Editor’s Note: This post is one of Convince & Convert’s Top 10 Posts of 2016.
Did you set the right marketing goals for 2016? And are you using the right tools to achieve those goals? The fact of the matter is, if you didn’t include a video digital marketing strategy as part of your broader content marketing plan, you’re missing out.
Video isn’t just a nice afterthought. It’s a chance to take your digital marketing strategy into the stratosphere.
The good news? It’s springtime. It’s a fresh start—a chance to do marketing better. And it’s not too late to tap into the power of video. Here are just some of the many reasons 2016 is the year of video marketing.
1. Video Is the Secret Weapon for Achieving Your Marketing Goals
One of our main messages at Explainify is that video is not a silver bullet.
By saying that, it may seem like I’m shooting myself in the foot with that silver bullet, but it’s true: video, on its own, isn’t magically going to grow your business. But if you use video strategically to accomplish specific business objectives, you’ll see serious returns.
Here are just a few examples:
- Adding a video to your website can increase the chance of a front page Google result by up to 53x.
- Using videos in email marketing has been shown to double click-through rates.
- 71 percent of marketers say that video conversion rates consistently outperform other marketing content.
- Audiences are 10x more likely to engage with video content—embed, share, or comment—more than text-only blogs or related social posts.
If you have a clear vision for what marketing objectives you want to achieve, video will help you get there.
2. Video Isn’t Just a Top-of-Funnel Tool Anymore
A lot of companies see that we make explainer videos, and they think video marketing stops there. But there are so many opportunities for you to offer your audience video content throughout the buyer’s journey—video that will help educate them, make it easy to trust your brand, and move them to a purchase decision faster.
Top-of-Funnel Video
Of course, awareness-stage video is still a great way to improve conversions. Take ExactTarget, for example: When they implemented video on their website, their bounce rate decreased—and the average time on site increased by 100%!
Or what about the folks at Limelight Networks? Thanks to video, their bounce rate essentially evaporated, and their unique visitor count doubled—almost overnight!
Middle-of-Funnel Video
But stopping at the top of the funnel would be a big mistake. Video is a great opportunity to stay in touch with folks who are in the consideration stage, making their purchase decision.
That’s exactly what legendary online shoe retailer Zappos thought. And when they added product demo videos to their product pages, they saw a 30% impact on sales.
Bottom-of-Funnel Video
Your existing customers will also appreciate ongoing engagement through video content, like when IKEA created a series of instructional videos showing customers how to build some of their most popular furniture.
Video belongs at every stage of the buyer’s journey. And the more places you utilize great video in your funnel, the easier you make it for those buyers to move down the path to purchase.
3. Great Video Woos Customers Like Nothing Else
Video is critical to helping people connect with, remember, and care about your brand. Consider these statistics:
- Experiments show that video-based multimedia material create better learning performance and more positive emotion—even in text-centric learners. (Chih-Ming Chen)
- Videos are usually presented as stories, and stories are 22 times more memorable than facts alone. (Jennifer Aaker, Stanford)
- Positive emotions created by watching a video can actually impact your viewers’ buying decisions. (Scheibehenne)
- The human brain processes visuals 60,000x faster than text. (HubSpot)
Simply put, a great video taps into the human mind in ways that images and text just can’t.
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4. Most Marketers Are Already Embracing Video Marketing
The secret sauce that is video marketing isn’t so secret anymore. In fact:
- 52 percent of marketing professionals name video as the type of content with the best ROI.
- 76 percent of marketers plan to use video to boost their brand awareness campaigns.
- 96 percent of B2B companies are planning to use video in their content marketing over the next year.
Can you really afford to be left behind?
5. The Era of Video Has Arrived
Did you know that consumer internet video traffic will go from 64 percent in 2014 to over 80 percent by 2019? That’s not very far away.
But don’t panic. There’s still plenty of time left in the year to get in on the video marketing game. You just have to get started!
Want to see more? Download the “5 Reasons Video MUST Be Part of Your 2016 Marketing Budget” infographic.
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