Despite videos’ proven success in reaching and persuading consumers, many companies still shy away from using videos in their marketing, sales, and social media content. Anyone who’s taken a stab at adding videos to their content mix knows there’s a learning curve.
Even though it’s not easy to get started, 92% of video marketers reported that video gives them a positive ROI – so it’s definitely worth all the effort!
Technical video production skills aren’t the only consideration. What do you make your videos about in the first place? Which videos work best on social media? On product pages? In emails? Where doesn’t video work?
There’s a lot to think about.
But video is such a valuable sales and marketing tool—especially for building inbound sales—that you really can’t afford to shy away from it. It’s a learning curve worth tackling.
Join us as we unpack the significance of video marketing and why it’s an indispensable part of any digital marketing strategy.
The Impact of Video Marketing
Before we delve into the specific realms of marketing, sales, and social media, it’s crucial to understand why video has become an indispensable tool to connect with the modern consumer.
Video isn’t just another media format; it marks a fundamental shift in how we consume information and entertainment.
Here are a few reasons why video should be central to your marketing efforts:
🔥 Dominance in internet traffic
It is predicted that by the end of 2023, video will account for 82% of all internet traffic. This statistic alone underscores the overwhelming preference for video content in today’s digital landscape.
🔥 Shift in viewing habits
Recent trends show a decisive shift in consumer preferences, with 6 out of 101 people favoring online video platforms over traditional television. This change is more than just a trend; it’s a transformation in how we access and engage with visual content.
🔥 Retention and impact
The power of video in communication is unparalleled. Studies reveal that individuals retain approximately 95% of a message when received through video, compared to just 10% when reading it in text.
This enhanced retention rate makes video an incredibly effective tool to convey complex ideas and messages. Also, 68% of people say they’d like to learn about a new product or service by watching a short video.
The Importance of Video in Marketing
Incorporating video into your sales, digital marketing, and social media strategies isn’t just an upgrade; it’s a game-changer.
Video content can elevate your brand, deepen customer engagement, and drive conversions. Its integration into your strategy is beneficial and essential in a world where video content is king. Don’t take our word for it; look at the statistics:
A study by Wyzowl showed that 91% of businesses relied on video as a marketing tool in 2023. If that’s not convincing enough, 96% of marketers continue to value video content marketing as an important part of their marketing strategy.
Many marketers have already discovered the benefits of video. But to really assess its importance, we’ll have to dig in a little deeper.
Why, exactly, does video marketing work so well? Below we’ll explore the top reasons why video needs to be a key part of your marketing campaigns.
The Top Reasons Why You Should Embrace a Video
To understand the significant role of video in your marketing arsenal, let’s delve into the key reasons to embrace a video marketing strategy.
This section will highlight the compelling benefits and transformative impact of video content on your marketing efforts.
From enhancing customer engagement to boosting conversion rates, we’ll cover why integrating video into your strategy isn’t just a trend, but a crucial element for staying competitive
➡️ Video helps people find products and services
Today, being easily found online is a major challenge, and much effort goes into SEO to achieve this. However, video content emerges as a powerful tool in this arena. Its effectiveness is so noteworthy that platforms like YouTube are often considered search engines themselves.
With search engines favoring video in their rankings, incorporating video content into your marketing strategy can significantly boost your online visibility. This approach not only enhances your chances of being found by potential customers, but also reduces the time and effort needed to generate the necessary traffic for successful marketing outcomes.
➡️ Video content is versatile
Video content marketing can be incredibly efficient. A single video can be cut, edited, and repurposed for multiple marketing channels.
There’s almost no other type of content that fits so easily into all your marketing channels and improves the performance of those channels—just mentioning a video in the email subject line can improve open rates. And video performs exceptionally well on mobile devices.
Video increases your marketing efficiency—both cost efficiency and production efficiency.
➡️ Video gets results
It’s difficult to get hard data about the companies that use video in their marketing and what sort of return they get from video. But most marketers who use video marketing say that it gives a positive return on investment overall.
This means that all the previous stats about video actually do contribute to the ultimate goal of marketing: generating revenue. And if video works for other marketers, you can make it work for you.
Video works at every stage of the sales funnel
Video is a versatile tool that significantly impacts every sales funnel stage. At the awareness stage, it captures attention and introduces potential customers to a brand or product.
During the consideration stage, video can educate and engage, showcasing features and benefits in a relatable way. At the decision-making stage, video testimonials and demos can build trust and persuade.
Finally, in the post-purchase phase, instructional videos enhance customer satisfaction and encourage repeat business. By appealing to viewers’ emotions and visual senses, video efficiently guides customers through each funnel step, making it a powerful asset in any sales strategy.
➡️ Video creates trust
Building trust is a key challenge in online sales, as people naturally prefer person-to-person interactions. Although platforms like Amazon have made online shopping for everyday items more common, establishing trust remains crucial, especially for pricier or specialized products. Incorporating video into your sales process can bridge this gap.
Videos give a human face to your brand, making the buying experience feel more personal and conversational. This approach taps into the popularity and effectiveness of direct-to-camera videos and product reviews seen on platforms like YouTube.
Video can foster trust throughout the purchasing journey by showing a real person discussing your product, which reminds customers that there’s a genuine human connection behind the screen.
