There has never been a better time to prioritise video marketing and drop your inhibitions and reservations about appearing on camera. Start to make video a vital inclusion in your business’s content marketing ecosystem.
Year on year, online video consumption continues to experience rapid growth. And this is not just the professionally produced online streaming videos. The most popular videos on social media right now star real people who choose to share real moments in a raw and authentic fashion. And people cannot get enough of this content!
As with every dollar that you invest in achieving your marketing objectives, you want to make sure that this is not just a trend and a tactic. Well, if you want the hard data about how this content trend can affect your businesses bottom line, it’s there for the taking:
53% of customers engage with a brand after watching a video on social media
68% of people prefer video over text when learning about a product or service (Wyzowl, 2019)
Product videos can increase purchases by 144%. (Neil Patel, 2017)
AND THIS FORM OF CONTENT IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE:
- A Cisco whitepaper revealed that by 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic.
- The average person watches more than an hour and a half of online video content per day, with around 15% averaging more than three hours (Wyzowl, 2018)
And then, there’s the statement that Mark Zuckerberg dropped in 2016:
“We see a world that is video first with video at the heart of all our apps and services.”
And true to his word, in 2019, the Facebook and Instagram algorithm continues to prioritise video content. In fact, if you have uploaded a video to Facebook recently, you might have noticed the incentive that pops up on your upload screen; ‘If this video is longer than 3 minutes, we will show it to more people’.
The reason for encouraging lengthier videos is to ensure that Facebook users spend more time on the platform consuming your content. And clearly, if we scratch their back, then they’ll scratch ours.
We work with many businesses and know that one of the biggest challenges most people face with implementing video marketing is either;
- Not knowing how to create the content
- Overthinking the creation of the video content and therefore not getting around to it, OR
- Not knowing what to include in the content
The good news is, all you need is your smartphone, a content plan, and the confidence to just start.
FIVE TIPS TO ENSURE THAT YOUR VIDEOS GET TRACTION:
- Use real people. People connect with real people
- Try and capture the passion and energy that your staff and customers have for your business
- Ensure that the person you are recording is facing a light source so the viewers can grasp their expression
- Make sure you are standing close enough to the person that you are filming so we can hear what they are saying. (Not too close!)
- Record with your phone in landscape orientation if your video is going to be posted out via the ‘news feed’ of Facebook or LinkedIn. Record in portrait if you are creating. Video for ‘stories’ or IGTV. And apparently if you film in square – it will attract more engagement! (Buffer)
BE BRAVE WITH YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY.
The future of marketing will fundamentally require you to take a brave approach to your marketing strategy. I recommend embracing new communication methods as they evolve.
However, while technology and communication channels will evolve, don’t forget that your customer is a person. And people connect with people. Don’t ever underestimate the importance of using the people behind your brand to connect with the people who will buy from you.
In a future that promises mass automation, robotics and artificial intelligence, the value of a real human interaction via an authentic video post will increase significantly.
Plan to prioritise and include a significant amount of video content in your future social media publishing schedules.
This way, you will ensure the future use of your social channels is optimised to positively impact your bottom line. They will also create personal connections with the customers that count
