marketing agency video content

Video Content Marketing

Let’s start at the beginning. Video content marketing – why?
It’s a simple question, and one that we believe has a very simple answer…  
Let’s talk about you. When you are about to make a buying decision, would you perfer to trawl through a long text advertisement, or a wordy web page that outlines the product or service you are in the market for –  or would you prefer to watch a video that tells you everything you need to know in 90 to 12 secs?
It’s been proven by various studies that our average customer is far more inclined to consume video content over any other type of content, and having done so, far more likely to take an action that we then might direct them towards.

Marketing Strategy

So, with that in mind, it seems obvious that we need to consider how we will use video in our marketing strategy, does it not?
The evidence shows that wherever you use video content, you will see vastly improved engagement as a result, and so it’s a case of ensuring that the process is in place to capitalise on that increased engagement.
Video content is adaptable – you can use it on your website, your social channels, in video brochures and as part of structured email nurture campaigns – it’s a powerful tool in the right hands. It means businesses can now deliver their proposition to their prospects and customers, in the way that their audience chooses to consume it – and that in itself is important.
According to a Content Marketing Institute survey, 70% of B2B and B2C companies in the US already use video content to engage new and existing customers, and that’s a trend we believe will gain traction here too – they’re doing it because it works!
Industry experts predict that that 77% or more of us will be watching online video content by 2016. Wouldn’t it be good if some of that content had been generated by your company, and was helping customers make a decision to  buy from you and not your competitors?

Why does video content work?

Buyers – your customers – spend time on research. These days, in fact, they’ve become quite expert at it. The marketer’s job therefore is to understand the path to purchase, and where the research part takes place (usually at the beginning of course, but often at other stages too) and then to provide video content which answers the questions  that your customer is asking at that point.
The customer / researcher can find all the information they want online – so it makes sense to make the information that they do find in the most easily consumed format of their choice – and that’s video content that you’ve had the chance to define, so that you can drive interest to your product and service.
So, why does video content work? Author and speaker, Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D consults for brands like Walmart, Amazon and Disney. She outlines below the psychological reasons in an article over at kapost.com:

  • Voice conveys rich information: the simple sound of a human voice speaking to us has an impactful way of converting information into meaningful content.
  • The fusiform face area (FFA) makes us pay attention to faces: this brain function predisposes us to use the human face as a gathering point for information and believability.
  • Emotions are contagious: the body language of emotions appeals to our psyche and we naturally love to share emotions.
  • Movement grabs attention: another trait that is a core part of our anthropological DNA is the power of peripheral motion; since the Stone Age, we’ve survived by noticing things in motion.

 
A number of studies over the years have shown that video improves online conversion. A MultiChannel Merchant study for example, makes for an interesting read. The results from their own tests show that
“- when product videos are available on an ecommerce site, one-third of your visitors will watch them – and people who view videos are 85% more likely to make a purchase. We’ve also done studies that indicate that even the presence of video – whether it’s watched or not – increases the conversion rate.”
That sort of result is a big wake up call to those yet to use video content on their websites in the UK.
 

Content Marketing Strategy UK

Interesting takeways from a survey of UK marketers conducted by the CMI in collaboration with UK Direct Marketing Association (DMA) include this statement:
“While UK marketers are, for the most part, confident in their abilities (with 48 percent rating themselves highly in terms of effectiveness, compared with 41 percent in North America and 33 percent in Australia), many lack a documented content marketing strategy; or if they have one, they are unaware of it. At first look, it would appear that fewer UK marketers have a strategy when compared with North American (43 percent) and Australian (52 percent) marketers; however the 10 percent of UK marketers who said they are “unsure” is the highest rate of uncertainty we saw around this question when we looked at the responses across all three continents.”
Clearly there is some disparity between the 48% who rate themselves effective, and the number of websites in the UK that feature video content. Those percentages do not align. It begs the question as well, as to how much those who are yet to use video content in their marketing strategy would be able to improve their own overall effectiveness in terms of measured results and increased conversions once they had included strategic video.
For ideas on how to use video as part of your marketing strategy, with proven ways to measure results, feel free to look through our video and content marketing case studies.