Video marketing is fast becoming the gold standard in improving customer engagement and driving conversion of web traffic to product sales.
Rapid advances in technology mean that internet browsing from mobile devices is becoming the preferred option for consumers, with approximately 58% of site visits originating from mobile phones in 2018, and 42% of the average person’s browsing taking place on a handheld device.
The shift toward consumers favouring mobile devices has been largely driven by the rise of video content (take a look at some amazing stats here) on platforms such as YouTube, which is the second most visited site in the world after Google, and mainstream social media sites, where Australians have 17 million active accounts.
Potential customers are already online and hungry for engaging content – video marketing can help you reel them in and convert their interest into sales.
What is video marketing?
The type of content produced as part of your video marketing effort is entirely customisable, but as a rule of thumb, it generally consists of bite-sized visual content, optimised for the platform on which your business intends to share it.
Essentially, video marketing allows you to communicate information about your product to consumers, with the high-quality production value it deserves.
Some of the more common promotional video types are
- Educational videos which allow you to showcase your product or brand and explain what’s great about it.
- How-to videos which provide a demonstration of the product, and give tips on how to maximise its potential.
- Testimonials videos which allow your business to show off rave reviews and endorsements from your buyers. A testimonial could also come in the form of a collaboration with a brand ambassador or influencer, who can promote your product to their online following in exchange for payment or free goods.
It’s understandable that before investing in high quality social media video content and corporate video content like that offered by Video Outcomes, you might want to understand the possible return-on-investment benefits, so let’s explore some of the ways in which video marketing is useful for brands.
Video marketing boosts engagement
According to a recent study by Wistia, website visitors generally spend 2.6 times more time browsing on sites that have video content embedded.
Interestingly, according to this study, the length of the video has a negligible impact on how long visitors spend browsing the site, indicating that even very short videos can be useful in capturing a potential customer’s attention and retaining their interest in the site for longer periods of time.
According to a recent HubSpot study, 83% of consumers would think about sharing a marketing video with their friends, if the content was geared toward their specific interests and they found it engaging.
By creating video marketing that is relevant to your target demographic, you can increase the number of interactions customers have with your brand. That engagement can prove valuable, especially if and when customers share your video or marketing materials.
When consumers share your promotional material with their friends, your business gains free exposure to potential customers who are likely to also be in your target demographic. Your business also gains the implied endorsement of the person who shared the material, which adds it more legitimacy than a generic advertisement.
Video marketing helps customers understand your product
In an increasingly competitive online environment, it’s more important than ever to stay one step ahead of your peers.
Video marketing is being utilised by 81% of businesses already, so if you’re not producing video content, you may be falling behind.
Well produced video marketing content is also an opportunity for your business to expand on your brand identity and allow your customers to get an inside look at who you really are.
If your company is whimsical and feminine, let that energy flow into your marketing videos and ensure the colours, locations and tone of your content are consistent with your branding.
If your brand is action oriented, straightforward and no-frills, capture that essence in your video content, so that customers who identify with those traits can relate to the content.
By creating marketing videos that embrace your individuality, you ensure that your target audience identifies with what they’re seeing, and that your promotional material is memorable enough to stay at the forefront of consumers’ minds.
Video marketing sets your business apart
97% of marketers believe video marketing helps their customers understand the products they have for sale.
Particularly if you produce a product with many alternatives available on the market, you want your customers to have a good understanding of why your product is superior.
As an example, if you sell skincare products, you want your potential customers to know why your products are better value or better quality than similar offerings available elsewhere.
When customers are deciding between your product and a competitors’, an informative video showing the ins and outs of your offerings could be what seals the deal and wins you that sale.
If you sell a product that is a little more unusual or technical, some customers may avoid purchasing if they’re not sure how it works. A short ‘how-to’ demonstration video could remove that barrier and provide your customers with the confidence they need to complete the transaction.
Video marketing can increase conversion rates
The ultimate goal of any marketing effort is to increase your business’s conversion rate, and to see your marketing investment produce real sales.
You now know that having video content on your website can keep potential customers browsing for longer, but you might be interested to know that according to recent studies, 74% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product if an educational or ‘how-to’ video is available.
Landing pages are an ideal place to keep your most informative videos, and simply having an educational video on these pages can boost conversion rates by up to 80%.
Video marketing, when combined with retargeting efforts, can provide some of the highest conversion rate increases attainable.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term, ‘retargeting’ is when a company targets their advertising toward a potential customer who visited their website or showed some interest in the product, but did not complete a purchase. Video advertisements distributed using Facebook Advertising allow the ability net audiences and then retarget to those that watched 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of a video
Of all visitors to your website, only 2% may finalise a sale in the original interaction. Visitors who do not complete a purchase may be comparing similar offerings for the best price, be window shopping only, or the on-site marketing simply may not have convinced them.
Continuing to target people who have already showed interest in your product can provide up to a 147% increase in conversion rate, when compared to the targeting of brand-new customers.
