At Evolve & Co, video is at the forefront of our content marketing strategy. No other platform has the power to tell a story like a video… engaging sight and sound, and provoking emotion. Here are some facts you should know if you’re considering adding video to your marketing strategy.
VIDEO CONTENT CREATION AND PRODUCTION
Video marketing has quickly become one of the most popular forms of marketing. It combines the appeal of audio and visuals, which helped make television the popular and successful marketing tool it is today, with the accessibility of social media. According to Forrester Research’s Dr. James McQuivey, “A minute of video is worth 1.8 million words.”
Video marketing can be a useful tool for many reasons. For instance, video content can stimulate brand recall. According to an article from Forbes by Matt Bowman, “80 percent of customers remember a video they’ve watched in the last month.” Consumers tend to remember audio and visuals more than text. They also tend to share content they enjoy, which increases online reach along with brand and product awareness.
Video marketing also can boost your site’s search engine optimization (SEO). Bowman says, “Sixty-five percent of business decision-makers visit a marketer’s website after viewing a branded video.” Videos on the landing page of a website can improve a company’s SEO value and click-through rates.
Not only are videos user-friendly for all devices, but video content is made to go viral. Bowman says, “It is estimated that 92 percent of people who consume mobile videos share them with other people.” In fact, Simply Measured discovered that video is shared 1,200 percent more than both links and text combined.
VIDEO MARKETING STRATEGY
All videos are not created equally—at least they shouldn’t be. A video that would be very successful on YouTube may not be as effective on Snapchat. Some videos can be effective on multiple social media platforms, but each social media platform is different and should be used for different purposes.
YouTube gets more than 5 billion video views each day, and it is one of the most versatile social media platforms for video. While other social media platforms only allow videos that are 10 seconds to a minute long, YouTube can support much longer videos. According to an article on Inc. by Bill Carmody, “Ideal length of a video on YouTube is less than 5 minutes.” However, he notes that YouTube content creators have the flexibility to increase the length of the video, but it must be highly engaging. The best place for a call to action on a YouTube video is at the 30 second mark.
Facebook is another social media platform that brands should use to share video content. Tubular Insights found that 500 million people are watching Facebook videos every day. While Facebook videos tend to get less views than YouTube videos, videos posted on Facebook tend to get a higher level of engagement, which includes likes, comments and shares. Carmody says that Facebook videos should be 1 minute or less, since viewers tend to lose interest after that. Content creators should also try to make the first three seconds of the video engaging to avoid losing viewers. Content creators can boost organic reach by uploading videos directly instead of sharing. When creating a video for Facebook, be sure to use closed captioning or subtitles. Not only do subtitles make videos accessible for people who are hard of hearing or deaf, but “85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound because of the default setting,” according to Carmody.
Although the majority of video views come from YouTube and Facebook, other social media sites like Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat are quickly growing in popularity, especially among younger generations. Instagram videos should 30 seconds to 1 minute long, with Instagram stories being 10 seconds, and they should show behind the scenes content, showcase the product in action, show a countdown to launch event or ask influencers to contribute. When posting a video on Instagram, always add a hashtag, since Carmody says adding one hashtag in the caption results in 12% more engagement.
The ideal length of videos on Snapchat is 10 seconds, though it has lately released a new update where you can record and post back to back videos up to 60 seconds. Carmody recommends that content creators make the first snap video engaging because 22 percent of viewers drop off after losing interest from the first snap. Snapchat is ideal for live coverage during an event or for showing behind-the-scenes content.
Twitter feeds have the fastest scroll, which is why brands should focus on creating eye-catching content. Brands can use Twitter to upload teaser, announcement, advertisement, promotional, education, and user-based content. Ideal length of a video on Twitter should be 30 seconds to 1 minute to engage maximum viewers. People use Twitter for breaking news and to gather information, so brands should focus on branding rather than promotion when creating videos for Twitter.
USING VIDEO MARKETING FOR BUSINESS
Brands benefit by having a video strategy. Carmody says that around 90 percent of videos are watched on mobile phones, so the brands should make sure they use a mobile-first approach. When brands plan to create a live video, they should research when the majority of the target audience tends to be active on the social media platform of choice. According to Curata, the top three most effective types of video content are customer testimonials, tutorial videos and demonstration videos. Use videos to share a brand’s story. Reuse your popular blog posts and turn them into a creative video. Even adding a video to an email can increase engagement. Bowman says, “Adding a video to marketing emails can boost click-through rates by 200-300 percent.”
Cosmetic brands, Like L’Oréal and Maybelline, utilize video marketing to demonstrate new products, which increase buzz around the product. L’Oréal can say its new lipstick is pigmented and creamy, but a video demonstrating it is more likely to gain attention and shares, which leads to a larger reach. A brand does not have to sell a beauty product to use video marketing. Any brand can benefit from video marketing, because of the number of consumers watching videos on social media. According to Small Business Trends, “By 2019, global consumer Internet video traffic will account for 80 percent of all consumer Internet traffic,” which is why 2018 is the year your brand should start video marketing.
Sources:
http://www.curata.com/blog/content-marketing-statistics-the-ultimate-list/
http://tubularinsights.com/500-million-watch-facebook-video/
https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/03/video-social-networks.html
