One of my favourite weekend pastimes as a youth was to watch a scary film with all the lights off. Of course this involved making the trip to the video shop with my mum, 1) because she had the video card and 2) because I wasn’t old enough to rent the film myself. Anyway, this was always a feat as I had to not only persuade my mum to rent something full of ghosts, ghouls, blood and guts but I also had to persuade her to remain patient whilst I chose a suitably badly animated film from the selection. Looking back, there were perhaps only a few dozen “horror” films to choose from so you would think I would have been systematic, right? Well I wasn’t, my choices were based on the snippet of info on the back and the cover picture. If it didn’t look gory enough or sounded cheesy it was cast aside. Of course now I realise the importance of making a good first impression when marketing a product or business so that you are chosen over the next, and funnily enough it is now the humble “video” that seems to be the way of doing this.
I’m going to throw some stats at you about online videos now …
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A third of online activity is spent watching video
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Every day, 100m internet users watch an online video
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80% of online visitors will watch a video compared to only 20% who will read content
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YouTube is the worlds 2nd most used search engine in the world
Bet VHS never got those kinds of numbers!
Last week I spoke about content marketing and video is a type of content, so why exactly should you adopt it?
Firstly, video is a very quick and easy way for consumers and users to digest content on a website. In a generation where time is of the essence, and more and more of us are expecting convenience and information directly, video is a great way for people to understand your product or service in the shortest amount of time. They say that a picture says a thousand words, so you can imagine how many words a video can say! Studies show that 90% of users say that seeing a video about a product is helpful in the purchase decision making process.
We are more likely to watch videos than we are to read content. Again this is linked to time, and also the amount of information you want to convey. It can take 2-3 minutes to consume the same amount of information you could read in 15-20 minutes. That’s almost half a lunch break for a lot of people!
Another huge benefit of video marketing is its potential reach. Video content marketing could help you reach out to potentially millions of people within a short time. A video hosted on YouTube for instance could be viewed by many people searching for content, additionally, an interesting and entertaining video can also go viral and gain millions of views, likes and shares within days.
Search engines love videos. A website with good video content will now be viewed by search engines in a better way than those without any. This SEO benefit will have a halo effect over all your other content too.
A great advantage of video content is that it increases the duration a person spends on a web page. Engaging the audience is a huge objective and a consumer is 67% more likely to purchase if they feel engaged and informed, and video is a great way to capture and retain attention. Additionally, providing useful content to your customers is likely to increase the frequency of their visits.
Some of you may have got this far yet had a niggling thought the whole time, cost! Of course you can pay lots of money and get an exceptional video but if you are just testing the waters then a good video can also be produced with relatively little cost and expertise.
With certain phones and cameras being HD, it can be as simple as click and shoot to upload to YouTube, or, for a more professional result, there are specialists who can create your film premiere. However, it’s getting the content right that is a little more tricky! If you’ve toyed with the idea of a video but don’t know which way to turn then drop us a line. We can help with a lot of the aspects of making an effective marketing video and will never ask you to make love to the camera!
Next week I will talk about the types of research you should do to ensure a thorough and consistent message throughout your content, but in the meantime, here are a few more stats…
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The average internet user is exposed to approximately 32 videos a month
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50% of users watch business related videos on YouTube once a week
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75% of users visit the marketer’s website after viewing a video
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An average user spends 17 minutes watching online video ads every month
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26% of internet users look for more information after viewing a video ad