If the goal of your marketing efforts is to grab the attention of your audience, and create a long lasting impression, then you really need to integrate video marketing into your larger marketing strategy. A dedicated video marketing strategy will help you achieve your ultimate goal, whether it be engaging your target audience or generated revenue. Video promotes a higher engagement with your brand in a dynamic way, which hence legitimises your brand. As you will be drawing attention to what you have to offer, you are opening a window into your brand and getting the conversation going between you and prospective clients and customers.

In 2016 and 2017, video is increasingly becoming the most effective way to achieve that goal. If you haven’t included video marketing into your overall strategy, you need to change that- fast.

One of the main factors which makes video the most appropriate tool to speak to your target audience is the brief attention span of internet users. Video is an absolute imperative to increase and maintain engagement levels.

Why video?

• Online video now accounts for 50% of all mobile traffic.
• 100 million internet users watch video of some kind at some point of their day, every day.
• YouTube has become a search engine in itself, with 4 billion views per day. It is now the second largest search engine in the world, behind Google of course.
• According to research by the Huffington Post, 8 billion videos are played each day on Facebook alone.
• Cisco now predicts that 80% of all Internet traffic will be streaming video content by 2019, up from 64% in 2014.

Why Was Video So Persuasive in 2016?

A Picture Says a Thousand Words
Forrester Research claims that a minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. With the attention span of internet users at present, it would be almost impossible to say as much as you can say in a one minute of video, just using text. Video is more persuasive, you can stand out from the crowd, make an impression without spending too long on website copy which will not get the job done anyway. Additionally, videos are so versatile, you can use one video and market it in so many different ways. For example, you can drive traffic to your videos via Google Adwords, simple text ads which show up in Google Search. You could also show your video as an ad before a viewer sees a regular YouTube video of your choice. All in all, video can be an excellent ROI for your business and a real investment. 

 Keep up with Competitors

In the current climate of an irrefutable surge in mobile traffic and fickle internet users, chances are your competitors are enticing these prospective new clients in new and creative ways. If you do not partake and try to keep on top of your game you will fall behind before you know it.  Even if you personally do not believe it will work for your brand you cannot argue with the stats. Why not trial video? By testing and tracking you can measure the results with your expected outcome. If you’re not seeing the returns you had hoped in the first 3 months, you’ll at least know what works for your brand and your target audience. However, the big dogs have tried and tested it and the statistics are there. There is significant traffic there ready for the taking. This traffic will respond to video. 

Trust in Your Brand

Some consumers are reluctant to trust brands which lack legitimacy. The concept ‘social proofing’ is useful for this. Social proof is the simple idea that people will conform to the actions of others under the assumption that those actions are reflective of the correct behaviour.

Some internet users are hesitant to hand over money online unless they believe your company are not a scam. Although this may be very obvious to the more internet savvy among your visitors, but not all. In order to bridge the gap online, you need to appeal to your potential customers needs in the way you would in a store front. 92% of people trust recommendations from a peer, rather than from a professional. What better way to be personable than through a video where you can directly talk to your prospective customer? 

Interactive & Personalised Video

Another benefit of video marketing is that you can appeal to your target audience on a very personal level. For example, is there a moment in your video where in a face to face sales pitch you would insert your prospect’s name in order for your pitch to resonate with them more and video can allow you to do just that. What is more, in order to engage your users for longer, you can enhance your videos with interactive media which will allow your prospective clients to see what you are really capable of.