by Persuasion is at the core of any marketing effort. And there may not be a better way to persuade their audience than with a great video.
Video makes your audience pay attention, and it keeps their attention for longer than text ever could. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth more than a million. And, with the world of digital marketing trending toward video, incorporating moving visuals into your promotional efforts is vital to engage your customers.
Of course, that’s easier said than done. After all, producing a video takes more effort and planning than writing a few words ever would. But if you get it right, the rewards will be well worth your efforts. Keep reading to learn more about the power of video marketing, and how you can leverage it for the benefit of your customers—and your marketing success.
The Power of Video Marketing: What the Research Says
It’s not just guesswork. Again and again, research shows that marketers who use video in their promotional efforts have a greater chance of convincing and converting their audience:
- In 2022, more than 80% of global internet traffic was directly connected to video downloads and streams
- The average internet user spends nearly seven hours every week watching videos from their favorite brands and accounts online
- According to one survey, 91% of consumers want to see more video content from the brands and businesses they follow
- Another survey found that 66% of consumers prefer short-form videos over any other type of content on social media
- 92% of marketers consider the return of investment they’ve gotten from video content to be positive
- Finally, 80% of internet users have made a purchase that can be directly traced back to a video they watched from the business
These statistics, of course, also show the reverse: brands and businesses that don’t engage in video tend to fall behind in their audience’s estimation. The reason why deserves a closer examination.
5 Reasons Video Reigns Supreme in Digital Marketing
So far, we’ve shown that video marketing works in the new world of digital. But for any marketer looking to embrace the medium, understanding why it works matters just as much. These insights can be key to building a video strategy designed to engage and draw in your audience.
1. Videos are a Natural Storytelling Mechanism
Humans are naturally drawn to stories as a way to learn and retain information. Those stories, in turn, are much easier to tell when you’re able to show the visuals to go along with a narrative.
Consider, for example, the ability to introduce your business. In written form, you might need a few long paragraphs to explain your background and mission. On the other hand, a video can build emotion in showing where you’re coming from, and where you want to go—creating a deeper sense of connection with your audience in the process.
2. Videos Show Instead of Telling
Perhaps the most obvious reason why videos perform so well comes down to their visual nature. Almost every time, audiences who have a choice will prefer to watch something over having to read the same thing.
That’s especially evident when it comes to product videos. Any customer would rather like to see a product used and in action than having to read the theoretical version of how it might be used. But it also applies to other types of content, like explainer videos vs. written instructions, brand narratives vs. About Us text, and more.
3. Videos are Inherently Shareable
Social media is an increasingly visual medium for a reason. Networks thrive on users sharing content with each other, and they tend to share visual content at much higher rates than written words. It’s why visual-first channels like Instagram and TikTok have gained such massive followings in a relatively short amount of time.
Videos work because they feed directly into this behavioral trend. They get shared at much higher rates than any other type of social media content, regardless of whether the video is coming from a business or an individual user. As a result, they help marketers expand and grow their audience at maximum efficiency.
4. Videos Have a Direct SEO Impact
We’ve established that internet users love video. It’s time to talk a little more about the impact that content preference has on your search engine optimization strategy.
Embedding a video almost naturally increases your page visitors’ tendency to engage with the content and to spend more time on your website. That, in turn, increases your site’s quality score, improving rankings in the process.
And that’s before we even talk about the ability for your videos to rank highly in their own right. YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine, and even Google shows videos at the top of relevant results. Combine it all, and you have content that can turn your marketing efforts into an SEO powerhouse.
5. Videos Build Brand and Business Trust
Finally, audiences online tend to inherently trust videos more than they would written text. That’s especially true when it comes to videos that are relatively low in production quality and come from your audience’s peers, which increases their authenticity.
Think about it: even a written testimonial from a customer will still look polished. But if that same customer records their own video praising your business or product, they’ll come across as authentic, building trust in your business for anyone who watches the video.
How to Embrace Video and Delight Your Customers
So much for the reasons why video matters so much in today’s digital age. The key, of course, is finding ways in which you can build your own strategy and leverage these potential benefits.
Getting there is no easy feat. As mentioned above, creating video content can take significant time and effort. But it’s well worth it; once you begin to produce the right types of video marketing for your audience, you’ll reap the reward of more people paying attention, engaging with them, and converting them to become customers.
The key to embracing video, then, is putting sufficient time and resources into the process. It’s the only way to make sure that you deliver the type of content your audiences look and yearn for. When you do, and those videos start publishing on your digital channels, you can truly begin to engage your customers in the digital age.
