The Benefits of Video Marketing

Author: Rachel Durkan Category: B2B, B2C, E-commerce & Retail, Marketing, Nonprofit Date: September 2, 2014

“It’s just a fad. No one’s gonna watch it. It wont’ go viral, so why bother?”

If that’s how you view online video marketing, thank again. Video marketing had been one of the most successful marketing tools in recent years. Here are the facts: YouTube uploaded its first video in 2005. Since then, YouTube has over 800 million monthly visitors and is the #2 search engine used (That’s bigger than Bing, Yahoo, Ask, and AOL combined). Do you still believe video marketing is just a passing fad? We don’t think so.

In fact, video marketing is an essential tool that increases consumer awareness for your products and/or services. Research on video marketing has shown that landing pages with videos have up to 88% more time on a website with a video than one without.

Everyone knows that old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” That’s great, but we are talking about videos. A minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. A short one-minute video can help you develop your brand and increase consumer awareness about your brand. The key is to keep it personal, play to your company’s strengths (value propositions), and to keep it short and sweet. After an initial “Who We Are” video that helps describe your brand to your consumers, “follow up” or “explainer” videos are also a great addition to your video marketing arsenal. “Explainer” or “How-To” videos help consumers understand how to use a product or service. This reinforces the fact that you care about your customers and want them to have all the information they need throughout their decision-making process.

Some of you may be thinking to yourself, “Why? Why does video marketing work more than cold calling or direct mail?” There are four core reasons why we as humans, as consumers, as individuals are drawn to videos:

1. The Fusiform Facial Area makes us pay attention to faces – The brain actually has a function that naturally makes us use the human face as a gathering point for information.

2. Voice conveys right information – Just simply using the sound of a human speaking has the amazing ability to convert information into meaningful content.

3. Emotions are contagious – Body language displaying an array of emotions is appealing to human beings.

4. Movement grabs attention – We notice and pay attention to objects or images that move over those that don’t.

If you don’t have videos uploaded to your website or social media sites, no need to panic. There is a solution for you. There are a number of video marketing firms that can support your organization.