July 13, 2020
Scroll through any major social feed these days and you’ll probably see a lot of the same thing. Video, video, video.
Video marketing is everywhere, and we can’t get enough of it. In 2019, 78% of people watched online videos every week, with 55% watching every day. Despite the potential for over-saturation, more and more platforms are pivoting to video to leverage the popularity of the format to their company’s advantage.
But how do you make it work for you, especially if everyone is doing it? We’ve put together a list of useful tips as to how you can boost your online business with video marketing and covered just why it’s so important.
Video is what social platforms want
The world’s top social media platforms put a huge amount of importance on video content.
As a new business looking to create engaging content, it can be difficult to make something that will appeal to and find a mass audience. It’s well noted that Facebook and Instagram in particular prioritize video content on their platforms, and newer features such as Instagram Stories and Facebook Live have only put more emphasis on users uploading their own videos.
The rise of apps like Tik Tok have also shown the future of social media is very much planted in video. This all goes to say that social marketing for your business should feature video heavily, or else you face the risk of being lost in the shuffle.
Few channels offer a better way for you to reach people and capture an audience quite like social media. Nothing is more likely to get a person to stop scrolling on these platforms quite like an auto-playing, interesting video. In today’s modern market it is one of the best direct sales channels to your website, products and services.
Social media doesn’t want to work against its users, but you often have to play by its rules. In these times that means getting your camera out and creating something that can keep a user on the platform longer and offer more space for advertisement.
Content Tip: Professionalism and adhering to expectations is essential when creating and uploading online content.
Getting the simple things right in terms of imagery and text has been made easier thanks to free image resizer tools and writing assistants such as Grammarly. And you need to make sure you’re getting the essentials right in video, too.
One of the most important things to consider when appealing to modern consumers through social media is the use of subtitles (not everyone is scrolling in private places where they can hear sound). Helpful tools such as Zubtitle make retrospectively adding subtitles to your content easier.
Video improves engagement and conversions
Trying to build an audience from the ground up is one of the biggest challenges for a new business. Luckily, video marketing is one of the best and fastest ways to increase engagement numbers, eventually leading to a higher conversion rate.
Since social media now makes sure you’re faced with a video at the top of your feed almost every time you log in, video content consistently has high engagement levels. It’s not just a case of being there at the right time though. The length and versatility of video content lends itself to engaging users for longer. That means moving onto something new and keeping your content fresh. Here is a video length guide to help you with your social media videos.
More engagements means more sales, and video has been shown to increase conversion rates, with customers up to 85% more likely to purchase a product after watching a video.
Video content gives your customers a much deeper understanding of the product than a description or image ever could, and is becoming the norm on many ecommerce websites. It’s also far more interesting for your audience, who will find a short video easier to digest than a long blog post.
It is estimated that by 2022, 82% of all consumer internet traffic will come from video. If your marketing content still isn’t based on video, you’re condemning yourself to the bottom of the pile and less customers.
Video highlights your business and builds trust
It’s not enough for a business to just be a business any more. You can’t just be somewhere a customer shops or recommends to a friend — you need to be a brand that works its way into their lifestyle.
Brand building on social media is very often achieved through great video content. Getting across your company ethos and the positive atmosphere in the office can be difficult over blog posts and images. Videos give audiences a chance to learn who you are and why they should be invested in your brand, offering a face and voice to associate with the name.
You could also use video marketing to create a strong company introduction video. These help to establish who you are, show off your staff and your processes. Social media has shown we all appreciate a look behind the curtain and want to know more about our favourite brands and the businesses we shop with. Implementing video into your early marketing can make a huge difference in how people view your subsequent campaigns.
Video is a great asset for establishing customer trust. A slick, well-produced video campaign highlighting the benefits and goals of your online business can help you come across as a legitimate operation, rather than something being run out of a bedroom. This use of video is essential for getting a new business that has no built-in trust off the ground.
Video won’t break the bank
It’s common for new businesses to operate within a tight budget, particularly within the early months. Getting your name, what you do and what you want to achieve out there feels like an expensive exercise is PR, but there are plenty of opportunities to do so without breaking the band on a fancy advertising firm. In fact, you can do most of it yourself.
The advent of the smartphone and its growing reliance on cameras has made good quality video accessible to everyone and easy to operate. You can offer insight into your business or communicate complicated messages to followers in simple ways without having to lug around a hung camera unit.
A video highlighting how you operate behind the scenes on a regular day can be shot without making almost any dent in your budget. No set, no actors; just you and your everyday.
Small home businesses need not worry about hiring a professional videographer to create content that best illuminates their products. No matter what time or budget you have to spend on your marketing content, video is now so accessible that you can do it inbetween other tasks. It can take some time to master editing, but the user-friendly nature of programs makes it easy to create something social users will be familiar with.
Blogging and creating new media such as podcasts can actually be more expensive than making a video when you total up the cost of hiring a freelancer or investing in good quality microphones. The convention in online video is not necessarily super high budget, and an inventive concept shot competently can often attract new followers quickly.
Content tip: Timing is often everything when it comes to social media. The fast paced nature of the platforms and their constantly refreshing algorithms means it can be difficult to get your content seen by the right audience in time.
Having a strong understanding of when your most engaged user base is regularly online (and how to decipher this information) is essential to the growth of your social reach.
Video appeals to mobile users
When you think about how frequently you use one, phones have become the dominant force in our everyday lives.
For businesses, engaging with customers through social media on mobiles in particular is a huge priority, and often what dictates whether a campaign is successful or not. Phone users have a different mindset to desktop ones. It’s a much more casual way of processing information and intaking content, making them prime for marketing towards.
In these moments, a user is more susceptible to video content than anything else. Video offers a great opportunity to not only boost interest in your brand by getting initial eyeballs on it, but doing so on mobile puts you in a position to be shared much more easily and frequently around social groups and onto other platforms and timelines.
Play to the conventions of mobile users and make sure to integrate mobile-specific calls to action for them at the beginning and end of the video. On these devices it’s not enough to just get them to engage, they need to become a little army for your marketing efforts.
Video marketing is too powerful and important an asset to not leverage to your online business’ gain. No medium equally plays to social media algorithms and people’s browsing habits like video does. If you can develop great content and a well-polished strategy there’s no reason you can’t see excellent returns for your business with video marketing.
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Author Bio
Abhay is a Digital Marketing Guru and an accomplished entrepreneur with an experience of a decade working with various businesses varying from startups to established brands. He co-founded many companies like Logicsofts, PrintYo, CrazyRise and more. He is passionate about SEO and Online Data Analytics, which plays a vital role in any business to grow and mutate as per the data results.
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