The Effective Video Marketing Manifesto

Unless you’ve been residing under a giant rock, chances are that you’ve seen the viral video of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock. One of the clips posted by The Guardian on YouTube, received more than 73 million views in less than two days of activity. Not to mention, it led to the generation of multiple NFTs.

Welcome to the world of visual stories or videos, which are taking over us by storm.

Due to the burgeoning online video consumption, most platforms including the biggies Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even LinkedIn, have adopted a video-first approach. They keep adding video-friendly features and placements, including stories, making it easier for users to create, upload, share, and view content.

Twitter for instance, has announced plans to begin the continuous emission of 24/7 live video with sports, news and entertainment in a format that Amazon made a significant incursion into when it took over the online broadcast rights of some NFL games.

It’s confirmed. We’re heading towards a video-future:

• Cisco states that by 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic — 15 times higher than it was in 2017.
• The average user spends 40 minutes per day watching YouTube just on mobile devices.
• 68% of people say they’d like to learn about a new product or service by watching a short video.
• Google research shows that 6 out of 10 people would rather watch online videos than television.
• YouTube states that its users view more than 1 billion hours of video each day on the platform.

And there’s more…

• Unbounce found that a video on the landing page can boost conversion rate by up to 80%.
• 72% of consumers prefer to watch a video about a product than read a product description.
• 50% of internet users look for a video before visiting a store.
• 90% of consumers state that video “helped them make purchasing decisions.
• 93% of marketers report that video has helped them get more customers.

Why does every business need videos?

Businesses of any size and scale need to master visual storytelling art with supreme quality videos for:

• Guaranteeing exposure and engagement
• Increasing understanding of product/service
• Making the brand stand out
• Being a personable sales tool
• Raking in website traffic

A survey found that videos helped businesses increase brand awareness by 70%, traffic by 51%, and sales by 34%.

Let’s look at the benefits of visual story telling via video marketing in detail.

What are the benefits of video marketing?

Video marketing brings forth the following benefits to the table.

1. Boosts conversions – Videos often lead to direct sales. To put things in perspective, 74% of users watching an explainer video have gone ahead and made the purchase. If a picture speaks a thousand words, imagine the impact of video. It’s only going to be manifold. Isn’t it?
2. Great ROI – Creating videos comes with a price. But then, they provide hefty returns on investment, making it worthwhile. For example, 84% is the average click-through rate of video ads. The best part is, not all videos need a set-up, team, or perfection. Even simple videos have the ability to do the trick, provided you are thinking in the right direction!
3. Builds Trust – Videos are a great way to build trust for your business for both existing and potential customers. Have a great product? Create a demo video. Aiming for attracting new talent? Put your best foot forward with a great company culture video. Want to announce the launch of a new service? Come up with a teaser video. The list goes on. It’s all about giving them deep insights and information in a crisp fashion.
4. Enhances rankings – When you have a video embedded on the website, you’re more likely to show up first on Google’s SERPs. With the search engine giant owning YouTube, there’s a definite increase on how videos do affect the rankings for websites.
5. Encourages social shares – Social media thrives on video content. When you create videos, the likelihood of the content getting shared across social media platforms increases massively. This, in turn, can bring footfall to your website.

What does video marketing include?

As opposed to throwing in a couple of videos in your marketing strategy, it’s important to take the video-first approach. Your video marketing strategy should essentially include:

1. Understanding customers’ pain points
2. Zeroing in on the topics that solves their problems
3. Outlining the video content
4. Setting the theme and tone in sync with the brand
5. Using videos across marketing campaigns and social media platforms
6. Acting on feedback received on the videos

How to create a solid video marketing strategy?

1. Set your goals – Why do you need videos in the first place? Is it to attract, persuade, and convince customers? Or, is it for plain, simple visibility? Having multiple goals can overburden teams and companies can easily lose focus. It’s vital to set ONE goal and proceed in that direction for the best outcomes.
2. Choose the platform(s) – Do you want your videos hosted only on your website or want to reach out to customers via social media? With different platforms having different mandates for creating videos, you need to pick and choose the one that best aligns with your goals.
3. Decide the video types – There can be an endless array of videos that you can create and push online depending on your immediate requirements. These include but are not limited to –
   • Explainer videos
   • Demo videos
   • Product videos
   • Live videos
   • Tutorials
   • How-to videos
   • Educational videos
   • Podcast videos
   • Screencast videos
   • Training videos
   • Testimonial videos
   • Culture videos
   • Behind-The-Scenes videos
   • Shorts
4. Churn out content (constantly) – Rome wasn’t built in a day. Similarly, achieving overnight success via videos is a rare occasion. The key is to churn out video content on a regular basis and figure out what works the best. You can even incorporate videos in your email campaigns as they can help increase the CTR by almost 96%! Now that’s some way to stand out from the competition!
5. Analyze the key metrics – To understand how your videos are performing, make it a thumb rule to analyze the key metrics across digital platforms. Based on the same, make changes in the videos, giving your customers something exciting every single time.

Show don’t tell

The marketing landscape is noisy. From flooded inboxes to in-your-face social media marketing, customers end up with information overload. And it doesn’t matter how compelling and exceptional the offer is. At the end of the day, they are entangled in a complex matrix of complicated information.

To be the signal in the noise, your best bet is Visual Storytelling. After all, stories elicit emotion. They evoke responses. With the right narrative in place, you can influence your customers, making them take a call to action eventually.

Need help with rewriting your brand’s visual narrative through effective videos and storytelling? Talk to us, and we’ll help you get started.