James Smith, CEO, Smith Brothers Media
As consumers spend more and more time online, that means more time spent watching videos. A HubSpot study confirms that this consumption level is increasing at a rate of 100% each year.
It’s a trend that Australian business owners ignore at their own peril. When a viewer is engaged with a video, they retain 95% of its message, compared to just 10% when reading text, according to Insivia.
Using video as a part of a marketing strategy is a fantastic way to connect with the right audience, build authenticity, reach more people and increase search rankings. It helps with visual storytelling and is vastly more effective at conveying information than text.
According to this report by MonsterInsights, 43% of online consumers want businesses to post more video content. Here are the only three reasons why your business needs to jump on the trend.
1. Video increases brand awareness
Video can help a business reach new audiences and attract new viewers to its online platforms. Increasing brand awareness might sound like it doesn’t have a solid, measurable benefit, but it’s actually the number one reason brands are making use of video - and for good reason.
Business videos are used to raise awareness, quickly educate potential customers on a brand, reach new customers and drive sales. The key to an excellent brand video is quickly acknowledging the audience's challenges and pain points, then providing a solution, all using a short, punchy presentation.
2. Video increases brand authority and trust
Nothing helps an audience of potential customers relate to a business than a great brand video. Where previously audiences may have just seen a faceless company, video puts a name to a logo and allows them to see the genuine nature of a business, its people and its offerings. As simple as it sounds, people like to buy from people - and a video is able to communicate so much more trust and credibility than words on a screen. It gives you a level of confidence with your audience that’s unrivalled by any other form of marketing.
3. Video increases a brand’s social and online visibility
Making people aware of your brand is one thing. Helping them to find what you’re offering is another matter entirely. This is where video can increase your organic reach and act as a beacon to your business.
BrightCove reports that social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined. Video also dominates in the social sphere, with four of the top six global channels being dedicated to video. Ultimately, most marketers fully endorse using video to attract visitors to a brand's social pages, and with video taking over the web, it’s not hard to see why. You can see this shifting trend in the popularity of TikTok, as well as how both Instagram and YouTube have made major strides to bring short, easily digestible content to their platforms (‘Reels’ and ‘Shorts’).
MonsterInsights also found that videos increase the conversion rate on home pages by 86 per cent, so while the SEO boost from video will help people find your site, it also pulls a double duty of driving conversions once people have found you.
Common mistakes to avoid
Video is within reach for businesses of virtually any size and marketing budget, but there are definitely some pitfalls to avoid:
- Authenticity is Key: Consumers always prefer more “authentic” video content that portrays brands in an honest way over artificial and inauthentic video content, according to HubSpot. Video content should follow certain principles: conversational, less perfectly polished and avoiding corporate buzzwords. You can’t afford to ignore creativity and go for the ‘safe and corporate’ approach; your content just won’t be engaging or believable.
- Leave Out the Hard Sell: When videos are too aggressive in asking viewers to purchase, this instantly becomes the opposite of marketing. An overly pushy video may end up losing potential buyers and audiences, generating distrust and negative feelings about a business. A business video isn’t about the hard sell. It’s about showing people what you have to offer, and how it’ll help solve their problems.
- Choose Your Format Wisely: In other words, you wouldn’t make five-minute explainer videos and expect them to be a big hit on TikTok. Too many companies don’t put in the work, choose the wrong format, throw their video out into any online platform and hope for the best. Video is a powerful tool, but it needs to be backed up by data and due diligence to have the most impact. Before you start a major video project, make sure you’ve done the research!