Because video marketing allows you to connect with your customers by personalizing your marketing message and telling a compelling story. In this weeks FAQ Friday we will discuss frequently asked questions from the readers concerning marketing video production and how to leverage advertising videos to benefit your brand.
What is video marketing? Does it help my company with lead generation?
Video marketing is the practice of incorporating videos into your inbound marketing campaign to engage more directly with customers while increasing brand awareness. This kind of video marketing works in both B2C and B2B environments as customer testimonials, product descriptions, how-to videos, and live event videos work well in a variety of different contexts.
Social Media Marketing
Regarding variety, video marketing is also a versatile marketing tool that can empower your online advertising, email marketing campaigns, and search engine optimization.
When used in social media marketing and mobile advertising—video can connect your company to the 55% of B2C prospects out there who use YouTube every day to watch videos and the 92% of B2B buyers who watch online video to ultimately inform their buying decision.
Email Marketing
You can expect much higher open rates just by putting the word “video” in the subject line of your email marketing campaign’s messages. Moreover, companies that went ahead and incorporated video in their emails saw their click-through rates nearly double.
Search Engine Optimization
Maybe the most mind-blowing stat from the bunch, though, is the fact that videos have 50 times greater odds of establishing page one status on Google than that of video’s textual counterpart.
This underscores the importance of creating a comprehensive video marketing strategy, in general, but also highlights the marketing opportunity that turning articles and blogs into short-form videos has regarding SEO and lead generation.
What is video advertising and how does it relate to rich media?
Video advertising includes both display online advertisements that run on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook as well as the advertising that runs contiguous to, and sometimes during, video streaming via Internet television. The reason that video advertising is so hot right now is that it’s an efficient way of reaching out to PC, tablet and smartphone customers in an increasingly mobile world.
If you’re looking to meet the millions of customers using their smartphones to shop, explore brands, and share content on social media, then you need a multi-screen online video marketing strategy at your disposal. Two stats online really tell the story—92% of your mobile customers share the video with their friends and, secondly, portable video views comprise 40% of all watch time on YouTube. Video advertising also works in B2B contexts since approximately two-thirds of executives have gone onto a vendor’s website directly after looking at a video.
Now, rich media is a term that’s somewhat related to interactive content. Rich media in a digital advertising context is a video advertisement that contains interactive features that promote more viewer engagement. Digital advertising that takes full advantage of advances in rich media can be expanded, floated, and peeled down to put more control at your customers’ fingertips.
You can glean even more customer data and build stronger personas based on noting relevant behavioral analytics. Setting up two videos that are the same except for the thumbnail can also be an easy way to separate the chaff from the wheat and A/B test for the most engaging video.
How does video length come into play and how important is telling a story?
Over half of your customers will watch a video that’s one minute or less, which puts an incentive on keeping your message short and sweet.
Shorter videos also factor in the fact that your customers are spending more time on social media talking and chatting with friends and family about their experiences. Digital display advertising alone is a multi-billion dollar industry. Getting onto Facebook and Twitter should be especially advantageous over the next few years since by 2017 these two social media behemoths are expected to have a third of digital display advertising market share.
While mobile users are slightly more forgiving than PC users and stick with your videos the longest, on average you have about 10 seconds for the 20% of your viewers who quickly opt out of the video. This emphasizes the fact that whether you’re shooting for a micro-video app or a longer explainer video, the focus should be on emotionally engaging with your audience and telling a compelling story.
Just make sure to match form with function by keeping both the purpose of the video (e.g., educational product demos) and your audience’s stage in the buyer’s journey in mind.
Calls to action at the end of your videos, for instance, should be tailored to that particular customer’s knowledge of your company and enthusiasm to carry through with a purchase—e.g., more in-depth whitepapers in the CTA for potential buyers just about ready to make a purchase but wanting to research a little more. For more help sealing the deal with customers, schedule a consultation with one of our video experts.
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