Marketing managers the world over will appreciate the power of moving pictures, knowing that a well-planned, target-oriented video campaign can deliver fantastic results.
The vast majority will agree that video marketing has become increasingly key to business growth, as video content continues to dominate mobile Internet usage and brands try to put themselves in customers’ hands.
Research from eMarketer indicates that the average UK consumer engages with nearly 10 hours of digital content per day, and digital now accounts for more than half of all media consumption.
This bears out a year-on-year increase that’s been taking place since 2012, and the overwhelming majority of growth has been stimulated by mobile devices. Consumption from desktops and laptops has barely grown at all compared to mobile (although they’re still in better health than print and TV).
A significant amount of this growth comes from people watching video content; video accounts for 55% of all mobile data traffic, while a decline in the disproportionate usage of mobile data by the top 1% of users suggests a greater number of individual users.
More people are watching more videos, and the quality is improving in line with network connectivity and speed. Cisco predicts these trends are set to continue over the next four years and beyond.
Why is marketing moving toward video?
Put simply, marketers are going where the audience is. When consumers need or want something, they reach for their phones. The change in consumer habits goes deeper than simply ‘which device they use’, though, as users have greater power in choosing to seek out their content rather than have it interrupt their TV show or pass them by on the side of a bus; they’re already actively engaged.
The change in consumer habits goes deeper than simply ‘which device they use’, though, as users have greater power in choosing to seek out their content rather than have it interrupt their TV show or pass them by on the side of a bus; they’re already actively engaged.
Not only are mobile users more likely to watch marketing videos – they’re more likely to share them.
On the technical level, current trends in video marketing lean toward vertically-displayed video
Video is the most shared content type on Facebook for almost every industry sector, and shares are basically word-of-mouth marketing, generating further engagement with minimal effort.
What makes for a good video marketing strategy?
Reports from 2015 suggest that 79% of consumers accept advertising as part of their online experience – the price they pay for free content – but that they expect adverts to be of high quality, relevant to their interests, and tailored to them.
Social media users in particular are curators of their online experience. They are selective in who they follow and what they share, and if they encounter marketing material that intrudes on or clashes with that experience, they resist it at best and react negatively at worst. People who aren’t sports fans don’t like seeing the ubiquitous coverage of the UEFA European Championships pushed onto their feed.
People who aren’t sports fans don’t like seeing the ubiquitous coverage of the UEFA European Championships pushed onto their feed.
Delivering relevant and tailored video marketing is partly about technology and data – confirming what a given user likes and making sure they find more of it, with attribution algorithms tracking a user’s browser activity, and attempting to correlate that with the adverts they see.
It’s also about knowing your consumer base: what interests them, why they might want or need what you’re offering, and the tone they like you to take when interacting.
It’s also about knowing your consumer base: what interests them, why they might want or need what you’re offering, and the tone they like you to take when interacting.
The best video marketing content has a consistent, strong message, and shows something of the company’s personality. It addresses a specific audience – the target market for a particular offering – and discusses the want or need that the offering is designed to fulfil. It is brief, to the point, not overloaded with details, and elicits some form of emotional response, sparking interest and resonating with the audience.
It is brief, to the point, not overloaded with details, and elicits some form of emotional response, sparking interest and resonating with the audience.
On the technical level, current trends in video marketing lean toward vertically-displayed video (since that’s how we hold our phones), which has caused an 80% rise in the number of videos watched to completion.
Interactive video marketing has also become popular, making the most of touchscreens and enabling marketers to track levels of engagement – who’s watching, who’s swiping, who goes on to download an app or view a sales page?
