Video is a powerful tool for connecting with lifelong customers and driving business growth. But don’t take our word for it – the facts and figures speak for themselves:
- 91% of businesses now use video as a marketing tool
- 87% of marketing professionals say videos positively impact sales
- 92% of businesses are satisfied with the return-on-investment of video content on social media
If you love your business, make room in your heart for videos. And if you’re still asking why, here are the reasons you need video marketing.
1. The Future Is Video
Video is taking over. Consumers prefer watching videos over reading text, with video accounting for 82.5% of global internet traffic. Approximately 91% of people also want more video content from brands, and 89% of audiences say watching a video helped convince them to buy a product or avail of a service. In other words, if your business has yet to jump on the video bandwagon, you’re basically letting your competitors win without a fight.
2. Video Marketing Increases Engagement
Ten years ago, people barely spent 15 minutes a day watching videos. Today, the average person spends a minimum of 84 minutes on video content daily. This mind-blowing number shows no signs of slowing down and may even seem low, considering most of us know at least one person – particularly from the younger generations – who spends several hours watching online videos.
Why do people prefer video content nowadays? Here’s why:
- Viewers remember as much as 95% of a message when they consume it via video compared to 10% when reading blocks of text.
- Video activates two senses – sight and sound, making it more memorable and engaging.
- Live videos create a sense of excitement that keeps people hooked. Live commerce, in particular, boasts 10x higher conversion rates than traditional e-commerce.
With short attention spans, videos keep your audience fascinated and engaged. Some ideas to boost engagement:
- Tell a story. Share experiences, insights, and examples that resonate with your viewers.
- Educate and inform. Teach something useful and provide value. Tutorials, how-tos, and explainers tend to perform well.
- Entertain. Make your videos fun and interesting. Humor and behind-the-scenes footage are always a hit, especially if it aligns with your brand.
- Interact with your viewers. Answer questions, respond to comments, and spark genuine conversations. Live video is perfect for real-time interactions.
3. Video Boosts Your Website’s SEO
Having videos on your website, especially on product pages or blog posts, can significantly help with search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines like Google and Bing love video content because, as mentioned earlier, it keeps people engaged. When people are engaged, they spend more time on a website; when people stay longer on a website, it demonstrates to search engines that the content is high quality and valuable. The result: better search rankings.
Here’s what you need to do to impress search engine giants:
- Optimize your video by including relevant keywords in the title, description, and video transcript. Doing so helps search engines understand your content and rank it higher.
- Embed your videos and ensure that you include video transcripts, descriptions, tags, and captions. This information provides more content and keywords for search engines to find.
- Promote your videos on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others. More views and engagement will signal to search engines that your video is popular and worth ranking higher.
- Update your videos regularly to give search engines a reason to crawl your site again. Fresh, optimized content is fundamental to good SEO and high search rankings.
4. Video Delivers Measurable ROI
As discussed, 92% of marketers report receiving a good ROI from video marketing efforts. This number is up from 87% in 2023, indicating continued growth in video’s ability to drive business objectives. About five years ago, only 75% of marketers felt they achieved a good ROI from video, demonstrating how adoption of the medium has increased drastically over a short period.
In addition, including a video on landing or product pages can boost conversion rates by 80% or more. Companies using video also grow their earnings 49% faster year-over-year, plus they have 34% higher web conversions and 27% higher click-through rates.
As consumers increasingly turn to video content on various platforms, it’s safe to say that video will continue to help businesses flourish in the coming years.
5. Video Connects You With Your Audience Whenever, Wherever
Smartphones have transformed how we consume media and connect with others. Did you know people today spend more time on their mobile devices than any other media type? This shift gives savvy entrepreneurs a massive opportunity: By optimizing your video for mobile, you can meet customers where they spend most of their time – on their phones.
Here are some ways to ensure your videos perform well on smartphones and tablets:
- Cater to all attention spans: Mobile viewers have shorter attention spans than desktop users. Only 8% of mobile viewers will share a video over five minutes compared to 19% of desktop users, and about 66% will share videos under one minute. Also, nearly half will decide whether or not to keep watching within 15 seconds. So keep videos short and hook viewers as soon as possible.
- Keep silent: Your audience might be on a bus, at the bank, at the office, or in other public spaces. To prevent embarrassment, avoid autoplay sound. Use captions, visuals, or infographics instead.
- Optimize aspect ratios: Horizontal and vertical formats are common, but platforms vary in their preferences. Facebook recommends 4:5 for feeds and 9:16 vertical for stories. However, a 2:3 vertical works well on Facebook but less so on Instagram. Calculating ideal dimensions beforehand prevents wasted effort and expense later. Use aspect ratio tools to plan mobile videos strategically.
- Have compelling thumbnails: Think of thumbnails as marketing in seconds. They can determine whether someone should stop and watch or keep scrolling.
The Bottom Line on the Benefits of Video Marketing
If you love your business and want it to grow, invest in video marketing. Start small and grow as you gain experience. The impact SEO video marketing can have on connecting with customers and expanding your business will be worth the investment. Roll those cameras and start creating! Even short clips uploaded weekly or monthly can make a huge impact. If you need help with video optimization and distribution, contact PrimeView today.