Should Video Be A Part Of Your Marketing Strategy?
“Show the readers everything, tell them nothing.”
—Ernest Hemingway
Facts tell, but stories sell, as they say. And there is no better medium than video for storytelling.
Grabbing the attention of potential customers is more important than ever in a world where buyers do most of their own research online before ever contacting a vendor. In order to cut through the noise we must engage our prospects with content that entertains, inspires, and educates them about what we do and who we are, including the culture of our companies.
Up until recently, most marketers have used video sparingly as a way to enhance their website, but very few have invested in it strategically as a way to improve the results of marketing and sales programs. Strategic video marketing should be a part of your overall marketing strategy. Here’s why.
1. Audiences Prefer Video Over Text
How do we know that audiences prefer video content over other formats? We have the data to prove it. Survey after survey supports it.
Some 65% of viewers watch more than three-quarters of a given video, according to Invodo. Any content marketer would be thrilled with that kind of readership for a piece of text. Moreover, more than 70% of marketing professionals report that
Video content is becoming a surefire way to increase click-through rates and digital conversions, and your business should be taking advantage of it.
2. You Can Utilize Video Analytics To Improve Results
As video becomes a more prominent part of the marketing mix, video analytics will become extremely important—and extremely valuable. Modern video marketing platforms now offer the ability to track much more than just view counts. Marketers can gain insight into actual audience engagement and average drop-off rates for their videos, as well as how each video is contributing to lead generation and revenue.
By utilizing video analytics, you can gain an understanding of who is watching each video asset and how video is actually contributing to marketing and sales goals.
3. Video Can Be A Strategic Tool For Lead Generation And Qualification
Videos can also easily become active lead-generation tools. Adding an email gate to the start of your video or a lead collection form to the end allows you to create new, well-qualified leads who are interested in your content. That information can now be tied directly to contact records in marketing automation and CRM systems, providing a qualified lead that can be tied back to actual engagement in your online content. Marketers are already starting to take advantage of this capability, and we’ll see an uptick in usage in 2015.
But what’s even more compelling is the use of video-viewing data to better score, segment, and qualify your leads. By tracking video viewing activities of your prospects, you can gain better insight into who your hottest leads are and you can increase your conversion velocity. And as video becomes an increasingly important part of your website and content marketing programs, tracking video interactions will be critical.
What’s even more powerful is that you can now track how long an individual actually remains engaged in a video, enabling you to treat a lead who watches only 10 seconds differently from one who watches the video all the way to the end.
Only video offers a reliable means of tracking actual engagement with content and 2015 is the year that your business can start to use these insights to your advantage.
Is your business interested in Video Marketing? Whether you’re just needing some advice or a complete custom video marketing campaign, let our expert team create your video masterpiece. Visit our Capabilities page to learn more.