video.
Takeaway
Business owners and marketers have used a video marketing strategy to leverage their brand promotion. With so many types of marketing videos to use, businesses can incorporate different videos for different purposes.
Keep in mind that making marketing videos has its own pros and cons. Although the strategy itself has greatly benefited a company, not every business can afford the budget and other resources to make one.
If you’re still on the verge of considering a video marketing strategy, check out our list above to ensure your choice. Good luck!