Look, I know video isn’t a new aspect of digital marketing at this point, but the numbers are staggering.
- Video will make up 82% of all internet traffic by 2022, according to forecasts released recently by Cisco.
- 80% of customers report that watching demonstration videos about products helped them make buying decisions.
- Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch a video compared to only 10% when they read text.
- 1 minute of video is worth an estimated 1.8 million words per Forrester research.
- According to Google, almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before seeking it out in a store.
Video is one of the most popular marketing tactics today with good reason. It is simply more memorable, more effective, and more popular with consumers than any other form of content. Video domination of digital marketing is only expected to escalate in the coming years. Here are a few ideas to help you amp up the reach and appeal of your video marketing efforts:
Combine Video and Text
Video Consumption by Social Media Channel
Develop ‘Snack Ads’
‘Snack ads’ is a fun little phrase I heard a while ago. No, these aren’t ads about food… they are short videos less than 10 seconds long. As a result of our inundation with video content, people are developing much shorter attention spans. It is increasingly difficult for brands to produce videos that keep viewers attention for long periods of time. 89% of your viewing audience are engaged during ads with a run time below 10 seconds. By the time the video is shown for 60 seconds, almost half of the audience loses interest. In fact, according to AdAge, 33% of viewers will stop watching a video after 30 seconds, 45% by one minute, and 60% by two minutes. I find myself continually critiquing the video assets we produce for clients, requesting that we make them shorter, and shorter and shorter.
Engage. Don’t annoy.
There are a few caveats to video marketing. It does take time and money to deliver quality video content, but everything doesn’t have to be highly produced to be effective. Simple explainers shot in your office, short informational videos with an expert speaking, fun motion graphics or animated shorts can perform very well without breaking the bank. And you have to follow a few best practices to help consumers appreciate your content and not become annoyed. If you keep it short, don’t make viewers turn on sound to get the point, and avoid autoplay, most users are more than happy to be marketed to via video. If you haven’t tried putting up a vlog, adding video to a landing page, or sharing video in an email, try it out in 2019. You’ll likely see a noticeable jump in performance.