Does Video Marketing Really Work?

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. We rarely launch a digital marketing campaign these days without video. Here’s why..

Using video as a marketing technique is far from new. In fact, video marketing dates back to 1941 where the first 10-second commercial for Bulova watches played during a Dodgers vs. Phillies game in America.

You can see this first ever video used for marketing just below.

Naturally, TV commercials have come a long way since 1941, with the golden years being the 50’s and 60’s. If you’re a retro fan or have seen the TV series Mad Men (and like a bit of a laugh at how corny these are), then you’ll love these:

And up until about 2005 when YouTube gained real popularity, using video for TV and cinema marketing stayed fairly similar – it was reserved for large corporations and was extremely costly to shoot, produce and air. But like most industries, the Internet completely changed 50 years of how we do business – video marketing included.

So What Has Changed In Video Marketing?

The two biggest changes are:

1. Costs: We often tell our clients that unless you really need high quality video (because your product or service is premium in nature) pickup your iPhone or digital video camera and grab some customer testimonials. Jump in front of the camera yourself and run through a how-to for your service or product and give tips and secrets to your audience without letting the cat out of the bag. Professional actors are often no longer required. The costs to produce video has been significantly reduced with digital production, and the cost to air through YouTube and Vimeo – totally free!

2. Peoples Attention: If we jump back to the 50’s, people were happy to sit through commercials, they were even found to be entertaining.

Today a well produced commercial will still hold some people’s attention – like a blockbuster movie preview, but in general, people will now switch off as soon as they feel like they’re being ‘marketed to’.

Internet video is the new TV! Around March 2017, internet video overtook television advertising.

Effective video marketing today is about choosing the right channels and focusing on the customer more than your business, funny jingles and animated characters are out – you need to highlight your actual product or service benefits (those that people review you on), your real team (not a cast of actors) and build one-on-one trust through being you.

And that’s great news – it means you can leverage video without the need to spend a fortune on jingles and actors, and the less you try and sell, the more effective your videos will be!

Examples Of Video Marketing Done Right Today:

To see video marketing done right on a smaller budget, look no further than these two guys who run Andertons, a guitar store in the UK (yes, we take inspiration from all over the world). They have millions of viewers, simply by being themselves and talking honestly about the products they sell:

Of course, selling to musicians is not the same game as selling for corporate businesses, so let’s jump to the opposite end of the spectrum of video marketing and have a look at one by Siemens Germany:

Yes, the relevant video marketing budget between a small guitar store in the UK and Siemens who employ 420,000 people worldwide are significantly different too, but hopefully you can see the similarities. Real people, real stories, real benefits.

Video Marketing Statistics, What Results Can You Expect?

Done right, video marketing is incredibly effective, here’s are a few stats on using video that you can expect:

• Video has 28% better memory retention over text. That’s HUGE when you are marketing
• Video connects better with executives, 65% are more likely to visit a vendor website after watching a video due to being time poor
• 92% of mobile users regularly share videos with others. Even though video requires more bandwidth, it just gets better engagement on mobile devices
• Product videos in combination with landing pages can increase conversions by up to 80%

If you have not fallen off your chair with those stats, please slap yourself hard enough that it sinks in. This is a game changer!

The list of benefits go on, yet here is the most astonishing statistic – only 24% of brands use video!

How Do I Use Video As Part Of My Digital Marketing Mix?

Digital marketing is a bit more strategic than just throwing a few video’s on YouTube and hoping for the best. There is actually a couple of really key strategies that almost every business should be using.

The first is traffic acqutision. How do you use video marketing to generate more traffic as part of your digital marketing? You put it on Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing channels like YouTube and others to get clicks.

This is waaaaaaay more efficient than television because if someone skips your ad, YOU DON’T PAY. Isn’t that the best digital marketing solution ever, you ONLY pay for interested views!

The second strategy is to put your video out on the 50 or so video sites to act as a ‘hook’ to get potential customers back to your website. It helps with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and if your video is enticing enough, you get people heading straight back to your site to find out more, which means more enquiries and purchases.

So to come back to the main question, will video marketing work for your business? The answer is yes, in almost every industry, whether you sell business to business or business to consumer, but you need to do it right for today’s market.

And once your video content is ready to go, you can use it across almost all digital channels, your website, social media, blogs, wherever you want to publish online and reach your target market!

If you want to discuss your video marketing ideas, goals, and how to best use it for your business, please contact us now for a friendly chat.