Video content can help your website and boost your marketing efforts tremendously. We’re going to explore the facts, figures and how video content will do just that.

A few years ago the big buzz word online was ‘mobile’, we were all rushing to make websites mobile responsive and get found on Google’s mobile search results. What’s the next big thing? We think it’s going to be video content.

We read a recent prediction that in 2017 video will account for 74% of online traffic and we agree. That’s a whopping load of content and every day people watch hundreds of hours of video on YouTube (which was bought by Google for $1.6 billion dollars!). The platform reaches more viewers on a daily basis than any TV channel and the average viewing session is more than 40 minutes at any one time on mobile devices alone.

The reason for the massive growth in video content is because it’s easy to digest, it holds our attention longer than reams of copy on a page and as they say, if a picture says a 1000 words then a video is a 1000 pictures.

I don’t think I need to say more, other than people love video and you should too! This is one of the many reasons we use video content and animation to deliver experiences for brands and their audiences.

If you’re thinking about what to focus on for 2017, video content is something to consider investing in. Our blog will explore some of its great benefits.

How can video content can boost your brand?

Whether it’s an instructional video, product demonstration video, interview with product experts/designers or a review they all have an effect on users and that’s to make them more confident in their purchase.

Shoppers who have viewed a video are nearly twice as likely to purchase and that’s astonishing. Although when you think about the anatomy of the brain, as humans 90% of information is visual and it’s processed much faster than reading. Video is easy to consume, it’s more stimulating and we retain more of the information.

To cite a well known example of video content from four years ago, Dollar Shave Club launched a video with a modest budget (under $5,000 I believe). The promotion went viral and within 48 hours they had received 12,000 orders. Since then the video has been viewed more than 23 million times and with a link back to their website I can only imagine the referral traffic that’s been generated. Check it out!

Let’s explore the benefits of video content to your website and marketing further.

Benefits of video content to your website and marketing

There are many types of video content out there and you don’t have to have a ginormous budget to achieve greatness online as we’ve already shown. Videos or animations could be of a corporate nature, showcase your company culture, a time-lapse, demonstrate a product or show customers using your product/service. The content can be repurposed and used on a multitude of online platforms so the benefits are staggering.

Video content helps Search Engine Optimisation

Google is looking for good quality content and video is just that. By mixing up your media on a website including images, text and a video gets you brownie points with the search engines. It’s bound to boost your search engine optimisation. Gone of the days where a search engine is a ‘digital telephone book’, they are adapting to users wanting to be more informed.

If you post your videos to online services such as YouTube or Vimeo, you can create a backlink to your website increasing your digital touch points. (Did we mention that Google owns YouTube so videos are a part of the natural search results on the engine!)

Make sure you label your videos well and use a relevant title and description so it’s clear to search engines.

Video content increases social media engagement

Having moving footage on social media pages means that your post is more likely to be noticed and users will engage with it. It’s another brownie point towards SEO if your posts get viewed more frequently.

There are many ways a brand can use video to enhance search engine optimisation, boost social engagement and get a better return on the marketing spend. It’s vital to create quality content that is relevant to your target audience and that should be the start of your strategy to implement video into your marketing activity.

According to Adobe, 51.9% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the content with the best ROI. We think that’s because video content is 40 times more likely to be shared on social media than any other form of content.

As we get ready to gear up for a new year ahead of us and bearing in mind how powerful video content is for your brand, here are some new year resolutions for your marketing :-

  • Create content with relevant images. Whether it’s great photography, illustrations or infographics, your content will get more views.
  • Get a process in place to collate, organise and manage your brand’s visual assets. Creating a bank of images and assets to be used by the team will make it easier and less of a chore for posting great content.
  • Set aside budgets for creating video or animation for your brand. Whether it’s part of a product launch, new market attack or reaching new customers video should form part of your strategy.
  • Start tracking what content is more engaging and what is effective. Review what isn’t working and adjust your content accordingly. Set frequent review dates and plan creation of visual content.

Would you like to find out about how we can help you create professional video content or animations for your brand? Please contact us to find out more and check out our vimeo channel to see examples of our work.