In case you've missed it, more businesses are including video format into their marketing plan. In fact, according to Statista, digital video ad spending, at least in the United States, could reach $78 billion in 2023. That amount is more than the investment senior executives made in 2019.
But what makes videos so useful for brands? Here are the many benefits of video marketing you should know:
1. Marketing Videos Suit Every Buyer's Journey
A buyer's journey is the series of stages a target audience goes through when purchasing from you. For example, it is the process they go through from hearing about your company for the first time to becoming a repeat buyer and loyal customer. It involves the following stages in the sales funnel:
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Awareness: finding and learning about your business and inbound marketing strategies.
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Consideration: comparing your business against competitors on factors such as price, quality, and service.
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Decision: purchasing from you or a competitor.
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Retention: becoming a loyal customer and repeat buyer.
You can use videos at each of these stages in some way. For example, in the awareness stage, video marketing can help customers learn about your business.
An explainer video focuses on educating people about the benefits of your product or service. It is a great way to introduce new customers to your brand and familiarize them with it before they decide what products or services they want to invest in.
In the consideration stage, video content marketing can showcase your product's or service's different features. For example, a restaurant could make animated videos showing how they prepare their food behind the scenes. It would be particularly effective for restaurants with unique dishes, such as rare foods from other countries, where customers may have questions about what to expect from the menu.
In the decision stage, you can use the video marketing strategy to showcase customer testimonials about the effectiveness of your product or service. Adding videos like testimonials is particularly helpful in making people feel more confident about your business. It shows that other customers have had success in using your products or services.
You can use video content to help customers learn how to get the most out of your product or service during the retention stage. An online clothing retailer could make a live video showing how to style and wear clothes they offer for sale on their website.
2. Video Content Builds Consumer Trust
Consumers are more likely to trust businesses whose products or services they can learn about online. According to a Nielsen survey, 93% of people said positive video reviews make them trust a brand more. The same poll showed that 80% of people were more likely to purchase from a company after watching their explainer videos. About 61% of respondents also said they trusted a company more when it had video content about its products or services.
Many factors make videos excellent tools in building consumer trust. First, videos allow you to tell the story behind your brand. It lets people know who they're purchasing from and gives them insight into what your company is all about. When people feel like they know your business, they're more likely to form an emotional connection with you.
Videos show people the realness of your business. It builds trust more than text because people can see what you're selling without distractions or embellishments. The more transparent your brand is about your products and services, the more it will impress potential customers.
Showing how-to videos demonstrates how effective your product or service is. In the decision stage, when potential customers are thinking about whether to purchase from you or another business, they want reassurance that your product or service will work for them. Videos show how well a given product performs and make a compelling case why someone should buy it instead of a competitor's product.
3. A Video Marketing Strategy Boosts Conversion Rates and Sales
Adding product videos on a landing page can increase traffic by 85%. Video can also directly result in sales. In the data curated by HubSpot, over 85% of marketers said this content produced a positive return on investment (ROI). Meanwhile, in another survey, about 70 percent claimed that their ROI from video marketing was better than that of Google Ads (and probably other forms of paid marketing).
Video ads also work wonders. The average click-through rate (CTR) for video advertising is 1.86%, one of the highest in the digital ad format. In a 15-second non-skippable video advertisement, completion is 92%. If you skip a video ad, you get a rate of 9%.
Click-Through Definition: Click-through rates (CTR) are the ratio of users who click on an ad to the number of total impressions served.
How can videos increase conversions and revenues?
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It's simple. If someone watches your video, you can communicate exactly what your business is about and how it helps people. You can present yourself as an expert in your industry or just as someone who wants to help people with their problems. The viewers then feel that they understand what you offer and decide to purchase from you without hesitation.
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Humans are visual learners. When they watch more videos, their brains process the information more comprehensively than when they're just reading text on a page.
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Videos are also suitable for telling stories. For example, you could tell the story of how your business came to be and what made its founders decide to do it in the first place. They can also tap on emotions, which also help sell products and services.
4. Video Content Marketing Is More Measurable than Other Forms of Content Creation
Video content is more measurable than other forms of content for a number of reasons. First, viewers can know precisely how long a video is going to be before they commit to watching it. For example, someone may be willing to watch a 30-second explainer video about your product or service but doesn't want to commit to watching a video that is longer.
A person watching a video about your products or services can see how well it performs in real life. They can watch the product be used and judge for themselves whether it was worth the investment.
Videos also make it easy to track how successful each one is. For example, you could use an analytics tool like Google Analytics to see exactly how many people watched a video and whether they purchased from your business after doing so.
