Sometimes, looking back can inform which direction to head moving forward. Let’s talk about video marketing, for example.
2005: YouTube launches, and suddenly, we have some rendition of America’s Funniest Home Videos at our fingertips 24/7.
2006: Google buys YouTube after just one year because they saw a new trend about to catch fire and how videos play a role in search and advertising. And by 2009, there were seven different ad formats on the platform.
2010: Old Spice launches the first interactive video campaign in order to reach a younger generation—and they’re successful. Suddenly, Old Spice is not just something for dads. Video clearly works.
Between 2010-2020, the technology required to create quality videos got progressively easier and became more popular with marketers, and smartphone technology made both creating and watching videos easier and more convenient for consumers. The rise of social media elevates the role of videos even further.
2020: The pandemic begins and boosts online media consumption by 215% in the U.S. If there was any doubt about the role of videos in marketing before, the past three years have erased it. Brands that want to compete need to adopt a video marketing strategy.
Let’s look at what the numbers say now in 2023.
1. 91% of consumers want to see more online video content from brands.
As a writer, I’m passionate about the power of words—I know they have the ability to change hearts, minds and lives. But I have to acquiesce to the power of video and its popularity. There’s perhaps no greater platform for storytelling today than a video that shows and tells consumers about your brand, your mission, your purpose, your products or your people.
Videos give a face and voice to your brand, allowing you to literally speak to your audience without making someone pick up a phone (Gen Z especially hates phone calls, don’t make them dial). Videos give you a tool to explain how your products work or why someone should buy your services. It helps differentiate you from your competitors. And it encourages social shares, so you’re not only talking to your network, but videos give you the potential to speak to your audience’s networks, potentially expanding your reach exponentially.
Ultimately, videos give you the power to engage with people who won’t read your emails, your website copy or your newsletter; it’s simply easier to press the play button. I’ll never knock a well-written article or a clever headline—but I also know that modern-day consumers have short attention spans and busy schedules, and videos fit their lifestyles and preferences.
2. Video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year.
Moovly has this incredible statistic: You’re 53 times more likely to show up first on Google if you have a video embedded on your website. You may not have the resources or the desire to map out a large-scale video marketing strategy, but gosh—if that stat doesn’t convince you to at least have a video or two embedded on your website, I’m not sure what would.
It’s no secret that Google’s algorithm has always favored video, at least since 2006 (remember how they bought YouTube after just one year). You can expect that to continue; there will be no reversing this trend. Google favors user-friendly content, and users love videos—and when you add closed captioning to your videos (an easy add) in order to make your content accessible to everyone, that puts you even further ahead.
People are simply much more likely to search for information, visit your website, check out YouTube or look for any kind of explainer or informative video about your brand or business than they are to call a live person—especially while they’re in information-gathering mode. And this is not just true for B2C marketing; the same holds true for B2B. You can use videos in any marketing strategy to give prospects the basics about your products, services, brand or business, then move them along the funnel by telling them what comes next—visit our website, sign up for emails, give us your info and we’ll call you or whatever you want the next step to be. Video is great for search, and it’s an effective lead qualifier.
3. 92% of video marketers say they’ve gotten a good ROI from video marketing.
Simply put, videos can also lead directly to sales. Studies show that 74% of users who watched an explainer video about a product or service subsequently bought it. If it doesn’t lead immediately to a sale, it can put a prospect into your sales funnel, where they can be nurtured along the sales journey. In fact, video marketing can be used throughout the whole path to purchase, from initially engaging prospects to helping close the sale toward the end.
And the great news is that creating videos doesn’t require a huge investment. Smartphones have made us all potential videographers with technology that even the least tech-savvy of us can lean into.
Of course, it does take time, brain power, ingenuity and some skill to create a video that you’d proudly display on your website, YouTube or in your e-newsletter, so if it feels a little intimidating, we get it—and we’ve got you. Creating a marketing video that gets results does take a little more time and effort than creating a quick Insta Reel or TikTok, along with a good understanding of human psychology.
Firespring has video experts that’ll work with you to produce an engaging video that can help draw qualified leads into your pipeline and boost your SEO, driving more traffic to your site and broadening your reach. There is no question about when you should create a video—the answer to that is yesterday. But Firespring’s expert videographers can help you answer the what and how and get the ball rolling to create a professional video for you in no time.
