Why Is Video Winning Over Written Content in Digital Marketing

Video marketing is an absolute necessity when it comes to getting out there and building a company's brand. If you're wondering how effective online video marketing is, take a look at some recent statistics. Streaming video accounts for approximately 70% of all Internet traffic, a figure which includes Netflix (37%) and Youtube (17%) as the two largest providers of consumer media bandwidth. Video can be an effective means of attracting leads and new prospects for your business. Here is what you can do to stand out:

Update: Check out some new video statistics for 2018.

1. Use a call to action. You don't want your video to end and have your viewer thinking "what's next?" You want to give people clear instruction on what to do after watching the video. This could be a link sending them to your website or a capture page. If your video is on Youtube, then it could be a simple reminder to subscribe to your channel. You want to prompt them to take the next step and simply get comfortable with you and your company. This next step could be taking them straight to an email newsletter signup page or whatever the next step is in your funnel.

2. Your videos have to be valuable to more than just yourself. You might enjoy talking about a topic for your videos, but they aren't going to be valuable unless they help your potential customers. What often happens is that someone gets caught up explaining something they know a lot about, but they're not addressing a core problem of their intended audience. Your customers will appreciate you giving them valuable information that isn't too generic or technical.

One way in which companies are using videos to showcase the technical aspects of their business (without boring their visitors) is to shoot video of your business's operations. For example, videos can show what your manufacturing process is like. Showing customers the care that you use when making your products will help build trust that you're able to design and deliver a quality product. Many of your potential customers will not be able to take a tour of your manufacturing facilities in person. By giving a video overview of your manufacturing process, you'll potentially be able to win new accounts from geographically diverse locations.

3. Videos work wonderfully for customer testimonials. People are demanding more than just a static block of text when deciding on how capable a company is. An excellent sounding text testimonial is a start, but it's not necessarily believable. How will the reader know that the testimony that they're reading is not fake? As a result, customer testimonial videos are working better than text for companies right now. These are the most popular videos that companies are requesting because their potential customers are more likely to be persuaded with video. Written testimonials on websites that have your logo on don't help as much with credibility.

While anyone can write a piece of text, a person speaking from experience on camera doesn't have that credibility gap. Unlike a static written testimonial, a video shows your customers in real life. The video also efficiently transmits body language and voice inflection, which can include the satisfaction that the client feels while doing business with you.

4. Place your videos someplace where they get traffic. You want to upload your videos where they will get the most eyeballs. For most companies, the best place to post a video will be on Youtube. Once you learn to optimize your channel, Youtube will give you large amounts of free traffic. They can come your way via other related videos on Youtube as well as other videos on your website. And once you post your video to Youtube, you can take the embed code and paste it anywhere on your site as well.

A less efficient strategy is posting your video to social sharing sites that aren't optimized for video. Social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine all allow posting long and short videos. But those videos disappear once it moves through their feeds. It's unlikely that someone will find your video a month or a year from now on those networks. You can certainly post a video on Facebook and other social networks, so try also to put the same video somewhere more permanent where it can be found. This might involve adding it to a blog post or publishing the same video to your Youtube channel. Since you've already done the work, make sure to put that video on a channel where it can serve you for the long term.

5. Using online video increases your advertising possibilities. YouTube is now monetizing billions of video views globally every day. Businesses can run campaigns on both Youtube and the Google Display Network to maximize their reach. The video views on Youtube can extend via paid placements into other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. This could quickly add up to likes, shares, and comments every week. Companies are also seeing online video advertising as more efficient than the ads shown on TV. That's because most TV watchers are also Internet users who watch video online. Buying online video advertising allows companies to tailor their message to individual niches, thanks to the targeting options that Google allows in its advertising platform. The engaging nature of online video also makes it more effective than text-based display ads on social media.

You may still have questions concerning how to use videos best as part of your digital marketing strategy.

• How do you get your online videos ranked highly by the two most popular search engines, Google and Bing?
• How do you get the highest possible audience figures for your business?
• How do you engage your viewers and make them share your videos and make them viral?

The agency that you partner with should offer tried and tested video SEO techniques that will help your video gain the biggest possible audience. If your business needs help with creating a winning video content strategy, please contact us today.