If you’ve spent much time on traditional social media recently, you’ll have noticed the significant increase over the last year in the prevalence of videos. It’s not hard to work out why – we are constantly in front of our screens looking for ways to consume information. But what impact has this had on our marketing strategies? According to WordStream, 50% of marketing professionals name video as their content with the highest ROI and 64% of people make a purchase after watching branded social videos. Finally, social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.
With those statistics, it’s clear video needs to be included as part of your marketing strategy. We’ve outlined below some of the ways you can incorporate video into your campaigns to help drive serious return on your marketing spend.
Company overview
As soon as people land on your website, you are in a battle to grab their attention. A well-placed video on your homepage is a brilliant way to introduce your firm, your product/service, your values and your team, while giving people an engaging way to first experience your brand.
There are also technical benefits of having videos form part of your web content. The Forrester Research Group found that ‘video is 53 times more likely than text pages to appear on the first page of a search engine’, highlighting the power video can play in improving your SEO, especially if your competitors aren’t vying for the space.
Thought leadership campaigns
Thought leadership campaigns are an excellent way to demonstrate expertise, start conversations in your industry and establish yourself as a trusted voice. Alongside writing thought leadership pieces, use the campaign as a chance to turn one of your pieces into a video. Watching video content is far more digestible, so why not get someone in your organisation to talk for 2 minutes around your campaign theme? This can be used on your social, or as a great way to summarise longer form written content.
Case studies
People buy people. Case studies are a brilliant way to allow potential customers to hear the experiences of your current client base, providing social proof that your product or service has delivered the expected benefits for somebody in a similar position. If you are regularly in touch with your clients, ask if you can video them talking about their experiences to create a hugely powerful testimonial and add real depth to our case studies.
Events
Do you regularly run or attend events? Is attracting people to a round-table, forum or conference part of your marketing strategy? If so, videos are a great tool for driving interest in your events. Giving potential audiences a taste of what they can expect with a short highlights reel enables people to truly get a feel for what they can expect if they attend and is far easier than trying to communicate in written copy. Event content can also be used year on year to generate interest for other events or to drive engagement long after your event has happened.
Product Demos
Describing your product or service, its features and its benefits can be a difficult task in some industries or when working with new concepts. Video can be a great way to cut through the noise and summarise exactly how your product or service works, showing potential customers instantly what they can expect from your firm. Rather than get caught up talking features, let video do the work.
Webinars
With tools such as Zoom on the market, webinars have become a brilliant way of using live content to engage a whole host of audiences. With just some slides, video or even a Q&A, you can interact with potential customers, current customers and stakeholders without having to get everyone together. What you choose to host a webinar on is up to you – but using live video for your webinars is a great way to grab attention in your marketing and demonstrate thought leadership as well as adding value.
Infographics
Infographic videos bridge the gap between animation and graphic design. These can be fun, interesting to watch and with well-designed content can be a great way of sharing educational material whilst keeping viewers engaged. Use infographic videos to deliver key statistics or headlines in a way that headlines can’t.
Video gives you the opportunity to transform your marketing while still using the same messages, while the power of video with clients is clear in its impact. If you want to find out more about how to utilise video in your marketing or need support with any aspect of your video strategy, get in touch with us here.