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INTRODUCTION
If your company is not using video to build its brand and attract new customers, you are already behind the curve.In the rapid-paced world of mass-media and Internet marketing, simple text or boring PowerPoint presentations no longer grab and retain consumers’ attention. Four times as many customers would rather watch a video explaining the benefits of a product than read the same information,1 and video’s popularity continues to grow.
Marketing software company Hubspot reports that 43 percent of consumers want to see more video content from marketers.2 When was the last time you heard that consumers actually want to be marketed to?
Consumers who actually want to see more video from marketers. Source: Hubspot
1 Animoto, 20152 16 Video Marketing Statistics to Inform your Q4 Strategy
43%
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The numbers on video’s rapid and continued growth as a business communication platform are staggering:
And video’s value goes well beyond simply getting customers to hang around your website a little longer. Video is also a powerful medium for creating a lasting impression. Research indicates that viewers retain 95 percent of the information they consume while watching a video, compared to just 10 percent if they read the same information in simple text.
As you can see, your company needs to incorporate high-quality video in your marketing, sales and business communications, both online and in personal interactions with clients.
Note that we said “high-quality.” The lasting impression your video makes on customers may be a negative one if the content and production values don’t show your company in the best possible light. High-quality video is an upfront investment, and it pays off enormously.
• 80 percent of internet users will watch a video, while only 20 percent will read the full contents of a web page. • Users spend 88 percent more time on websites that include video content.
• 100 million people watch a video on the internet every day. • Video will account for 80 percent of all consumer traffic on internet by 2019.
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WHY VIDEO?
VIDEO INCREASES SALESAND CONVERSIONSPerhaps the most compelling argument for incorporating video into your company’s messaging is that it dramatically increases customer engagement and conversion. You can increase conversions by 80 percent just by adding a product video to a landing page on your website.
The best way to get and hold someone’s attention is with the interactive, immersive potential of video.
This isn’t just a bunch of award-winning videographers and editors talking. The hard numbers on video content’s payoff for your company are impossible to ignore.
Product and how-to videos are the best way to provide consumers with easily accessible, actionable information about your products and services. You can demonstrate a product in action, or show before-and-after footage or animations to illustrate the ultimate benefits of using a product or service.
Video content engages viewers at every level – it educates, entertains and inspires them.
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VISUALIZING THE FUTURE OF AN ENGINEERING PROGRAMVideobred produced an animated video to help Hanover College, a liberal arts school in Indiana, promote its new engineering program. Hanover’s goal was to recruit nine students to the program, which had never held a class and had no facilities in operation at the time of the campaign. The school ended up enrolling 25 students, almost three times its target, due largely to the power of video to attract and engage young people.
“Video’s a great media for high school students; that’s where they live,” said Rhonda Burch, Senior Director of Communications and Marketing at Hanover. “Video helps us tell a story in a way that’s more relatable.”
Seeing a product in action engages consumers: 57 percent of online shoppers say watching videos made them more confident to purchase online.3 In fact, 90 percent of shoppers say online video is helpful as they make purchasing decisions.
The power of video extends to marketing channels well beyond your website, including email. According to marketing firm Syndacast, open rates on emails jump by 19 percent when the word “video” appears in the subject line. The results are even more dramatic for introductory emails, where some research4 shows that click-through rates increase by more than 95 percent.
Overall, video marketers see 34 percent higher web conversion rates and 27 percent higher click-through rates than companies that don’t include video in their messaging, according to The Aberdeen Group research firm.
3 eTailing Group: How Consumers Shop with Video4 Implix
Animation from Hanover video
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EXECUTIVES LOVE VIDEOIt’s not just online shoppers who find video so compelling. Forbes reports that 75 percent of business executives watch a work-related video each week.5 And 59 percent of senior executives would rather watch a video than read text in a presentation or on a website.
The preference for video is also dramatic among Millennial professionals, 29 percent of whom say video is their preferred source of product research for their company. That’s more than even formal case studies, which came in at 19 percent.
5 Forbes: Video in the C-Suite
Executives who watch videos don’t stop there. Forbes reports that after viewing a video:
• About 65 percent click through to visit the vendor website.
• 50 percent look for more information about the vendor.
• 45 percent contact a vendor after seeing an online video
• About 50 percent make a purchase for their business.
59%Senior executives who would rather watch a video than read text.Source: Forbes
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SEARCH ENGINES LOVE VIDEOYour website is one of the most important tools for growing your business, and the best way to fuel that growth is to attract potential customers and clients to your site via results in search engines such as Google. Search engines aspire to provide users with results they will enjoy, so Google and its competitors have been on the video bandwagon for quite some time.
