How video marketing can supercharge your content strategy

The unstoppable rise of video

When YouTube launched 16 years ago, it mainly offered home movies with a resolution of 320×240 pixels. Today, YouTube is the second most popular website and search engine in the world (behind Google), with 500 hours of fresh content uploaded every minute – much of it in glorious resolution.1

Recent data shows that YouTube videos reach 27.2 million British people per month via smartphones (73% of the adult population), and other apps with video-sharing capabilities aren’t far behind. 

The evolution of devices with screens and fast wireless internet has made video junkies of us all. 

The unstoppable rise of video is leading many brands to reconsider how it fits into their marketing strategies. Whereas once it was a nice-to-have, video marketing is now a strategic necessity for businesses that want to increase brand awareness, educate their audiences, and convert more leads.

  • 61% of businesses used video marketing in 2015, rising to 86% in 20213.
  • 33% of businesses in 2015 said that video marketing gave a positive ROI, increasing to 87% in 20213.
  • This has led to an average increase in digital video marketing budgets of 25% year-over-year4.
  • Of the businesses who don’t yet use video in their marketing, 69% said they plan to start in 20213.

So, aside from overwhelming consumer demand (roughly half of UK adults watch online videos at least once a day 5), why is it worth adding video to your digital strategy?

Five reasons to add more video to your marketing mix

1. Video lets you tell compelling stories

There’s no better content format for telling interesting, engaging stories than video. Unlike text-based content, which is easily skimmed or skipped, video lets you control every aspect of the story’s pacing and framing. 

The combination of music, visuals and dynamic animations is ideal for brands that want to emotionally connect with their target audiences. The data backs this up, too. 

In a poll of 3,000 consumers about what type of content they want to see from brands or businesses they support, video was the clear winner6. 

Video was also the most memorable content and significantly more engaging than other formats like display ads, email marketing, and case studies.

Not only that – video is also consumers’ preferred format for brand and marketing communications. In other words, your customers would rather see your story than read about it

Launching ZOO’s new brand with a bang

This top-level brand video for our client ZOO launched their new brand to the Globalising Media Content world. 

As well as showcasing their new brand identity, the video highlights ZOO’s deep understanding of their customers’ challenges in a ‘brave ZOO world’ that’s brimming with more content and complexity than ever before.

A customer-led case study for HSBC

As well as showcasing your brand’s mission, expertise and ethics, video is the perfect content format for telling your customers’ success stories.

This case study video for our client HSBC, shot in a behind-the-scenes style, sums up one customer’s evolution from a cupboard-sized office in the West End to a global company working with some of the biggest brands in the world.

In just three minutes, viewers meet the company’s CEO, peek inside its offices, hear about the challenges it faced, and learn how HSBC empowered their client to achieve success. 

Case studies are a potent marketing tool, and video is undoubtedly the best medium for sharing them, thanks to its unrivalled authenticity.

2. Educate your audience in the most enjoyable way

Well-crafted videos turn complex topics and concepts into simple, accessible experiences. This makes them particularly useful for teaching your target audience about your product or service or a cause you care about.

This video for our client Arco focused on the story of one child who works 19 hours a day in a crowded factory. As well as exploring the wider problem of modern-day slavery, it communicated Arco’s commitment to maintaining and encouraging ethical supply chains. 

Another way to educate your audience through video is to teach them how to do something. Recent research by Google shows that, after entertainment, the most popular types of videos are how-to’s, tips and tutorials7. 

Top-of-the-funnel how-to videos are a great way to build your brand authority by passing on knowledge and techniques to your target audience. For evidence of the demand for this type of content, just look at search trends relating to your product or service. 

You’ll see hundreds or even thousands of question-based search terms, and many are perfect topics for concise instructional or explainer videos.

3. Benefit from fresh brand awareness

Many businesses produce one or two key videos, pop them on their sites, then return their focus to other marketing strategies such as PPC, blogging, and traditional advertising. But there’s enormous potential benefit in using video as an ongoing tool in your marketing strategy.

For instance, adding video to your social media posts can boost their visibility and with it, your brand awareness. 

Research by Twitter shows that tweets with videos are six times more likely to be retweeted than tweets with photos and three times more likely than tweets with GIFs.8 

The way the video platform ecosystem has evolved in recent years also means that you get more bang for your buck today when investing in digital video.

You can edit one video in different ways for a variety of audiences and platforms. And publishing video across multiple platforms is a good idea because your audience almost certainly spends time on more than one video-enabled site each day.

4. Video is also excellent for B2B marketing

Video can be an ideal content format for attracting the attention of busy B2B customers who are drowning in emails and unlikely to read a 4,000-word blog post. 

This is especially true when the concept behind your product or service takes a bit of explaining. A video can package the key things they need to know to assess whether your offering is a good fit for them.

For instance, if we said that paper face masks are a great alternative to plastic ones, you’d probably have many questions. How does a paper mask work? What does it look like? How effective is it compared to plastic? Instead of answering these questions in a boring FAQ, why not show you exactly how and why paper masks make sense?

This is exactly what we did for our client Moo, who used their paper expertise to create a more sustainable custom mask option for businesses. In just 90 seconds, the video shows off their planet-friendly, fully customisable mask, including a highly visual lab test to prove its effectiveness.

5. Improve the buyer’s journey

We’re big believers in the marketing funnel. After all, if you don’t understand every step of your brand’s buyer’s journey, how can you effectively lead customers through it?

Effective marketing funnels have the right content at every stage, and video can play a vital role throughout.

Video types for every stage of the buyer’s journey:

Video can increase engagement at every stage of the buyer’s journey. Take email marketing, for example. Once an email contains more than 100 words, the response rate starts to fall9. 

However, just the act of linking to a video in an email and mentioning it in the subject line can increase open rates by 19%, clickthroughs by 65% and reduce unsubscribes by 26%10. Why? Because videos are a breeze to consume compared to paragraphs of boring text. 

Videos in the Consideration phase of the buyer’s journey are especially effective. 76% of consumers say they’ve decided to purchase a product or service after viewing a video11. 

However, it’s important to get the video right – the same proportion of people said that a video had put them off buying a product because of a dodgy voiceover12!

Whether it’s a fun 60-second TikTok clip or a heartfelt full-length documentary, video is the perfect tool to add to your marketing strategy if you want to educate, entertain and engage your target audience. 

 

Interested in how video could take your brand strategy to the next level? Contact us to find out more about our video marketing services.