You can also see which videos convert better than others and how long viewers stay on specific videos before moving on to another one. Knowing these facts makes it simpler for you to create videos that work well in conversion.
5. Video Marketing Complements Online Marketing Strategies
The success of an online marketing campaign doesn't rely on only one strategy. Instead, a business needs to perform a variety of digital marketing techniques, sometimes simultaneously.
And in every stage or strategy, video marketing can be helpful:
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Email Marketing Campaigns - Emails with video links in them have a click-through rate of 2.35%. It is far from the highest when compared to other strategies for email campaigns, but it's still pretty good ROI.
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SEO Campaigns - Telling people how to solve their problems through videos can attract more traffic to your SEO-optimized page. Search engines particularly love "how-to" videos because they give people the answers that they're looking for. They also do well on social media platforms, which can provide you with more organic traffic.
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Social Media Campaigns - Video encourages social shares. Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram Stories allow you to upload videos around 60 seconds long. Creating engaging content is the key to success here. You can also blend your video into the post in the form of an attractive thumbnail picture, which makes it stand out more than just uploading a link.
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PPC Campaigns - Video ads on platforms like Facebook and YouTube have higher CTRs than other online advertising types. It is because people often want to know more about the product before deciding to purchase it. Video ads give them that information without having to do too much work for it.
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Webinars - If you're hosting a webinar, integrating videos into the event is a great way to increase attendance. You can encourage people to subscribe by offering them more value in return for their presence. Even better, you can use your webinars as video content. In the process, you hit two birds in one stone with your marketing efforts.
6. Video Marketing Works Well on Mobile Devices
Video content is well-suited for mobile devices. It's no secret that people spend most of their time on their phones. An average Internet user watches almost seven hours of online videos, especially on social media apps like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat.
These platforms make it easy to watch videos on your phone without downloading additional software or apps. Streaming video content allows you to target potential buyers wherever they are.
But that's not all. Mobile video consumption has increased dramatically over the years. By 2023, experts forecast that the number of mobile viewers worldwide will reach over 2.5 billion .
Why does this matter? It turns out that more consumers are using the same devices to buy products and services. Mobile commerce could generate over $430 billion in revenues by 2022. That's almost $150 billion more than in 2018. By 2024, the number of mobile buyers will be nearly 200 million, according to Statista.
7. Video Increases Your Visibility and Brand Image
What is branding? It's the face and personality of your business. It's how people perceive you and your company based on what they see and hear about it online.
When a video is introduced into a branding strategy, it can work wonders for your image:
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Brand Awareness - You can highlight certain features or aspects of your business in videos. When customers see these features first-hand, they'll feel more familiar with your company and what it has to offer.
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Brand Loyalty - Videos can help show that your business is a brand worth supporting. They allow you to communicate your mission statement and vision of the future, which keeps customers engaged and interested. It also shows potential investors why they should believe in your company.
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Brand Authority - When you create videos, they become another source of information about your company. People can watch them on YouTube or share them on social media platforms. They get to learn more about the founder, the products, and the business, in general.
8. Video Marketing Speeds Up Lead Generation
Before you have customers, you need to have leads. These are the people who are interested in what you have to offer.
If your business doesn't generate leads efficiently, it might not survive the long haul. Video marketing can make this process better by making it easier for customers to learn more about your business:
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A Call-to-Action - At the end of every video, there should be a call-to-action (CTA). It is where you ask customers to take the next step and become leads. Facebook ads, videos on landing pages, infographics - all these can be enhanced with CTAs that are video-related.
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A More Engaging Website - Many businesses use their "About Us" page on their website to highlight who they are and what they do. It is a good idea, but you can take it one step further by creating videos that explain your company in greater detail.
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A More Personable Company - When customers get to know the founders, executives, and other employees of a business, they feel more comfortable doing business with them. A video offers a face to the company without having to worry about how it will be perceived.
9. You Can Customize Videos for Real-Time Events
Video content is great for telling real-time news and events. You can use it to announce new product developments or promotions. For instance, you could show a short video explaining how your business came up with an innovative new product and why customers should buy it instead of your competitor's products.
Another good idea would be to use a video to publicly apologize for a mistake your company made and what you did to fix it. Showing the details of a situation and how you handled it shows that your business is human, just like potential customers are. It also makes them feel that they can trust you more when purchasing from you in the future because they know that you're not perfect.
Search engines love video marketing as much as a growing number of Internet users who spend a lot of time watching something on sites like YouTube. And the points above will tell you why.
But we encourage you to take your marketing strategies further all the time. Use Greencheck.ai today to find out more ways to improve your website.