Three out of five people say they notice online ads for products they’ve browsed previously, and 26% of retargeted visitors complete a purchase at some point, which means retargeting campaigns can be almost 10 times more effective than a campaign based on recruiting new customers alone.
As retargeting marketing can be significantly cheaper than a regular campaign, an increase in your retargeting efforts could potentially even offset the cost of your video content creation, while still improving conversion rates.
Video marketing can improve your website’s visibility
When performing a Google search, users are far more likely to click on results that are provided in the first page of the search results, than to click through several pages of possibilities.
Making sure your business is as visible as possible for potential customers is critical in ensuring you’re not missing any sales opportunities.
It is possible to improve your businesses standing in search engine results, through search engine optimisation (SEO).
While the SEO criteria search engines use to determine site rankings remains intentionally mysterious, your business is 53 times more likely to show up on Google results if you have video content on your website. There is also evidence that organic search traffic can increase up to 157%, for sites that have video content.
Search engines may favour sites with video content, as it’s considered high quality content, especially when paired with the right descriptions and titles.
Making your site’s video content as accessible as possible by incorporating closed captioning, and ensuring your video is optimised for both desktop and mobile viewing, can help maximise engagement and give you a better chance of positive site rankings.
Video marketing can be used on multiple platforms
One of the most popular benefits of video marketing, is the ability to share and cross-promote your products on a wide range of platforms.
Australians spend an average of 1 hour, 39 minutes on social media per day, providing a huge opportunity for brands to integrate their video content onto platforms potential customers are already using.
YouTube is the biggest video platform in the world, with over one billion videos being watched per day. Having a company channel on YouTube, where you’re consistently providing quality video content, can boost your subscriber base and provide access to a global audience.
If your business utilises YouTube, ensure you’re optimising your use of keywords and tags to increase the chances of being recommended to your target audience.
The more common social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all support video content from brands. They also all have built-in share functions, allowing your existing client base or interested parties to advertise your products for you, and to help direct traffic to your website.
To increase the chances of your videos being shared on social media, ensure they are informative and engaging. Where appropriate, humour is a wonderful marketing tool, and commonly found in videos that go viral.
Live video is a relatively new feature popularised by Snapchat and now integrated into sites like Facebook and Instagram. Live videos allow to you stream to, and interact with your audience in real time.
While live videos can be risky if anything goes wrong, they’re a great way to replicate face to face interaction. They can also introduce a casual tone, if that’s appropriate for your brand. Live video is expected to account for 13% of traffic by 2021, and is definitely a great option to explore.
For businesses where mainstream social media may not be a priority – like companies that provide large scale offerings targeted to corporations – LinkedIn can be a great option to share more professional promotional video content targeted toward high powered executives and decision makers.
One third of Australians currently use LinkedIn, which is now the biggest publishing house in the world. Crucially, LinkedIn marketing provides a convenient and intuitive way to advertise to a network of global contacts, which could otherwise be a challenge in geographically isolated countries like Australia.
Publishing high quality video content regularly on LinkedIn or using video as a sponsored post or video advertisement on LinkedIn can support your networking efforts, by making your product or company look and feel sleek and professional.
How can I get the most out of video marketing?
High quality video content could provide all these benefits for your business, but it’s important to understand how to get the most out of your video marketing efforts.
Video length is arguably the most important consideration for your video marketing. Too short, and your audience doesn’t get the information they need, too long, and your viewers might disengage and become unlikely to make a purchase.
YouTube or website landing page videos can be a few minutes in length, as long as they’re informative and engaging.
Avoid adding filler content, it’s better to have a short, entertaining video, than a long but average quality one.
Twitter and Facebook videos should generally be around one minute in length (depending on the intent), and Instagram should be under a minute in order to be viewed in the main feed, but ideally around 30 seconds.
Instagram allows longer videos to be viewed using their ‘IGTV’ function, so if you intend on using this, you should make the first 60 seconds (the amount viewable in the main feed) engaging enough to convince viewers to switch tabs in order to finish the video.
Wherever your video is being embedded, make sure it is informative, high quality and educational.
It can be hard to know where to start when considering video marketing for your business, or which platform to then marketing your video content on. Collaborating with experienced content creators like Video Outcomes is the easiest way to ensure your video marketing content hits the spot, every time.
Use video to build unique audiences that like your content for you to market to at any time you wish.
Video Outcomes helps businesses of all sizes create video content with the purpose of marketing it on platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook Advertising, Instragram Ads and Google’s Display Network.
We offer video production options for those looking for a Melbourne based Videographer or corporate videographer or those looking for higher end commercial video production
Christopher Lichti
Christopher Lichti is the founder and lead content strategist at Video Outcomes, a video marketing, corporate video production and corporate videography company based in Melbourne, Australia founded in 2017.
Christopher's background in developing video content for ppc campaigns on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn started in 2014. On the days he is not making videos he is making music and playing with his kids.