Table of Contents
Every day, people watch billions of hours of YouTube videos. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg once predicted most content on the social media platform would be video. Mobile users prefer watching videos.
These facts point to a stark reality. If you’re hoping to market your business in 2020, you can no longer ignore the importance of video. It’s one of the most effective ways of getting your business in front of the people who are interested in your products.
You might be wondering what the real benefits of video marketing are. Plenty of people have talked about how great videos are, but where’s the proof that video marketing actually helps? We’ve rounded up five of the biggest benefits video marketing can give your business.
1. Video Marketing Builds Trust
One of the lesser-known benefits of video marketing is that it can help you build trust with your audience. How so?
There are a few different ways.
First, video can help your customers “see it” so they can “believe it.” Some people are still leery about buying things online. They may worry that a product isn’t everything it’s made out to be.
A video can help them see what they’re getting into. One popular type of video is the 360-degree view, which lets consumers take your product for a digital test drive or go on a virtual tour. They can check out what they’re about to buy from every angle.
Videos can also be informative and educational. If someone’s struggling with a product, a video may help them troubleshoot. Another video may help them learn about the benefits of a product, backed up by facts and figures.
Behind-the-scenes videos help build trust too. They show your audience the real people behind your brand, letting them put names and faces to your employees. That, in turn, allows them to connect with your team.
In short, all kinds of video content can help inspire confidence and other emotions for your audience. Emotion and trust is foundational to any relationship, including the company-customer one.
2. Benefits of Video Marketing Include Better Conversions
The importance of video in helping your conversions and sales can’t be understated. Video can engage even those audience members who normally scroll on by or turn a blind eye.
Why? Video is eye-catching and engaging. It makes us feel things, and that can make us want to buy. Done right, video can also make it easy to one-click a product or service.
The numbers back this up. You can increase conversion rates on a landing page just by adding a video. In fact, some studies have showed you can increase your conversions by as much as 80 percent.
The trust that video inspires is also key here. When your customer prospects trust you, they’ll be more willing to click that button and set up a call or add a product to their cart. In turn, you grow conversions, sales, and customer relationships.
Thanks to this, video content has a relatively high return on investment for most businesses. Today, video is easier and less costly to product than ever. All you really need is an iPhone and a quiet place to film a great how-to video.
Even if you take a high-budget approach to video production, you can still count on a high ROI.
3. Video Boosts Brand Recall
Still not convinced of why video marketing is important for your business in this day and age? Perhaps knowing that using video in your content strategy can boost brand recall will help.
Some studies have shown the majority of people can remember videos they’ve seen within the last month. When asked, most consumers could accurately identify the brand associated with a video as well.
Suppose someone watches a video ad on their Instagram feed today. A week from now, they decide to check out the product. They punch your company name into Google, and they land on your page.
If they just read a Tweet or listened to an audio ad, they might not remember your name. They might not be able to find your website, or they may end up on a competitor’s site.
What’s the science behind this effect? Video is a lot easier for people to “read,” first and foremost. It takes a lot less concentration to absorb information from a video than it does to read a text post.
The combination of visual and audio cues also reinforce memory. The fact that video is also highly engaging also helps, because it means people tend to pay more attention. The end result is that people have better recall for video than any other format.
4. Video Can Help Your Other Marketing Efforts
By now, you should be convinced that online video marketing is a must-have for your strategy in 2020. You may even be thinking about reallocating budget from other marketing initiatives to video.
Before you take the ax to your PPC or SEO budget, though, consider how video marketing influences your other marketing efforts.
Google, for example, loves video almost as much as your audience members. The search engine giant owns YouTube, so it may not be too surprising that it will prioritize YouTube videos in its search results.
Adding a video to your website, then, can give your SEO efforts a little boost. Video ads tend to outperform their text-only peers on PPC networks. PPC search engine marketing works hand-in-hand with your SEO efforts.
Video by itself won’t raise you to the top of the search results. If you’re adding video to a PPC campaign, then you may want to use the video for social media marketing or other initiatives as well. If you want to run ads on podcasts, you may be able to adapt the soundtrack from your video ads to an audio-only format.
Video even increases the effectiveness of banner ads and other digital advertising. It’s more eye-catching, which makes it harder for people to scroll right on by.
Adding video marketing to your strategy is a great plan. Using a mix of video and other marketing methods is an even better one.
5. Videos Boost Shareability and Engagement
It’s no secret that people love video content. Most people spend more time interacting with videos. For many, it’s the preferred format for receiving information.
Videos are also highly shareable. There’s a reason the term “viral video” exists, after all.
You can probably think of a few video sensations. Whether it was something funny or something that looked cool, people love sharing video content with each other.
In fact, video content is considered more shareable than any other kind of content. If you’re looking to get the word out, then adding a video to a tweet or blog post will help. Your followers will be more likely to share with their own social networks.
Some people even save videos to watch later or share with their friends. They may be more likely to comment or like a video as well.
What Makes People Hit Share?
There’s no real formula for getting people to hit like or share, not even for video content. Still, many viral videos have common characteristics. They usually stir emotions and many are highly entertaining.
If you want to create videos that are highly shareable, it might help to analyze some of the most recent hits. You can do this by downloading videos from sites like YouTube or Twitter, then comparing them.
If you’re not sure how to save Twitter videos offline, there’s good news. It’s easy to do, and you can learn in just a few minutes. The same is true for other social media sites.
Once you’ve collected some videos you think are good examples, it’s time to crunch the numbers. Highly shareable content is usually on the shorter side. Look for other common features and think about how you can adapt them to your marketing strategy.
What Else Can Video Marketing Do?
These five benefits are important, but they don’t represent everything video content can do for a brand. When you adopt video marketing, you’ll find there are plenty of other benefits for your business.
Using video can help you clarify your product or even deliver complex information. It also makes your audience sit up and take notice, since video is perceived as more valuable than other forms of content.
Finally, there’s almost no such thing as a “bad” video when it comes to your marketing. Even low-budget videos can perform well. Think about behind-the-scenes videos or short clips on people’s story feeds.
The Building Blocks of Better Marketing
These are the most major benefits of video marketing. If you haven’t already adopted video content into your marketing strategy, it’s high time to do so.
Are you looking for more tips and tricks to build a better marketing strategy? You’re in the right place. We have plenty of informative guides designed to help you make the most of marketing for your business.
With the right information in hand, you can power both marketing and business success.
