Why you should use Video within your Content Marketing?

The digital world has changed incredibly over the last decade. The things we marketers can now do for a fraction of the price is also amazing, including the new ways in which we produce and use video as part of wider content marketing strategies.

Today is a good time to work in content marketing!

It has never been easier for people to access and interact with content, with 77% of US adults owning a smartphone. Personally, my mobile phone is my ‘go-to’ device when searching for something these days; it’s just quicker and easier than having to get my laptop out.

With similar usage statistics amongst UK adults, why is your brand not using video marketing to engage with and market your services and products towards the many?

Social Media and Videos

Social media giants including Facebook and Instagram are continuing to tap into video in a bigger way than ever before. Scroll down your Facebook news feed and become consciously aware of just how much video now appears within an area which used to be dominated by plain text updates, accompanied by the odd photo or selfie!

At the time of writing, I found that 8 out of the 10 posts on my Facebook feed were videos that are somehow relevant to me and my recent likes; a video of funny pranks, a cute penguin doing even cuter things and a film trailer for an upcoming release were a few of the most appropriate.

I have no shame in saying that when I watch Facebook videos, these tend to be the sort of things I would typically look at! Why? I find them to be highly emotive and they fit well within my interests; the funny pranks make me laugh, the penguin is just adorable and I have always loved watching films.

But how do my emotions help you to market more effectively towards me using video?

Emotion, as well as educational content, is one of the biggest ways to get people to connect and engage with you. You should harbor this to establish a deeper value, a reason why your company/brand is the one to choose. Because you bring emotion to your customers – whether through laughter or by tugging at the heartstrings - it gets people ‘involved’. People love to feel involved.

Playing on an emotional connection helps within social media as videos are, by and large, found to have higher impression rates (increasing the potential for impact) than images and plain text.

Today, video content represents around 74% of all internet traffic. You don’t want your core marketing messages to get lost behind all this highly engaging video content which is already being produced quickly and relatively cheaply by your competition!

Why are videos so popular?

Firstly, we live in a world of lazy people! There’s no denying it.

Many of us generally hate getting up when the remote is out of reach, so if we have the option of simply pressing play and letting video do all the hard work (as opposed to reading something!) then most us would be happy to simply sit back and watch! Who wouldn’t much rather watch something visually pleasing and entertaining as opposed to reading a black and white page?

According to the inbound marketing experts at Hubspot, we are more likely to remember up to 65% of content 3 days later when it’s paired with relevant visual content. This is in comparison to remembering a mere 10% of information when it is delivered to audiences in plain, unappealing text formats. If you’re looking to ensure that your company and its core marketing messages are remembered and, better still, talked about online, then video production really ought to be on the agenda where your content marketing plan is concerned!

If the pound signs are adding up in your head, making you wonder how much this is all going to cost, don’t worry, the things you and your team can do yourselves with regards to video production thanks to today’s technology are nothing short of incredible!

Today, there is no need for fancy cameras, producers, directors, studio space and strategies/storyboards that cost more than we earn. Our smartphones have good enough video cameras which, when paired with any number of affordable accessories to enhance the video recording experience, can shoot and record footage to incredibly exacting standards which are undoubtedly good enough for your YouTube campaign!

What Sort of Videos Should I Record as part of my Video Strategy ?

Don’t just start randomly shooting videos of your cat sleeping and think that it will help with the online marketing of your designer radiator company! Just like your written content, your videos need to be relevant to both your company (paying attention to its core beliefs and values) and, perhaps more importantly, they need to be able to engage with the emotions of the audiences you’re looking to attract.

As Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why and the creator of ‘The Golden Circle’ says, why not start with ‘why’.

Why does your business exist and what are the core beliefs of your business?

Then ‘how’, how does your business fulfill these core beliefs?

Finally, what does your company do to fulfill these core beliefs?

This all sounds simple, but we find that a lot of companies are found to be doing their online marketing the wrong way around and, indeed, many of them don’t even know why they are doing what they are doing!

Once you have discovered and established the core principles of your company/products/service, then you can start putting together the strategies which underpin your content marketing plan. The videos won’t shoot themselves, but understanding and constantly reinforcing to all stakeholders exactly why it is you’re producing them will certainly help keep you on the right track!

If you have a million ideas whirling around in your head and you don’t know where to start with your video and content marketing strategy, get in touch with the team at Ascensor and see how we can help you.

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