➡️ Video gets attention on social media
Video is a powerful tool on social media, instantly grabbing attention thanks to autoplay features. As videos start playing automatically, they create on-screen movement that catches the eye, making users more likely to pause their scrolling. This brief engagement window is a golden opportunity to convey your message.
In the world of social media marketing where the primary challenge is to halt the endless scroll, video gives you a significant advantage. It not only draws more views than static posts, but also provides that crucial first step in engaging your audience, setting the stage for your pitch.
➡️ Video Content Ideas
Now that you’ve seen how powerful video marketing can be, let’s look at some great ideas for your videos. In this section, we’ll discuss some video content ideas so you can start making videos that your viewers will love and remember.
Marketing video ideas
Marketing videos might not have the most direct effect on your overall revenue. But producing a few videos first is a good approach because a good stock of marketing videos makes it much easier to create sales and social media videos.
✔️ Create video slideshows
Video slideshows are one of the best places to start with video. They’re easy to make, and video slideshows are versatile enough to use them just about anywhere.
If you’re in a marketing agency, you can easily take a traditional pitch deck and make a video slideshow to share with your target audience.
A few product images, video clips, and some on-screen text make a compelling product video. And most explainer videos are pretty much just video slideshows.
No matter what you’re using video for, there’ll be a way to fit a video slideshow somewhere in there.
✔️ Repurpose blog posts and infographics into videos
This is another great place to start working with video. You’ve already produced the content, so the scriptwriting is minimal. And you have a ready-made place to post your videos: embed them in your blog posts.
Blog posts with video get more inbound links—and therefore more traffic—than blog posts without them. Adding videos to your existing posts is a slam dunk for updating blogs and getting more traffic without having to produce much new content.
Sales video ideas
Adding video to your sales funnels will most likely immediately impact your revenue because you can use video to increase the number of sales you make directly. And creating videos for your sales assets entails low effort and low cost. So the ROI can be impressive.
✔️ Create videos for your product and landing pages
Product and landing pages are the last mile in the sales or lead generation process. So product and landing page videos have the most potential to make an immediate, noticeable impact because they target the prospects who are closest to making final purchasing decisions.
And, similar to repurposing a blog post, all the content for a landing page or product page video already exist.. It’s just a matter of putting the information into a video. This doesn’t need to be long or complex. It can be short, simple, and easy to make.
Even a video of a person talking with a little on-screen text is enough to improve your conversion rates. It’s a low-effort, low-cost way to get more leads and more revenue.
✔️ Send videos in your emails
Embedding videos in your emails is simpler than you might think. And it’s an easy tactic because you might not need to create new videos.
If you’ve already started adding videos to your blog posts, sales pages, and landing pages, it makes sense to embed any of those videos when you send an email to a prospect for context ahead of a sales call.
In this case, the content production is most likely already done, which means that the strategy for using video in email practically takes care of itself.
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Social media video ideas
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make when using video on social media is going straight to paid video ads.
There’s nothing wrong with this, but they’re the most expensive way to use video on social media. There are much more cost-efficient ways to leverage the power of video in social media marketing.
✔️ Host live video broadcasts
Most social media platforms have implemented some sort of live broadcasting feature. And social media networks give strong preference to these types of videos, because real-time broadcasts are engaging videos that keep people in the social networking apps.
Also, social media companies want people to use their products. That’s why live video broadcasts are one of the few social media content types that still get decent organic reach.
The best part about live broadcasts is that they’re incredibly low-cost. Audiences don’t expect outrageous production values from a live broadcast.
All you really need is a topic relevant to your potential customers and someone who knows enough to talk about that topic for 15 minutes or longer.
You don’t even need that much camera equipment. Many live broadcasts are shot on a phone. You’re good to go as long as the quality and lighting are good enough for the audience to see the presenter’s face.
✔️ Leverage stories
Stories are another live video format that social media companies love. Again, the story format is a product created by the social media platform. They want people to use stories, so they grant more organic reach to them. 26% of marketers state that Stories are the most valuable type of social content.
Just like live broadcasts, stories are incredibly easy to make. But they’re less time-intensive than live broadcasts. Stories run for a matter of seconds (usually 15 to 30 seconds).
The fun thing about stories is that they can be far less serious than other social media videos. Stories are supposed to be fun and a bit whimsical—which make them great for social sharing.
Businesses have had great success with simple stories showing quick clips of how their products are made, delivering office jokes, and using them to give quick event announcements (but in a fun way). All you need is a phone and a few seconds of entertainment or education.
✔️ Add video posts to the mix
Consider adding video posts to your social media strategy for a cost-effective boost. While text and image posts are still valuable, videos can attract more attention and lead more people to your profile. This visibility can increase engagement with your other content.
Even simple videos summarizing text posts can be effective. This approach leverages video’s power to capture attention without the expense of paid ads. While not as impactful as video ads, regular video posts can significantly enhance engagement at a much lower cost.
Final Thoughts: Video Is the Future of Marketing
Ultimately, video is already a staple in the marketing landscape. And it’s going to become even more prominent. Businesses that don’t use video will increasingly be at a disadvantage when compared to businesses that leverage video.
Implementing video into your sales, marketing, and social media will improve your chance of success now and future-proof your growth strategies to stay ahead of the curve.