With 64% of marketers using video as part of their content strategy, those that don’t are in the minority — and according to a recent study by Animoto, they could be losing a quarter of their customers.
Of the study’s 1,051 participants, 1 in 4 admitted to losing interest in brands that don’t use video marketing, and nearly three quarters considered videos that describe services to be important.
Keep mobile in mind
Video makes maximal use of available screen space in a way that even the most mobile-friendly website cannot. There’s no scrolling involved, no distractions, and the experience is fully immersive.
55% of consumers watch at least one video on mobile each week, so make it easy for them: include captions on Facebook videos, and keep things short. Two thirds of consumers prefer videos under 60 seconds long. While longer videos — like interviews, reviews and event coverage — can still have a place in your campaign, they are often difficult to watch on-the-go.
Integrate it
While YouTube is an incredibly valuable marketing tool, video is much more likely to increase conversions when it’s embedded on-site. As with any type of online marketing, the goal is to keep visitors on your website, not send them to a YouTube where they’re likely to get distracted by other people’s content.
Embedding videos on webpages gives a notable SEO boost. Brands that also provide a video transcript will see even bigger effects on their rankings — naturally, the transcript of a video will include relevant keywords, and on a properly optimised landing page, this rich, targeted content will not go unnoticed by Google.
Distribute Widely
Consumers are 50% more likely to read an email newsletter when it contains a video. With the number of bland marketing emails that land in our inboxes every day, it’s not surprising that an alternative to text- and image-heavy emails is so refreshing.
MailChimp has recently started supporting the use of emojis in subject lines. Including a movie camera emoji in your subject line is a great way to visually indicate that your email contains a video, without cutting into valuable character space the way using “[VIDEO]” might.
Video can be extremely powerful on social media, too. 84% of consumers said they had liked a company video in their news feed, and nearly half of consumers have shared a brand video on their own profile. Thanks to Facebook’s autoplay feature, marketers have more than just one still to grab their audience’s attention. The first few seconds of a video are the most important, particularly on social media, so making them compelling is key.
