8 Reasons Video Should Be An Essential Component of Your Content Marketing Strategy

Why Video Should Be An Essential Component of Your Content Marketing Strategy Video has long been an effective and powerful component of marketing strategies. But as technology continues to advance and people watch video from their computers, tablets and smartphones, it has emerged as one of the most important tools you can have in your marketing arsenal. In fact, according to Forbes, in the U.S. alone, digital video marketing is a $135 billion industry!Video marketing provides an opportunity to engage potential customers in a matter of seconds, across all of your platforms, including social media, website, blogs, and email marketing. A creative video unique to your brand can help you stand out from the competition and capture the attention of your audience, all while providing useful information.Here are eight reasons why, in our opinion, video should be at the center of your marketing efforts.

• Video is a great lead generation strategy.

Video content can be used to engage your prospective customers at each step of their customer journey. It’s a chance to showcase your brand and make leads want to learn more about your product or services. Video should be prominent on your website, in follow-up email marketing campaigns, and on your social channels.The data bears that out:

• According to Hubspot, click through rates increase by 200-300% when a video is included in an email.
• According to Unbounce, conversion rates increase by 80% when there is a video on the landing page.
• According to Social Media Today, video posts on Facebook have 135% more organic reach than posts with just a photo.

As you create content for lead generation, you should consider what a potential lead might be interested in learning about your company. You won’t want it to be overwhelming or go into too much detail. Ensure that it’s engaging and entertaining, while giving them just enough information to make them want to learn more—and do business with you.

• Video allows your audience to hear directly from the company leaders in their own voice.

Business can be an impersonal endeavor, but allowing current and potential customers to get to know the people behind your brand is an amazing way to engage them, tell your company story, and increase brand awareness. Whether it’s recruiting, investor, or customer-facing, video allows the audience to hear from your company’s founders and employees.You can tell your company’s story (more on that below!), give viewers a behind-the-scenes peek into how your business works, and visually transport them as they consider why they should choose you among all of your competitors. You can showcase all of the people behind the product and let them speak to customers in their own voice. This will personalize your business and increase trust in consumers.

• Video can create an emotional connection.

There’s something very emotionally powerful about the combination of a compelling narrative, music, sound design combined with cinematic footage and good storytelling. Ultimately video can uniquely win over clients better than any other medium with powerful and relatable stories that make an emotional connection to your brand.

• Videos can make complex value propositions relatable and easy to understand.

This is particularly important if your business or product requires a more extensive explanation or is abstract in nature. Wyzowl reports that 98% of users say they’ve watched a video explaining a product and 83% of businesses who use “explainer” videos say they are effective. Good explainer videos distill complex ideas down to relatable and digestible messaging.Explainers don’t have to be dry! You can even use animation to bring concepts to life that are difficult to capture with live-action video.

• Google loves video, so video is great for SEO.

Google loves video! According to Moovly, if you have a video embedded on your website, it is 53 times more likely to show up first in Google rankings. When visitors to your site watch videos, they spend more time there, increasing exposure and boosting your rankings in Google. And we all know the power of ranking first on Google—when your site is the first site consumers see in their search results, they’re much more likely to go there first!

• Videos are a great medium for good storytelling.

Everyone loves a good story. It’s why we watch television shows and movies, why we read books and listen to podcasts or our favorite celebrities’ stories on social media. Stories are how we share information, pass along knowledge and wisdom, and are at the heart of the human experience. Stories capture our attention and stick with us long after we’re done watching or listening.Video marketing gives you a great opportunity to tell your company’s story in a unique way. Whether that’s your company history or a customer journey, a great story will make your video compelling and memorable. Choose the stories that will resonate with your audience and make them want to take action.

• Video is highly shareable

We’ve all seen them—babies laughing, amazing talent on a reality show, or viral dance trends. These videos garner millions of views and go viral in a very short amount of time. When a business’s funny or touching video goes viral, they can experience an amazing increase in sales and exposure.The bad news is that you can’t manufacture a viral moment. But the good news is that while you might not go viral, when you create an amazing video, people will still want to share it.When you make compelling video content available on your social channels, people will want to share it. The major social networks like Facebook and Instagram encourage users to share video content with features like Facebook Live and Instagram Stories.Keep this in mind as you plan your video marketing strategy. Any videos you create should be short enough to share on social media or scripted in a way that makes it easy to cut into smaller clips that are easy to share. Be sure your video production company is aware of your plans to use the video on social channels and they’ll be able to help you bring that vision to life.

• Paid media is a great way to get your product seen by a larger audience.

The truth is, video is an investment. It takes time and money. But, when it’s done well, video pays off. Wyzowl found that 83% of businesses report that video has a great ROI. Video works because it can be used across so many different platforms. One of the most effective ways to expand your audience is through paid media.If you’re unfamiliar with the term paid media, we’ll give you a crash course! There are three types of media: paid, owned, and earned. Paid media refers to external marketing efforts that you pay for including advertising, branded content, digital ads, etc. Owned media is content that you control like your website and blog, and earned media is content that travels organically based on its own merit, such as reviews of your business and social media posts that are shared.Paid media is a great way to amplify your video efforts to make sure you reach a large and highly targeted audience. Check out this paid media spot Studio B created for Grammarly. It currently has more than 124 million views—and counting!We hope you can now clearly see the power of video marketing and have some great ideas about how you can implement it in your own marketing strategy. Our team at Studio B Films would love to help you with your video marketing project. We’re prepared to help you at every step of the way!Learn more about the services we offer at Studio B Films. We are happy to help you define your goals and maximize your budget so you make the most of your marketing efforts! About us The team at Studio B Films has been helping companies take full advantage of the benefits of video for years. If you are interested, Studio B Films will help you define your goals and maximize your budget so that you make the most of your marketing efforts. Go our Contact Page to get started.