Why Should Your Business Start Using Video?

In 2018 we continued to see the major role played by video in online marketing. Businesses realized that using video increased their return on investment (ROI).

You may feel as though you don’t have the resources to start producing videos and wonder whether it’s really that necessary to promote your business. The short answer is ‘yes.’ Video is proving to be one of the most profitable and versatile marketing tools out there.

Videos increase your ROI (return on investment)

A while ago Cisco predicted that by 2019 approximately 80% of total internet traffic would consist of video. In the light of this statistic, businesses that ignore the power of video are likely to be left behind.

Insivia offers 28 interesting video statistics for 2018 that reveal exactly why videos increase your ROI. One interesting stat is that video marketers get 66% more qualified leads a year. Another is that 64% of consumers make purchases after watching branded social videos.

Do you want to increase conversions on your landing page? A video on a landing page can evidently increase conversions by 80%.

Incorporating video in an email campaign increases click-through rate by over 90%. Make sure to include the word ‘video’ in your subject line.

The evidence from hundreds of different surveys and studies shows that most brands are now using video effectively in their online marketing strategies with very positive results.

Google loves videos

Embedding videos on your website makes you more likely to achieve organic listing on the first page of Google. The more time visitors spend watching videos on your website the better. Google takes this as a sign that your content is useful and will rank you higher in the search results.

You also need to make sure that Google knows exactly what is contained in your video – the spiders can’t see it, so they have to rely on the title and description to know what it’s about. There are a number of SEO tactics you can use for your videos that will help to improve your ranking.

Hosting your videos on a private platform gives you the full SEO benefit of your videos because this drives traffic back to your website. When watching videos on YouTube, viewers have so many distractions and are more likely to start watching another video than follow a link to your website.

Private video hosting has many other benefits too, including customization options to create the look and feel of your brand and fast, seamless delivery of content.

By customizing player controls, you can improve user-experience and hosting platforms also allow you to integrate calls-to-action and email collectors. This makes sure viewers know what step to take next, whether this is following a link to further video content or giving an email address. Integrating email collectors with your videos allows you to gate them and get leads.

Hosting platforms usually offer detailed analytics which help you assess how your videos are performing and make changes if necessary. All the statistics support the evidence that using video is highly effective.

People used to be able to go into a physical store and physically see and handle a product. Using video provides a way to offer them a similar or superior experience when it comes to online shopping.

Mobile users watch videos

Mobile video consumption is steadily increasing with the advance of 4G networks and the rise in the number of smartphone users. Video has become readily accessible anywhere and at any time to mobile users.

These mobile users often feel a sense of connection to brands that show video content on their devices. Brands are making sure to create short, entertaining video content appropriate for mobile viewing. They make sure that the thumbnail images they use look good when scaled down to fit on a mobile screen.

They also make sure that videos are easy to share so they can reap the full benefit of this growing market. If they can engage viewers’ emotions and encourage sharing, it increases traffic to their websites, and they can take it from there.

Mobile users should not have to suffer any loss of quality by watching on mobile and should easily be able to take any necessary actions.

Videos make explanation easier

Short explainer videos help new prospects to understand your products or services and why they should buy from you. New visitors are often driven away by big blocks of text. According to Wyzowl, 95% of people watch an explainer video, and 81% are convinced to buy the product or service after watching the video.

Animated videos can bring concepts to life in a way that’s often a battle when using text only. They can be simple, entertaining and break through the clutter of talking heads.

An excellent product demo video will explain exactly how a product works and simplify processes. The ones that allow users to see the product in action are more successful. For example, an automated tea-making system called teaBOT has a product demo that allows users to choose the type of tea they want and customize it. It is a brief but compelling video.

Any business can find content to feature in a behind-the-scenes video story. This may be an interview with the CEO to a case study.

Curata found that the top three most effective video content types are customer testimonials, tutorial videos, and demonstration videos.

Concluding thoughts

Technology has made creating various video formats fast and relatively inexpensive. Sometimes it’s the simplest video that achieves the best results, so no-one should feel that creating videos is beyond them.

Modern customers want to see products in action and video provides a way to offer this. It captures a wide audience and works on so many different levels, greatly increasing your competitive advantage. Customizing user experience, using a good hosting solution, making sure videos are optimized for mobile and using SEO strategies all enable businesses to profit from using video as an integral part of their marketing strategies.

AUTHOR PROFILE: Having more than 8 years of writing experience, Smridhi is a professional tech, financial and business blogger. 

She takes pride in calling herself as a FinTech and loves to gather and share her profound knowledge about latest developments in technology.

Smridhi is a management graduate and visual graphics artist and is currently pursuing masters in behavioural psychology. Her hobbies are practicing mindfulness, counselling children and traveling (a special love for Africa).