Forrester Research6 famously noted that the odds of your website showing up on the first page of Google search results increase by more than 50 percent if you include video content on your web page. The importance of video in being found in internet searches has only grown since then. Overall, researchers suggest that you will see a more than 150 percent increase in organic site traffic as a result of adding video to your website.
For business-to-business marketers, this presents a compelling case for investing in high-quality video to speak to both the most senior decision-makers and emerging leaders in a prospect account.
Executives’ affinity for video also makes it a great platform for other kinds of corporate communications, including internal strategic messaging and education. Videobred client DLA Piper, a leading international law firm, reported great results after using a 45-minute corporate drama to educate corporations around the world about key issues in cyber-security and privacy.
Everyone – including executives – learns faster, retains more information, and is more motivated to take action after watching a video.
150%Increase in organic website traffic attributed to video content. Source: Forrester Research
6 Forrester Research: The Easiest Way to a First-Page Ranking on Google 6
MOBILE USERS LOVE VIDEOMobile data speeds have increased dramatically over the last few years, and so has consumers’ desire to view videos on their smartphones and other mobile devices. Mobile now accounts for more than half of video views7, increasing more than 230 percent since the middle of 2013. And YouTube reports that mobile video consumption is roughly doubling every year, confirming that more than half of its views came from mobile in 2016.
That’s more than 1.5 billion hours of mobile video viewing each month on YouTube alone – a pretty significant audience to tap into.
In addition to winning in general searches, publishing videos also makes your content eligible for the high-value video results channels on Google and rival services, including Bing. And remember, YouTube is now the second-largest internet search engine, processing more than 3 billion searches a month.
A key factor in ranking highly in Google results is how long your visitors spend on your web page engaging with valuable content like a video. This is often described as “long clicks versus short clicks.” Basically, if users like your content, then search engines like your content – and users really like video.
Video is a perfect fit for mobile since it lets viewers quickly get an overview of a product or concept without having to engage with a 1,000-word blog post. In fact, about 70 percent of smartphone users say they prefer video content when researching purchases on the web. Mobile users are 1.4 times as likely to watch video advertisements as consumers who view online content on their desktop computers.
7 Ooyala report: “Cord Cutters on the March”8 The 5 Mobile Marketing Mistakes Infographic
53%Mobile users who feel more favorably about companies who offer mobile video. Source: Hubspot
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VIDEO GETS SHARED ON SOCIAL MEDIA - A LOT
The growth of mobile video is not just a volume play. socPub8 reported two years ago that average smartphone conversion rates were up more than 60 percent when compared to the same metric for desktop users, and the trend continues. Compound that with the conversion edge video brings to any landing page, and the advantages of mobile video are obvious when it comes to closing the deal.
But video’s impact goes beyond getting consumers to pull out their credit cards or download a whitepaper. Smartphone users are twice as likely as TV viewers to develop a sense of personal connection to brands that show them internet video, and 1.4 times more likely to do so as desktop users, according to Google. This makes a strong case for including high-quality branding videos in your mobile marketing program.
Leading social media platforms such as Facebook have recently introduced their own video services to encourage users to post more video content to their networks. It’s working. Facebook video posts have 135 percent greater reach than photo posts, and the time users spend viewing video on Instagram – the social media network launched specifically to share photographs – increased by 40 percent after the platform began pushing video content.
Here’s a stat for you: video is shared on social media more than 12 times as often as all text and images combined, according to video platform provider BrightCove.
8 The 5 Mobile Marketing Mistakes Infographic
Hours of video watched on Facebook daily. Source: Facebook
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Social media marketers have taken notice. In its 2016 state-of-the-industry report, Social Media Examiner noted that 73 percent of social media marketers planned to use video in 2016, up from 60 percent in 2015.10 And the trend continues.
It’s important to note that successful social media videos tend to be shorter than those produced for desktop internet users or internal distribution. [We’ll have some helpful hints on the best lengths for your social media videos on page 19 of this whitepaper. They also tend to be more humorous – they don’t necessarily need to be about cats, but a few laughs never hurt. Remember, the goal of social media video is to engage users and ultimately bring them back to your website for conversion and sale.
9 Video Marketing Statistics 201610 2016 Social Media Marketing Industry Report
AND IT’S NOT ALL CAT VIDEOSWysowl reports that more than three-quarters of internet users say they would share a branded video,9 so long as it’s entertaining. So the explosion of social video has clearly created a new opportunity to reach consumers with your video content.
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11 Video Brewery: “10 Reasons Why Your Business Needs an Explainer Video12The Facebook Video Statistics Everyone Needs to Know
Source: YouTube
VIDEO ADVERTISEMENTS WIN BIGVideo is a great medium for engaging users on your own website and social media presence, but it’s also the killer platform for paid internet advertising. Because, as everybody knows, plain old banner ads just don’t cut it anymore.
