Marketing is more than the products you make and the services you sell; it’s about the stories you tell and what better way to tell a story than using videos? The significance of videos in marketing continues to increase in significance as an awareness and sales channel. So much so that video has (in many ways) become the center of marketing strategies for brands. There has been a linear shift from text to images to videos in a tug of war between capturing user attention and selling a product or service. Videos are being integrated across multiple social media and ad platforms, as well as brand-managed websites. Through this article, we aim to show and share the power of good videos and the important aspects of creating memorable video content.
Why your brand/business needs video marketing
Customer preference shift
According to SocialMedia Today, 72% of customers prefer learning about a product or service through a video in 2020. This number is only increasing.
This year, it is expected that more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic will come from online videos. It also reflects on major social media platform trends: Instagram continuously promotes its video feature in the form of Reels and Stories, TikTok has over 1 billion active users internationally, and Pinterest Video Pins level up to a staggering one billion videos viewed a day.
Better SEO performance
By integrating videos on your website, it is more likely to appear higher on search engine result pages (SERPs). Most search engines can crawl both the video and the “alt tag” (descriptions) and take into account the presence of video in their algorithms. Beware: be sure to optimize your videos so that they don’t slow down your site and cause them to rank lower!
Raise brand awareness
Because of their retention value, videos are a great way to increase brand awareness. The storytelling format of videos helps to create relatable instances and strengthen the connection with customers. Depending on your target audience and objectives, you can choose from a variety of video content, and styles ranging from new releases of tech product videos for tech geeks to eco-lifestyle videos for environmentalists.
Stand out from the competition
Even though video marketing is no longer a new concept, there are still plenty of brands that have not started incorporating videos as a part of their marketing strategy. If you start now, there are still opportunities that you would stand out more than the brands that are late in jumping on the video marketing wagon.
More conversions
Video is a great way to introduce your product or service in more dimensions than images alone can. 97% of video marketers report that videos help customers better understand products and services better, and also help them increase sales. Websites that place videos on landing pages increase conversions by up to 86%. How-to videos and guides are also great ways to engage with customers and increase conversions.
Let’s see a great video in action!
Check out this video marketing campaign from Canadian Tire called “Wheels.” It shows a boy in a wheelchair who isn’t able to play basketball with other kids in his neighbourhood. But then one of the kids creates a version of basketball made just for him, and he is able to join in!
This video really appeals to the viewers’ emotions, namely empathy. Although the topic of the video is not directly related to Canadian Tire’s business goals or products, a unique campaign such as this one can create an association between the brand and positive emotions. Going back to our reasons why your business needs video marketing, this video allows Canadian Tire to both stand out from their competition (their competitors did not create videos as unique as this one) and raise brand awareness (people are more likely to remember something that is unique).
Checking out other successful video campaigns can provide ideas on how your brand can implement video marketing into your digital marketing strategy. Get started and ahead of your competitors with video marketing today!
Want to talk more about video marketing or any marketing-related topics? Contact an UpOnline representative to chat today!