The Ins and Outs of Video Marketing
Aletheia Digital Fulfillment • May 14, 2021
If you aren't incorporating video into your overall marketing strategy, you might be missing out on increased awareness or even revenue.
Why is Video Marketing So Important?
Video content has become more popular than ever before, and its popularity seems to just keep growing. This rapid increase in online video content viewership can't be ignored. With more and more people tuning into online videos for their entertainment, information, or any other reason, your business shouldn't miss out on all the fun!
Creating and sharing videos can be a great way to connect to potential customers in a more personable way. Viewers will be able to associate a face with your brand or business. This will help to build trust between your business and those who view your videos. Another great thing about video marketing is that many consumers will be more apt to make a buying decision if the business has video content.
It's no secret that increasing awareness of your company on social media is good for business. Well, as you probably guessed, video marketing is a great way to do that! Plus, Google's algorithms tend to favor video content these days, especially since they acquired YouTube. That means you can increase your ranking with Google which will result in higher search visibility for your business.
An increase in awareness coupled with the ability to connect to potential customers on a more personal level is a formula for video marketing success that can lead to an increase in revenue.
The Different Types of Video Marketing
There is a multitude of options for video content creation. Here are just a few:
- Product/Service Demonstration: When you want to show potential customers just how awesome your products or services are, you can create a demonstration video for them. This is your chance to really brag about what you do best and draw in customers. With these types of videos, you want to be sure you are highlighting the features and benefits of your product or service.
- Company Background Video: People are more likely to trust a business if they know a little more about it. These videos are a great way to tell the viewers what your company is all about. What is the history behind your company? What are your company's values? What is the culture like? You aren't trying to sell a specific service or product here, it's more about giving viewers a general awareness of your business.
- Customer Testimonials: This is one of the most effective content types. Having a satisfied customer talk about their positive experience with your business can help ease any reservations some potential customers may have about hiring your business or buying your products. This is the age-old marketing technique of "word-of-mouth" applied using modern practices.
- Commercial Spots: These are ideally short videos (15-30 seconds) that can vary in terms of content, depending on what you are trying to accomplish with it. The best thing about these short videos is they are great for distributing across tons of different platforms. You can show them before YouTube videos, as ads on streaming services such as Hulu, or on social media platforms! The key is to grab the viewer's attention before they skip the ad or scroll past it.
- Website Background Footage: This might not be the first type of content that comes to mind when thinking of video content, but it can be an effective way to make your website shine a little bit more. These videos are the clips that play automatically (without sound) in the background of your website's page. They add another feature to your site and help give it a clean, modern look. These videos are a great way to quickly showcase some of your services or products, or give the viewer a glimpse into how your company operates (sort of like a smaller-scale version of a company background video).
That's not to say you should try to make your videos come across as low-quality, but don't get caught up trying to make one video into the next Sundance Film Festival sensation.
Video Marketing Distribution
Getting your content in front of the right audience can sometimes be challenging. Distributing your videos through the proper channels is vital to reaching the right viewers. Digital marketing agencies use various strategies to ensure your video content is distributed to the best possible places. Here are some of the ways Aletheia Digital does this:
- Video Player Size: This targeting method takes the dimensions of the video player into account. You can choose what size video players you want your content to show in. For desktop, the player sizes are less than 400 x 300 pixels (small), between 400 x 300 and 1280 x 720 (large), or 1280 x 720 or greater (HD). On mobile devices, you can target video players that cover up to 20% of the screen (small), between 20% and 90% (large), or over 90% (HD). It's also possible to target video players with undetectable dimensions.
- Viewability: When you want to make sure your ads are actually being seen by users, you can measure the viewability of the ad. For video content, the ad will be considered viewable if 50% of the video is visible while it is playing for at least 2 seconds. Targeting by viewability is a great form of reassurance that your content won't go unseen.
- Skippable and Non-skippable Ads: Because some platforms feature video ads that users can skip and some feature ads that users can't skip, it's best to cover all your bases. Skippable ads won't cost you unless the viewer watches the whole thing. Non-skippable ads will cost you more but will also get you more impressions. It's important for any type of ad to grab the attention of the viewer within the first few seconds. It's vitally important in skippable ads, as most users will find the ad intrusive and will be eager to skip it unless they are drawn into the ad.
- Muted and Unmuted Viewing: When you distribute video ads on social media such as Facebook, the full effect of the content may be lost on many viewers because they don't have their sound turned on. You can easily get around this by creating content that works just as well without sound as it does with it. Including closed captions in your ads is a great way to do this.
Video Killed the Radio Star
Marketing strategies are constantly changing with the times. The savviest business owners and marketers know they have to keep up with the changes or get left behind in the dust. The move to video advertising is just another one of those changes. It may seem like creating video content isn’t worth the effort, but you just have to look at the statistics to know that isn’t true:
- Users say they retain 95% of the messages in video content. ( Social Media Week )
- Watching a brand or business's video has led 84% of consumers to buy their product or service. ( Wyzowl )
- 78% of marketers say that video has led directly to an increase in sales. ( Wyzowl )
- 15% of all content on Facebook was video in 2020. ( Social Insider )
- 86% of businesses are distributing video content as a marketing tool. ( Wyzowl )
- 69% of consumers prefer to watch a short video to learn about a new product or service. ( Wyzowl )
- An average person will spend 100 minutes watching online videos every day ! ( Zenith Media )
This is just a small sample of the statistics that support the rising popularity of video content. It's clear that if you want to engage with more potential customers online, increase awareness, and/or increase traffic to your website, then you need to be taking advantage of video advertising.
You don't want to end up like the radio star!
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