If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a video worth? According to research done by Forrester Research, a minute of video is worth 1.8 million words! Online video consumption has increased dramatically in recent years, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down. While traditional marketing strategies still have their usefulness, you should be eager to embrace video for your business for several reasons. Online video can help your business to:
Reach a Wider Market
YouTube has over a billion users — almost one-third of all people on the Internet — and each day those users watch a billion hours of video, generating billions of views. (source)
Do those numbers astound you? They should! Every day YouTube users are watching a billion hours of video. And that does not take into account video that is watched on other social media channels or on individual websites. The market for online video is massive and powerful. By adding your business to the ranks of those capitalizing on video marketing, you have the ability to reach a wide and diverse market.
Make the Most of Your Content
Let’s say you have a beautiful home for sale. In addition to having professional listing photos taken, you have a videographer create a video tour as well. Not only can you use that video in your listing, but you can upload it to your brand’s YouTube channel. You can edit it to create engaging short videos for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. You can embed the video on your website and add it to your email newsletter. That one video can give you weeks of digital marketing content. That same principle is true for a wide range of businesses, not just real estate. Video content is incredibly versatile.
Convert Viewers to Customers
Almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. (source)
Let that statistic sink in. Half of your customers are actively searching out videos about your product before they reach out to you in person. Do you have videos for them to find? If not, they may just pass you over in favor of a competitor who does.
Digital video viewers were four times as likely to want to watch a product video than read a description. (source)
Research shows that customers trust and value video content even more than written marketing. Having strong product copy is important, but you should also create video to supplement your written descriptions. Once you have someone visiting your website, video does a fantastic job of converting those visits into sales.
Put a Face on Your Brand
Your customers are buying into you and your brand as much as they are buying your product or service. Video content is a fantastic way to personalize your business. The videos don’t even need to be polished to be effective. Live, on the fly, video is highly engaging content on social media.
People spend more than 3x more time watching a Facebook Live video on average compared to a video that’s no longer live. (source)
Prepare for the Future
In 2016, a Facebook executive predicted that by 2021 all of Facebook would be video. (source) Whether this prediction holds true remains to be seen, but it’s clear that digital video has a strong future.
Globally, IP video traffic will be 82 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2021. (source)
By diving into the world of digital video now, your brand is setting itself up for future success as more and more internet users actively search for video content.
I hope I have convinced you that video marketing is the wave of the future, and that it is enormously beneficial for your business. If you have more questions about creating video for your business or its usefulness, please contact us. We would be glad to develop an online marketing strategy for you!
