A way to positively impact client and prospect engagement
If a picture says a thousand words, it stands to reason that video says many times more. People have an appetite for video; whether it is a funny promotional video, a thought-leadership C-level video, or a demonstration of how to use a new product, the popularity of YouTube has certainly spread the video, and has truly shown the importance of video within your marketing mix
Video is fast becoming a key element in any marketing campaign. As social networks become a critical route to market for many brands, video spend is also increasing accordingly. It is such an easily digestible and accessible format that can be very versatile. Indeed, many brands are developing series of video to create successful multi-channel campaigns. This has the effect of generating awareness online and enables brands to reach new audiences. In marketing terms, it is called engagement. This relates to both B2C and B2B.
Also, Google counts video as part of its relevance metrics, as well as driving traffic to a website, video has become an important element of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
When considering a campaign, video can play a pivotal role in the decision process. If your brand is not relevant and engaging at this point, then you have missed a significant part of the opinion-forming process. However, video isn’t only applicable to the consumer space, video has an important role to play in the B2B market as well. In just the same way as you are trying to attract consumers to buy your product, with B2B you are looking to attract your audience, and video purely engages. A promotional video explaining the key features and options of a new product range is invaluable to the audience. As always, video helps to develop the relationship and provide engagement to the audience. For a CEO or other executive team members, having a video that introduces them, and speaks about a specific topic, adds to the companies thought leadership. Company training videos, corporate videos, and promotional videos should be part of the businesses marketing mix.
Here are some latest statistics when it comes to the impact of professionally produced video:
- Forbes Insight found that 59% of senior executives prefer to watch video instead of reading text, if both are available on the same page. 80% of executives are watching more online video today than they were a year ago. (Forbes Insight, December 2010)
- Professionally produced video optimized for eCommerce outperforms user-generated video (UGC video) by 30%, delivering a 24.7% lift as compared with an 18.7% lift for the UGC video. (Comscore, 2012)
- According to Internet Retailer, 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in their online purchase decisions. When a video is information-intensive, 66% of consumers will watch the video two or more times. (Internet Retailer, 2012)
- According to Website Magazine, video is a driver of consumer confidence. Consumers are willing to watch videos 60% of the time they are found, and 52% of consumers report that they are less likely to return a product after viewing a video. (Website Magazine, 2012)
- Visitors who view product videos are 85% more likely to buy than visitors who do not. (Internet Retailer, April 2010)
- Video results appear in about 70% of the top 100 listings, the type of content most often displayed in universal or blended search results. (Marketingweek, 2011)
- With proper optimization, video increases the chance of a front-page Google result by 53x. (Forrester, January 2010)
- Rich media ads containing video increase purchase intent by 1.16% and drive success more than four times that of Flash animation. In addition to the increase in purchase intent, video ads appear to increase consumer brand loyalty. Viewers favored a brand 2.30% more when exposed to rich media with a video ad opposed the tiny 0.15% increase simple Flash animation experienced. (DoubleClick, The Brand Value of Rich Media Ads, June 2009)
- Video traffic on mobile networks rose 10 percentage points over a one-year period and is now 50% of on traffic on wireless networks. (ByteMobile, 2012)
- In February 2012, smartphones were nearly half (49.7%) of the US mobile market. That’s a 38% increase from February 2011. Smartphone users are increasingly consuming product video as part of their multichannel shopping experience, with 49% of smartphone owners watching at least one product video during a three-month period. (E-Commerce Times, 2012)
- By 2014, there will be more mobile Internet users than desktop/laptop users. And 50% of local searches are already done on mobile devices. (Microsoft Tag Mobile Marketing Report, 2011)
- 28% of smartphone owners will watch videos on their phones in an average month (Experian 2012 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report)
- When marketers used the word “video” in an email subject line, open rates rose 7% to 13% (Experian 2012 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report)
- Video in email marketing has been shown to increase click-through rates by over 96%. In response, the number of marketers planning to use video in email campaigns has increased 5x since the beginning of 2009. (Implix 2010 Email Marketing Trends Survey)
- A recent study by Forrester showed that video increased email click-through rates 2x-3x.(Forrester, 2010)
- In a keynote address at CES, YouTube’s Vice President of Global Content Robert Kyncl said that video would soon be 90% of Internet traffic.(Forbes, 2012)
- According to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute, 50% of manufacturers surveyed had established a YouTube presence for brand-building and connecting directly with consumers. (Industrial Marketing Today, 2011)
- Video and other multi-media product viewing options were rated more effective than any other site initiatives in an Adobe survey of almost 2,000 interactive marketers. (Adobe, May 2011)
Let me know your results when incorporating video into your marketing mix. How did it drive metrics? Will you be including video production in your 2013 budgets?
