The Rise of Video Marketing: How to Boost Your Marketing Campaigns

In recent years, there have been several indicators that suggest one thing; video content is on the rise. From the sudden success that TikTok has gained, to the inclusion of longer video content on platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn, it has become very apparent that video content does hold a special place in the hearts of the average consumer. Not only is it obvious that there is a higher amount of video content out there, but there is also evidence to suggest that consumers prefer having even more video content than is currently available. 

According to Statista, nearly 83% of Internet users in the US will have watched or accessed video content in some shape or form by 2020. 

At the same time, Hubspot predicted in 2018 that nearly 54% of viewers and consumers wished to get more video content from their favourite brands. 

And thanks to the rise of online streaming platforms such as Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+, there is an even larger hype associated with creating quality video content for the promotion of brands and ideas. This effect was also exacerbated by the outbreak of Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdowns that followed. Leaving millions of people stuck in their homes, with nothing to do, Covid-19 became an effective catalyst in the rise of video marketing and video content creation. 

One of the largest and most recently born platforms; Tik Tok has taken the internet and the world by storm with its approach to putting user-generated content out there. Which has helped social media influencers gain a foothold into the video marketing space, as it allows for even the smallest brands to get their brand mentioned in video content that targets a specific demographic.

YouTube; the world’s largest video search platform

Nearly a decade ago, YouTube was simply a way to find previously created video content or to find a few how-to videos. But today, YouTube is both a social media network and the equivalent of television for a majority of its users. Thanks to several updates, features have been included that allows users to browse video content similarly to Instagram stories. Of course, the YouTube platform has transitioned from a way to get information out there, to a great marketing tool that uses the same Ad Sense technology as Google Search. 

Both major and upcoming brands are trying to enhance their YouTube marketing strategies because of the sudden increase in video content consumption, and this is a great opportunity for both video creators as well as brands that want to reach consumers more engagingly. Visuals are capable of capturing a viewer’s attention much more effectively than a simple piece of text content, which is what makes it easier for brands to hook a potential customer on entertainment before pitching their product to solve a relevant problem in the consumer’s life. 

Why Businesses should use Video Marketing

There are several different reasons why a business can benefit greatly by riding the wave of high video content consumption to promote their brand and product directly to consumers. But the fact that video content is more effective at promoting your products without making your viewers crave entertainment is a long-standing one. Before the rise of the internet, many people were buying products through telesales and physical stores because they had seen those products on their television, in a great ad that made them remember the product once they were in a supermarket. 

Point being, that the use of visual aids and cues is a stronger promotion method than simply telling someone about a product verbally or through print ads. While reading a text can help retain information longer for some, video content is much more memorable because it becomes a memory that the brain can access with ease. 

A study conducted by Microsoft stated that online consumers begin losing concentration on a specific piece of content in about the first 8 seconds of viewing it. With such a small window to make a potential customer notice and like your product, it’s important to use time as a Key Performance Indicator for your marketing strategy. The time efficiency of video content can be reiterated with the following fact in mind; the average human reads about 250 Words per minute and retains almost 10% of the information. Whereas, the average human can listen to almost 135 words per minute and can retain up to 90% of the information. Therefore, video content can help customers consume and retain more information in less time. 

Using video content allows for more flexibility in terms of what you can use to make your content more visually appealing and captivating. Many brands like Red Bull, Nike, Apple, Samsung, etc. use a wide array of video editing methods to enhance the visual profile of their ads to make them more exciting. Some use the power of animations to make their transitions more appealing, while some brands dare to make never-before-seen video content through their out-of-the-box videography. If all these brands had to be limited to using simple text or images to promote their brand, many marketing experts would confidently say that their market penetration would be much lower than it is in today’s digital age. 

Aside from the theoretical advantage that using video marketing over text gives to small and large brands, there is one benefit that can help increase the likelihood of your brand reaching more customers. That benefit is the additional SEO “link juice” you can get by using video content on your online landing pages and other online marketing channels. A recent study has even shown that brands that promote their online presence through the use of video content are likelier to rank higher on search engines, especially Google. This is a significant benefit for small brands that don’t have the budget to send out regular promotions through television and other more expensive media channels. 

Conclusion

Getting your brand noticed in 2022 is harder than it was a decade ago. Especially since the emergence of Covid-19 and its subsequent acceleration of the competition within both local and international markets for all products. This is one of the reasons why time and attention are now even scarcer. Hence, if you want your brand to be noticed online or otherwise, you will have to keep up with current market trends. Which are at the moment focused on creating entertaining and engaging video content for marketing purposes.  

Waleed Khan is the director of APPSTIRR (LABSTIRR Corp) & Get IT Equip, a US-based company that provides software solutions and mobile application development and digital marketing services. APPSTIRR holds an extensive portfolio of clients around the world.