Has business stalled? Perhaps you are making fewer sales, realizing less revenue, and seeing reduced customer engagement. Neither the tried-and-true marketing strategy you employed pre-COVID nor the dramatic post-COVID pivot plan are generating results.
Technology is evolving at breakneck speed. Smartphones have replaced calculators, GPS devices, paper maps, and alarm clocks. Gone are the days of leaving voicemails, taking a taxi, and capturing photos with cameras. You can’t even tell the difference between human or AI-generated content. Tech experts anticipate that car keys, charging cables, and plastic credit cards will go the way of the 8-track in the next five years.
This shift impacts how people consume and interact with advertising. There is also significant evidence to suggest that attention spans are dwindling as marketers compete for fragmented mindshare and screen time. So, what is one tactic that you simply cannot ignore going forward? VIDEO.
Video popularity had been steadily increasing but the pandemic accelerated its adoption in unprecedented ways. In a recent webinar, Vivvix & Kantar stated that the usage of Advertising Video on Demand (AVOD) experienced a 79% growth rate from 2021 to 2022. They further predicted that this boom would continue at a similar pace over the next two to three years.
Much of the surge can be attributed to improved smart technology, the adoption of streaming video services, and social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Consumers are demanding that their entertainment be personalized, interactive, and immersive. And it is plentiful with an average of 500 hours of video uploaded every minute – and that is just on YouTube.
Here are seven key benefits of incorporating video into your overall marketing strategy:
- Mobile friendly – video is easily delivered across any screen, but phones are the number one platform through which people consume video content. Between YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and even streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. As of October 2022, according to Statista, over 40 percent of U.S. users reported watching online videos daily.
- Attract and engage both older and younger audiences – if you want an inter-generational marketing tactic, then a video could be the great equalizer. Boomers are among the fastest-growing audience for video consumption while Gen Z and Generation Alpha have practically been bottle-fed via screens.
- Builds trust – Research shows that brands who employ video are trusted more than their video-less counterparts. Some of this could be attributed to verification, but the power of showing not just telling cannot be overlooked.
- Creates emotional connections – Video tells a story in a way that no other medium can therefore creating brand intimacy with audiences. Customers’ buying decisions are largely driven by emotions, so forging positive connections is a critical step in your customer journey.
- Boost SEO – Websites that host videos are up to 80% more likely to appear in organic search. The key is to write compelling descriptions with keyword-rich titles. Including transcript or caption generators on the site is another way to boost search results.
- Drive conversions and sales – Video allows you to “interact” with potential customers without being physically present. Explainer and product feature videos can lead a consumer directly to a sale (or at least generate leads). Think of video as being hundreds (or even thousands) of 1:1 conversations.
- Increases website engagement – You can capture and hold your target audience’s attention with visual storytelling. Increasing a prospect’s time on site is a key indicator that they find your content valuable.
Video enables you to generate a customer experience and further strengthens your other marketing tactics. There are many ways to start incorporating this into your current strategy depending on your brand, budget, and bandwidth, but you likely don’t have the option of avoiding it if you want to revitalize your marketing efforts.
Explore video storytelling examples at wakeenstudios.com
