Digital Marketing: Making The Case For Video

Advantage—that is the one thing every business is looking to gain with their digital marketing campaigns. They want the advantage over their competitors regarding capturing their target audience’s attention. However, with modern technology and an always-connected world, the pace of life is faster than ever. We are bombarded with information across all devices—phone, tablets, laptops, even smartwatches. With all that influx of information, it’s very easy for your message to get lost in the mix. That is why you must get more creative and involved in the kind of content you present to your target audience.

One of the best ways to create content that stands out and grabs the user’s attention is by focusing heavily on video content. Why? Because video is consistently surging in popularity, impact, and market penetration. Now more than ever, video content is king and is bolstered by its mutually beneficial relationship with social media. You can’t open a single social media platform these days without some type of video content being splashed across your screen. Human nature is to be curious, so we gravitate towards watching these videos for that reason.

However, despite that the level of video content consumption continues to skyrocket—many companies fail to take advantage of it. The popularity of video seems to be on a perpetual rise and advancements in mobile devices are guaranteed to continue that trend. Those that don’t capitalize on this cornerstone of digital marketing are seeing lackluster results on their efforts.

You don’t have to take our word for it—just take a look at the stats. After all, numbers don’t lie and they will help you come to terms with a simple fact. Video is a commodity, not an option—you either adapt or get left trailing behind your competitors.

How Important Is Video To Your Digital Marketing Strategy?

Many of our clients that are slow to embrace video content simply don’t realize how much of their competition has already jumped on the trend. In fact, in just five years, the percentage of marketers that adopt video as a key component of their strategy has jumped an impressive amount.  We’re talking a jump of nearly 15 points. That may not sound like much, but when you consider that the stats in 2015 showed already a 78% majority—it’s huge.

—At almost 95%—nearly ALL marketers agree video is crucial to their strategy—

So, it’s not a matter of whether the usage of video content is still growing—it’s a matter of whether you’ll be left behind. Video isn’t going anywhere, it is just too important.

What Makes Video So Important To Digital Marketing?

That is the question we hear the most from clients when explaining to them this dominance of video content. The reason it’s so important is that people want it, consumers love it—period. The stats back up the claim—nearly 90% of marketers report a significant ROI from video efforts. When you factor in that only five years ago that number was slightly under 35%—consumer adoption has grown at a breakneck pace. In one single year, the rate of increase in daily minutes watching video online is expected to culminate in a 20% increase by 2021. That means that the average person will spend 100 minutes out of their day just watching videos online.

Now, let’s talk bottom line for business owners:

—In 2019 on average, 45 billion was spent nationwide to advertise with online video—

The ROI has been worth the expenditure as by 2021 that number is forecasted at 61 billion. With the growth rate of online video consumption, it is projected that people will get 50% of their video consumption online. That is a tell-tale sign that TV is no longer the advertising titan it once was—there’s new competition. Online video growth is outpacing TV growth by a significant amount. That trend isn’t changing either, it’s continuing to grow.

Video Will Continue It’s Impressive Growth

The ROI that online video content delivers is constantly increasing, as well as the amount of time people spend watching. It’s not a shock to learn then, that nearly all companies who rely on video content will continue to do so in 2021. Not only will they continue but over 90% are projected to even increase their budgets for video marketing. The same studies show, of the few companies that have yet to delve into video marketing, over half plan to in 2021.

While this is clear evidence that video should be a huge part of your digital marketing strategy, it also means more competition. You will have to focus on curated content that helps you stand out from your competitors. To do that, you first must understand what your consumers expect from video content online. You can’t just throw up some videos and expect magic to happen—video marketing is a calculated science. You need to deliver what consumers are seeking, it’s not the other way around.

What Do Consumers Expect From Your Videos?

While video content you put out there should be entertaining, it also can influence and mold your audience’s decision-making process. To get a customer to convert once they watch your content, you need to fulfill their expectations. So, what do they want?

Almost half of consumers say they want content that reflects their interests or lifestyle

Your consumers need to be interested in your content for them to want to watch it. For example, you wouldn’t target video ads for snowmobiles to consumers in Houston. Consumers want videos that they can relate to in terms of lifestyle or products they already own.

The key is figuring out the expectations of your audience and then serving up content that feeds that in an organic manner. Don’t just force content to feed the expectations, make it entertaining and informative.  Also, give your consumers some level of interactive ability—over 40% of consumers want a choice of content. That is, they want to be able to decide what they watch videos on, and when it’s convenient for them. The length of your videos plays a huge part in the convenience and getting consumers to watch as well. It’s a delicate balance of being long enough to deliver sufficient information and being concise enough not to lose interest.

Among all video content, well over half of video ads are at least 30 seconds long so far in 2020

The common sentiment among marketing professionals may be that the window to capture consumer’s attention is getting shorter. However, when it comes to video marketing, that isn’t the case. The percentage of video ads that are at least 30 seconds grew by over 10% in one year. This indicates that longer ads are quite effective. A distant second is 15-second quick burst ads that account for a little over 30% of ads. Coming in dead last is 6-second ads which accounted for barely 1% of videos, as well as 1%, being 60-second spots.  So, it is a delicate balance in the middle to be the most effective.

Consumers want content that feels less like “digital marketing” and more personal—loosen up a little

While maintaining brand and corporate professionalism does account for something—you can overdo it. Yes, your videos can be too professional and too corporate. Consumers want to do business with a brand they can connect with. They want to see that real people are working behind the scenes, people with stories just like theirs. When you can create a connection to your brand that people can identify with—that’s gold.

Videos that go behind the scenes, introduce real workers, show your facilities—these are what consumers want. They want the convenience and expediency that big corporations offer—but with the small-town feel. So, for example, deliver like Amazon but be personable like the neighborhood mom & pop store. Your video content should reflect that vibe, be raw, be real, and be relevant.

Consumers want to be informed not just entertained, so mix up your digital marketing angles

It’s good to have a healthy balance of videos that appeal to many of your consumer’s wants and needs. Sometimes, they’re shopping for a product and want to be informed. Other times, however, they may just want to be entertained. So you can create content such as Vlogs that cover commonly asked questions by clients. You can also employ some live sessions that offer a level of interactivity that consumers respond very well to. In fact, over 55% of companies regularly use live video to reach their audience. There is something about the anticipation of what’s going to happen next when watching unscripted, live video. Also—sometimes, it pays off just to be witty and fun on social media. Consider splicing in pop culture video content you can tie to your brand’s message for an effective way to grab attention.