The average internet user spends more than 16 minutes watching online video ads every month. Remember, people are far more likely to retain information they process visually than if they simply read it in plain text. In fact, 80 percent of people who watch a video ad will remember it a month later,11 and 12 percent of those folks will end up buying a product featured in the video.
The Online Publishers Association reports that when users remember viewing an ad: • 26 percent looked for more information about the subject of the video • 22 percent visited the website named in the ad
The engagement benefits of video advertising are immediate. Video ads boast a click-through rate of 1.84 percent, the highest among all digital ad formats, with some ad lengths reaching an unheard of 2.5 percent CTR.
For a 15-second non-skippable YouTube video ad, the view completion rate is 92 percent. (For skippable video ads, it’s 9 percent). Facebook research suggests that users will recall seeing a video ad within the first 10 seconds of viewing. So video ads are almost certain to create a lasting impression on viewers that will result in them building a deeper relationship with your company.
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TRADE SHOW VIDEO GETS ATTENTIONThe payoff of attending trade shows has come under fire in recent years as the internet has made delivering all forms of content much cheaper than paying an exhibitor fee and fighting for attendees’ attention. On average, trade show attendees spend eight hours moving between numerous vendor booths13 – that’s a lot of noise to cut through to make sure your message is heard.
Video can generate interest in your booth by continuously presenting your company’s message, even when your in-person staff members take a quick break. You can also use video to present a message from the CEO or other key team members who couldn’t make the trip to the show.
Prior to the show, you can circulate snippets of your video on social media – particularly via pages or hashtags devoted to the event – to create buzz for your both. Quick looks at the products you will demonstrate or debut at the show are a great way to build momentum for your upcoming appearance.
Some other excellent uses for video at trade shows include.
• A running loop that introduces and provides background on the staff giving your presentation.
• Recorded Q&A sessions that offer answers to the most common inquiries from show attendees. This frees up your team’s time to answer more in-depth qusetions for the most engaged prospects.
• During the show, be sure to record visitor testimonials for use in future marketing videos.
• Branded thumb drives with videos as a takeaway.
13 How to Use Video To Maximize Your Trade Show Experiences 11
Hard-and-fast ROI calculations on marketing and sales expenditures require analysis of many factors. Traditional TV metrics like number of views don’t adequately reflect the power of video since customers are more likely to remember video content than any other form of online information. And hosting video content on your site is a key tactic to increasing your organic traffic, both to pages with video and other forms and catalog pages.
Fortunately, the performance of video content is increasingly quantifiable.
VIDEO PAYS FOR ITSELF WITH GREAT RETURN ON INVESTMENTThe bottom line for business is the bottom line, and using high-quality video in your corporate communications is a significant investment. But it’s an investment that pays off, according to companies who have adopted video as a key component of their marketing strategy.
A few key data points:
• 76 percent of businesses say video provides a good return on investment, according to a 2016 survey conducted by Wysowl.
• Marketers who use videos grew revenue 49 percent faster than those that did not.
• 82 percent of marketers say video had a positive impact on their business.
• More than 50 percent of marketers say video has the best return on investment (ROI)14 of any content format.
14 The Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics
72%Businesses that say they have seen a solid ROI on their investment in videoSource: Wysowl
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VIDEO PERFORMANCE IS MEASURABLEIt’s next to impossible to know exactly what content a user actually reads when they visit your website or view a banner ad. All you know is that they accessed the content since flat text and images are passive way of communicating online.
However, many video playback platforms offer you a wealth of user behavior information, such as:
• How long the video was actively played / viewed.
• What segments of the video were viewed.
• Where the video may have been paused or replayed (this is a dead giveaway for potential customers with a high level of interest in your product).
Coupling this information with other user behavior data, including site visits, empowers web marketers to design very specific, high-performance campaigns to target your best prospects. Identifying viewers who engage with your videos is one of the best ways to pinpoint your best prospects. In fact, marketing firm Vidyard suggests that watching a how-to video should weigh more heavily in your evaluation of a “hot” sales lead than most other key marketing activities,15 including reading a case study or even viewing your pricing page.
15 What Every Marketer Needs to Know About Lead Scoring With Video13
WHAT TYPES OF VIDEO?We’ve talked a lot about the benefits of video as a content delivery platform, but the ultimate success of your video will depend on how skillfully it tells your company’s unique story.
BRANDING VIDEO NEW PRODUCT VIDEO
HOW-TO VIDEORECRUITMENT VIDEO
FUNDRAISING VIDEO14
The content and approach to your video project will depend largely on the business goals for producing the video and the audience you want to reach.
