Ever walk into a room and forget why you’re there? Welcome to today’s Internet attention span.
To understand what video marketing is, you first need to understand how it came to be. Today, opening up your internet browser is like opening your sunroof window during a monsoon. Imagine the rain drumming against the roof of your car; each drop a different brand, product or service trying to tempt your attention. The rain is falling so heavily you can barely see from one side of the street to the other. It’s loud, torrential, mind-numbing…and unless you randomly feel like dancing in the rain, you do whatever you can to shut out the storm.
This is similar to what your audiences face every time they go online; a flood of information. Tracking pixels stalk their every move. Ads and subscriber requests pop up out of nowhere. Calls-to-action beg for their participation. Sales reps prod at them via instant chat. Organic reach is dead. And brands are struggling to break through the chaos to make genuine connections with the right individuals.
Paid advertising is an effective and popular remedy for this issue. In basic terms, you pay for “rented” ad space in the places your audiences will most likely see. But the best marketers understand that connecting with audiences isn’t just about placement. It’s about delivering the right message in the right format.
We’ve all heard the term “video marketing” before. But for fear of looking obtuse, few are brave enough to ask what many are thinking, What the heck is video marketing? Allow us to explain:
Video marketing is a form of content marketing that uses video media as the vehicle for conveying information about your company, products, or services.
Essentially, it’s no different from any other type of content marketing. You’re still targeting audiences in an attempt to achieve the same goals (increase brand awareness, educate potential customers, nurture leads, convert leads into customers). And the distribution channels are basically the same (social media, email, paid video advertising, etc). But instead of using text or still images, which are limited in their ability to capture and keep attention, you’re using video — the most engaging form of communication (see: The Science of Motion) and the most efficient way to divulge loads of information in a short amount of time.
Consider this:
Attention spans are down to about 8 seconds. Your message must be delivered in a quick, easily digestible way, or you won’t survive their ever-dwindling regard.
90% of users say that seeing a video about a product is helpful in their decision-making Why? Because video makes it easy for them to understand what they’re getting.
Including a video on a site’s landing page can increase conversion by 80%. Why? Because seeing a product “in-action” is the most effective way to create desire. In the same way that we use models to show off clothing versus laying an outfit on a flat surface, we use video to show capabilities and applications.
According to Insivia, 92% of mobile video consumers share videos with others. Hello! That’s free advertising. Video marketing is bringing organic reach back to life.
In a way, video marketing is like the “American Dream” circa the 1930’s. The promise of going viral is still very real, which means a single campaign has the potential to reach an unfathomable number of people. As for the intended audience, video simply performs better than any other form of content.
The Basics of a Successful Video Marketing Strategy
For your video marketing strategy to reach the right audiences and engage them, you need to know:
Who your target audience is (down to the individual audience member)
What they want or need
How they search for information
Where they search for information
What devices they use to access information
Reaching this degree of understanding will require that all departments contribute audience intel (yes, including those sales people). We call this a holistic marketing approach, which considers how marketing efforts impact every level of business.
You will also need to:
Be consistent and regularly launch campaigns.
Measure video engagement to refine content, targeting and distribution.
Create for the mobile viewer (the number of mobile-only Facebook monthly active users is roughly 967 million. Also, approximately 1 billion YouTube videos are viewed on a mobile device per day).
We get it — creating an effective video marketing strategy can seem overwhelming. If you lack the resources to bring video in-house, there are agencies you can partner with who are dedicated to the art of effective video marketing. Together, you can tailor a strategy that fits your budget and meets your business goals. They also bring distribution and analytics expertise to the table; a critical factor of your success.
As you begin to devise a master plan for your video marketing success, there’s one major mistake many teams make. Click here to learn what that mistake is and how to avoid making it.
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