Every Business Needs Video – Or Does It?
If you’re a marketer, you know that great content will earn attention and engagement. But there are loads of different types of content. Blog posts, infographics, article reprints, newsletters – and let’s not forget video marketing, which has become essential to businesses for several reasons:
- People prefer it. Research says that 68% of people would rather learn about new products and services on video than on other media. And 87% say they want more video content.1
- It delivers significant improvements:2
- Emails with video get 2-3 times more click-throughs than emails without video. 60% of viewers will keep watching a video for at least two minutes.
- 94% of video marketers say the medium strengthens people’s grasp of their products and services.
- 81% of video marketers say it generates leads. And more than a third of people who view a product video will follow up with a call to the vendor.
- Search engines like it. Google finds combinations of text, imagery and video more valuable than any single medium alone.3 How much more valuable? Websites with embedded video are 53 times more likely to show up first on Google than sites without video4
- Video can make good stories better. If your business has a powerful story, video can help you tell it in a highly compelling way, with music and movement that tap into visceral emotions, at a pace that you control.
- It generates excellent ROI. 83% of businesses say so.1 Video marketing can be leveraged and repurposed across multiple channels, including your blog, your web site, your advertising and social media. It can also give you critical business insights about what components of your message are getting through to your audience.
So, are there reasons why a business shouldn’t use video marketing? There are. The medium itself isn’t a magic wand. Your videos must be strategic. Which means that before you record a single frame, you should answer some key questions: Who needs to see the video? What should they know and feel when they see it? And what do you expect them to do next?
Likewise, if you can’t commit to quality, don’t invest in video. There are different types of videos for different needs and budgets. Not everyone needs to feel like a broadcast-quality TV episode or documentary. But if your script is weak, your lighting is inconsistent, your graphic resolution is poor, your sound is fuzzy, or your pacing and transitions are awkward, even a modest investment in video will be wasted.
Bottom line: There are so many times when video marketing can help your business. And video usage is increasing rapidly. On Facebook, users watch 100 million hours of video per day. On YouTube, it’s 5 billion. And both sites have shown view increases of 99% (YouTube) and 258% (Facebook). Capitalize on this trend and its advantages, and you’ll take a giant step toward building your business and your brand.