BRANDING VIDEOSWhether your organization sells pizza, serves a social cause or makes work easier for another business, video helps deliver a compelling story about your brand. Be sure to focus on the personality of your team and corporate culture. If your executive team laughs during the video shoot, leave some of the footage in – it builds a sense of personal connection and affinity with viewers.
Simply relating a company’s history can be a powerful way to build your brand. Videobred client Hank Menke found tremendous success with a branding video that depicted his morning routine visiting with employees at OFS Brands’ furniture manufacturing plant.
And remember, there’s nothing more powerful than an unpaid customer testimonial for building your brand, as opposed to impersonal statistics. Even if your customer satisfaction rating is 99 percent, some viewers will still wonder about what happened with that 1 percent. Potential customers want to hear from satisfied customers.
A VIDEO IS WORTH A CHAPTER OF A BOOK Videobred client West Unified Communications, a managed service provider and information technology firm, uses video as a tool to visually explain complex IT processes. “Using animation and graphics, we’re able to explain a complex concept like unified technology to the average business owner in a two-minute video that would have taken an entire chapter of a book,” said Bill Yackey, West Unified Communications senior marketing manager. Increased bandwidth over the past decade has made extensive, professional-quality how-to videos a viable option for online marketing, Yakey added. The West team will occasionally shoot an iPhone video for quick social media use, but when it comes to core video assets, they turn to professional videographers. “The difference is like recording a song with your phone versus a professional recording,” Yakey said. “The phone recording sounds fine, but it doesn’t sound professional. When you use professionals, it bumps the quality to 100 percent.”
Animation from WEST IP video
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RECRUITMENT
HOW-TO-VIDEO / ANIMATED EXPLAINER
NEW PRODUCT / SERVICE VIDEO
FUNDRAISING / ISSUES VIDEO
Top job candidates vet potential employers as closely as human resources checks the backgrounds of applicants. From casual dress to flexible hours and a diverse workforce, a video helps show how your organization is different from the herd seeking a job candidate’s unique talents.
A family stands on their deck, coveting the neighbors’ new patio furniture. Finally, Mom calls across the privacy fence to inquire about the beautiful set. “Yes, it’s great, but it was a nightmare putting it together,” comes the reply. Video how-to directions are vastly superior to poorly illustrated written instructions, especially for complicated products. Homemade assembly instructions for a vast array of products litter the internet, but do you really want Bubba from Peoria influencing the perception of your brand with a poorly made assembly video? Take charge of your message.
In advance of your formal product or service launch, release a creative video campaign on either social or traditional media to generate buzz. Video can demonstrate the story behind a new product, the problem it solves for customers and its unique place in the market. A high-quality video can have exponential returns when brining a new product or service to market. A 2012 e-tailing and Invodo survey found 57 percent of consumers say video gives them more confidence to buy online—up 5 percent from the previous year.
The competition for the hearts, minds and checkbooks of the masses is fierce among non-profits. Rallying support for a cause requires more than plain facts and figures. It requires telling your organization’s unique story. Video stirs the emotions that create a longstanding bond between your organization and your audience.
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As with all content, you need to tailor your videos to the preferences of users based on the distribution channel where they will be viewed.
Upfront preparation for multiple distribution channels will save a considerable amount in production and post-production costs. A web video may only require a few minor script and production modifications to produce a targeted video presentation your sales team will display on tablet devices. Additional production and post production tweaks might produce a fast-paced, visual trade show piece.
The key is to consider and plan for multiple distribution channels upfront, instead of producing each project separately.
A professional video production company will guide you through the process of optimizing your videos for various channels, but here are a few quick tips to give you an idea of how video can best help you reach customers, wherever they contact your business.
HOW TO DISTRIBUTE YOUR VIDEO
As we’ve discussed, video is not a one-size-fits all solution for your marketing and corporate communications.
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WEB SOCIAL MEDIAThe general wisdom for the length of successful web videos is “the shorter, the better.” But of course, the message you want to communicate will determine the exact length of your video content. A post at The Next Web16 suggests 45-90 seconds for tutorials and explainers, a max of 59 seconds for a really creative commercial, and perhaps 2.5 minutes for crowdfunding or social cause videos.
Also remember that there are numerous tricks for making sure Google and other search engines find and suggest your videos, such as including target keywords in the video web page’s metadata.
You may want to consider creating versions of your video content for each of the leading social media platforms, since social users exhibit notably different preferences for consuming video content.
You definitely want to launch and optimize a YouTube channel for your video content – remember, it’s the second-largest search engine in the world.
Hubspot17 suggests these optimal lengths:
• YouTube: 2 minutes
• Twitter: 45 seconds
• Instagram: 30 seconds
• