A few weeks ago I shared my ideas as to the current state of video marketing with a small glimpse into the future, but in today’s post I want to bust out the crystal ball and tell you what I see coming in the next year onwards.
In order to invest in video marketing, you have to know it’s serious business and that it’ll be around in the years to come. I can assure you, not only will video be around, but it’s going to be one of the top ways major companies reach their target audience and drive revenue.
Without further ado, here are my top 10 predictions for the future of video marketing:
1. The future of the Internet is television
There has been a shift in living room media. Starting with print, the evolution has included radio, then television, and now we have the Internet, which is actually becoming increasingly like television as brands produce episodic content on a regular programming schedule.
While TV took a while to become mainstream, most millennials don’t subscribe to cable or satellite, so the Internet has become the way to reach a new generation. That said, brands are definitely looking to have a video presence online to take advantage of the shift. You can look forward to top brands partnering with entertainers in the near future as episodic video content makes a major impact.
2. Every company will become a media company
Five years ago you knew the Home Depot as a big box hardware store and Red Bull as an energy drink, but now brands have become publishers and they’re creating channels filled with their own video media. Whether it’s power tools or caffeinated beverages, companies are finding the why that fuels the brand and marketing that with dedicated video experiences on their websites.
In the upcoming year, everyone will be following the lead of these video giants and websites will feature more targeted video than ever.
3. Every employee will become a content producer
With the introduction of Vine and Instagram, your employees have video tools at their fingertips and can create brand content instantly. This can be both good and bad depending on your overall video strategy, branding, and your industry. You’re going to want to round up your content marketers to determine what kind of stuff you want representing your brand in order to control and make the most out of these video tools and their widespread availability.
4. Every company will employ a Director or VP of video strategy
With the demand for video content, you also need people to manage the medium. Major brands are already hiring VPs of video strategy and you can expect to see a lot more of these opportunities pop up. Marketing departments need someone to take accountability for video content and they need an overall plan that this type of dedicated leadership can implement throughout the entire organization.
5. Sales teams will crave video resources
The majority of your content may be text at the moment, however, with the current shift toward easily consumable media, your sales teams will be begging your marketing team to create more video assets to share. Visual media tends to perform better on social channels and, when selling, a video is the next best thing to being somewhere in person to guide a lead through the sales funnel. If your sales team isn’t already asking for video, it’s only a matter of time before they realize the benefits, the tools available, and ask for an in-house production manager.
6. The press release will become a video!
When you think about it, there are three things a press release needs to do:
1. Inform the media of an event
2. Educate the press about your business, and
3. gain publicity based on interest
Most B2B company news can come across as a bit boring on paper, but it’s amazing what a well scripted, visually interesting video can do to communicate your message, make people understand your actions, and get excited about what they’ve seen explained.
In the future, there will be tools to include video within a press release because it’ll be a very popular thing to do.
7. Your nurturing campaigns will center around video assets
Whether it’s a recorded webinar you send out to attendees or non-attendees in annotated chapters, or a video announcing to relevant contacts that you’ll be attending an industry conference, your email nurturing campaigns will contain customized videos you create to personalize your message. Similar to a trailer for a movie, you’ll release a teaser video to current customers in email to announce new products and your attendance at events.
8. Marketers will be able to reach audiences in living rooms
Set-top boxes are bringing the Internet into the living room. Gen Y’ers aren’t buying cable or satellite subscriptions, they rely on YouTube and the Internet. A well placed video campaign will find your customers as YouTube takes them down the rabbit hole from the comfort of their couch. In addition to making your website and videos mobile friendly, you’ll have to start considering how your videos will be accessed on television and how you can optimize that experience. Internet technology has changed how we view and optimize video on the web, so it’s only a matter of time before we optimize the television experience and collect data there too.
9. Contextually relevant video will find your prospects
Ever read a Forrester report and find that the suggested content seems really really relevant, and then you click it? We’re working with a major company to make it possible for you to include video in that recommended listing – optimized thumbnail and all! Soon you’ll be creating highly targeted video for sources your target market trusts and you’ll offer contextually relevant content at the perfect moment.
10) Video data will be integrated across the organization
With a lot of talk surrounding big data, companies are looking to refine what they learn with metrics and sort through the clutter. Video marketing platforms can help with detailed, accurate information about your video assets and soon every marketer will consolidate their video analytics with marketing automation and CRM data. The combined data on audience engagement will dictate initiatives from service and support, to engineering and R&D.
What are Your Predictions?
Where do you think video marketing is going? What are you learning as you develop video assets of your own and how do you plan to distribute your video 3 years from now? Make your own predictions with a comment and I’ll take a look.
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