Google Trends shows that inbound marketing has existed for a long time but only gained relevance in 2010. The whole idea of this marketing strategy has always been to promote brand visibility and gain customer interaction by sharing valuable content with your target market.
With more startups, business brands and digital marketers tapping into this trend, how does one stand out in the crowd?
While Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is fast becoming obsolete due to the rise in blog competition, videos seem to have become the new wave.
Video marketing has become a desirable marketing tool among B2B and B2C brands as they have been found to be better engaging and adaptable. Reports by Wyzowl shows that 63 per cent of startups and businesses have absorbed videos into their promotion strategy.
Videos are vital to your startup’s growth as they have been found to be an essential tool for brand publicity and one of the major digital marketing strategies for startups that still work today. They are great for growing your brand network and clientele.
Gone are the days where you would need to hire an entire media crew to produce high-quality videos. With the aid of good apps and software, you can create professional videos on your mobile device.
I will outline some reasons your startup needs to embrace video marketing.
Videos are undoubtedly a more effective means of communication. You’ve probably heard the saying “A good product without a good story is like a good engine without a steering wheel”.
Videos are one of the best content forms to use in telling your brand story. They are said to be the consumer’s favourite content medium.
Visuals easily appeal to our human sentiments and emotions. Writing a wonderful sales copy may be genius, but more than throwing pretty words around, you need to connect to the heart of your prospective clients to spur them to purchase your products.
This differentiates the awareness, consideration and decision stages of purchases. Written words are nice, but high-quality videos with good visuals and background music convey the message explicitly.
Improve brand awareness
They are more inclined to watch, like, comment and share a short video clip in split seconds just at the click of a button. You know what this means: more brand awareness.
Oberlo postulates that video marketing will drive 82 per cent of global internet traffic. That is expected as videos are easy to consume. Videos display your deliverables to make them appear real and tangible to the buyer.
Customers want you to show, not tell them what your brand is about. It doesn’t matter if they are Youtube videos or videos you embedded on your blogposts, the laziest buyer would rather watch them than strain their brain cells to read those pretty words about your brand offering.
If your video appeals to them, you will instantly get social shares. This increases your competitive advantage.
With more brands engaging via email, blogs, and social media, it is only wise that you seek for a means to stay afloat amidst the intense competition. Videos may be time, energy and capital intensive, but they are worth it. Video marketing increases your brand exposure to a larger target population.
Research shows that one-third of the activities on the internet involves watching and downloading videos. Over 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day with 53 per cent of the viewership requesting more videos.
A single viral video may be all your small start-up needs to boost brand engagement. A classic case study is the Dollar Shave Club which grew into a billion-dollar brand from one viral video.
As of 2015, the video had over 22 million views. The brand is currently valued at US$615 million with a customer base of 1.1 million individuals. Who knows? Your startup may just be one video away from hitting the jackpot.
Boost sales
The exposure gained from video marketing can be channelled into a sales funnel to increase conversion rates. The average internet user spends approximately 88 per cent extra time canvassing through a page with videos that improve the engagement on your website.
This means users will stay on your website longer than expected if there is a video to keep them engaged. You can capitalise on this traffic to generate leads and subsequently boost sales on your website.
Do not undermine the power of videos in the buyer’s journey. It plays a vital role in the buyer’s decision-making process. Videos are said to increase purchase decisions by 93 per cent and brand engagement by 139 per cent.
Statistics show that eight out of ten people make a purchase after watching a product video. Lead generation can also increase based on the quality of your video content.
Now that you know how video marketing can be useful to your brand, consider including videos to your digital marketing strategy. If you want to launch your brand online, then think of making more videos.
It’s okay if you are a sucker for web articles and blog posts, but integrating videos into your content plan could be the icing on the cake.
You can start your video marketing journey by creating product demos, customer reviews, vlogs, promotional and how-to videos, and upload them on distribution channels like your official social media handles, website, and email broadcast list.
Source: e27
