5 Reasons Your Brand Needs Video Marketing

More than 60 percent of businesses are using video as a marketing tool, if you’re not in on the action you’re missing out.

Video has rapidly become the content format of choice for social media audiences with 55 percent of people watching videos online every day.

Video, especially video consumed on mobile devices, is huge right now

Online videos now account for 74 percent of all online traffic.

Indeed the growth of social media giants Snapchat and Instagram can be attributed to videos, and Facebook is also capitalizing on the trend by pushing video content in its algorithm.

In fact, more than 10 billion videos a day are watched by Snapchatters alone, while 45 percent of people watch more than an hour of Facebook or YouTube videos a week.

Consumers prefer video content

But why is video so popular?

In short it’s because your customers prefer watching to reading — four times as many of customers actually.

But for marketing purposes, video has another advantage in that it’s more engaging and therefore it’s more likely that viewers will act on the content they have watched, either by sharing or liking it, or by following through on a call to action.

For example, viewers of a video about a product are 1.8 times more likely to purchase it than those who didn’t watch the video.

Video connects with people on an emotional level, enabling them to visualize what it would be like to own the product, inspiring them on ways to use the product and creating a more emotion-driven purchase journey.

And this is reflected in the results of video marketing.

Best ROIs with video

Out of the 63 percent of businesses using video, 99 percent would continue to use video as a marketing tool and 83 percent believe video gives them a good return on investment.

One of the reasons the conversion rate with video is so high is because video adds a trust factor that’s difficult to replicate with written posts.

To have an advocate speak directly to the viewer prompts an assumption that that person is giving their genuine opinion, especially if the video is coming from a person who has already established a level of trust with the viewer — for example, an influencer.

Branded video removes pain points of time, resources and budget

One drawback to video and might be a reason some marketers have not picked up on the tool is the time, resources and budget it takes to produce the content. Although, it might surprise you that relatively low quality videos can still deliver good results if they draw on the emotion of the viewers.

A way to overcome this drawback is to consider branded videos, that is, videos produced in collaboration with a social media creator. Essentially the brand is facilitating content their target customers already enjoy by enabling the creator to make the video.

The creator can establish a realistic timeframe, which will be faster than a brand can achieve because of the frequency with which the creator is publishing content, the budget is prearranged and they take care of everything involved in the production of the video.

This method can deliver better results than videos made directly by the brand as they can tap into the creator’s following — who are in all probability more engaged and more likely to follow through on the call to action — and possibly therefore expand their reach.

Videos for worldwide marketing

Videos have a higher chance of being shared than other content, in fact 76 percent of social media users in this survey said they would share a branded video with their friends if it were entertaining, and 70 percent of them already had.

This extra reach increases the probability of your content going viral.

In particular, videos with an emotional component, or ones that are particularly funny, have the best viral potential.

But video also more effectively crosses language barriers and cultural differences than written posts or even pictures to be relevant on a global scale.

It is the most appealing content format not just for one particular subsection of the population, but for everyone and YouTubers’ audiences are often made up of viewers in more than one country.

To increase the likelihood of your video becoming a hit worldwide, allow the social media creator you are working with the creative freedom to produce the video in a fashion they know from experience will work the best.

You can also capitalize on trending topics in social media to ensure your video catches the wave of whatever is most popular on your chosen social media platform at the time of publication.

Some of the biggest trending topics from last year included Slime, Floor Is Lava and 3am. For more upcoming trends, see the Sponsokit website.

Video is the preferred content option by online audiences, video engages them on an emotional and trustworthy level which prompts buying decisions. Collaborate with social media creators to mitigate pain points of video marketing including time, resources and budget and tap into their already established audience to reach people on the scale you plan. Increase your chances of going viral and having your video seen worldwide by capitalising on video trends and giving the creative part of the video to the creator you are working with.

For the latest YouTube trends and examples of branded videos, check out the Sponsokit website — updated daily!