When it comes to engagement — nothing beats video.
But what exactly is engagement? Why is achieving high customer engagement levels particularly suited for video marketing? And how can your brand capitalize on this secret weapon? All will be revealed in due time, readers…stick around, and we’ll share some pro insight to help you better understand why customer engagement is your most important KPI, and how video will help you crush customer engagement metrics this year.
What Exactly is Engagement?
First thing’s first. What do we mean by engagement?
Engagement marketing is a marketing approach that focuses on creating deep, meaningful, life-long relationships with target audience members. It's about creating an experience that both your brand and your audience share in together; one that inspires your customer to return time and again.
Why is Video a Powerful Customer Engagement Booster?
Forget the fact that video excites multiple senses, evokes emotion, is more visually appealing, conveys more information in less time…
Instead, let’s look at video marketing in terms of the logistics it provides. When we think about engagement as a video marketing metric, we can look at it as the amount of time viewers choose to watch your videos, and whether or not they click on embedded links, follow CTAs, share, comment, etc. Like the click-through-rate for an email campaign, engagement is action. Not Was it played? But How long did it play? And What did the viewer do next?
Here’s where things get interesting…video offers an angle that text alone cannot. It provides a way for marketers to track specifically what content was consumed.
Textual content relies on assumptions based on vague metrics like how long the audience member stayed on the page, whether or not they shared the article or commented on it, etc. We know they spent time with the article, but we never actually know for certain if they skimmed headlines or indulged in the riches of each paragraph.
With video, however, we can look at data to determine how long they watched, whether or not they re-watched or skipped a particular segment of the video, at exactly what point they stopped watching the video and more. With this data, we can draw definitive conclusions about what content resonated with audiences and what didn’t. This information can then be used to tweak video content and drive engagement higher.
Ready for the catch?
Video is the obvious future of marketing. Every major marketing entity touts this fact. But as more and more brands join the video revolution, it will become increasingly challenging to engage viewers successfully. Their attention spans are shrinking. Their expectations are rising. And competition for their interest is about to hit an all-time high. Currently:
Marketers have 10 seconds to capture their audiences attention.
If engagement fails after 30 seconds, marketers lose about 33% of viewers.
If engagement fails after one minute, marketers lose about 45% of viewers.
Which brings us to the final section of this article...
How can you use video to improve engagement?
Consult your video data. Look for patterns and determine if there are clear drop-off points that indicate content isn’t resonating. Likewise, look for spikes, or instances of replay to determine what content is resonating well. This will help you understand what your audience likes and dislikes.
Use your sales team. The best way to keep customers engaged long term is to create video content that supports every step of the sales cycle (and beyond). Your sales reps are privy to insider knowledge about your target audience because they are the ones answering questions and providing educational resources out in the field. Work with them to determine if a stage of their sales cycle lacks adequate content support.
Sample a variety of video types, including live streaming, interactive videos with clickable images and real-time Q&A, animated videos, 360-degree videos and more. This is a great way to keep your content library diverse and interesting. And to encourage your audiences to join in on experiential forms of communication.
Video length also directly impacts viewer engagement. Unfortunately, there is no “one length fits all” solution. The run time of your video will entirely depend on:
The content shared
On what device and platform the audience is viewing
Your audience's proven appetite for video
The action you are trying to evoke from viewers
Social media videos should be shorter in length (less than 1 minute). Look at your metrics to determine how long your audience's attention span is as it relates to the type of information you share. As far as action is concerned, if a video is strictly for delight, the CTA can appear later in the flick. If the video is to elicit a specific action, implant your CTA early on — within the first 10 seconds.
Finally, use retargeting tactics. Retargeting is a powerful way to reconnect audiences with your video content. Instead of waiting for them to find you, it enables you to find them. For example, create video ads in Facebook using a tracking pixel that only shows a video to people who have already loaded your website. You can learn more about retargeting on Facebook here.
Video is about to get even bigger in 2017, and this is a beautiful thing for marketers. If improving customer engagement is at the top of your priority list — video is your secret weapon. Plan accordingly and if you don’t have the necessary in-house support, work with a video production agency to make it happen.
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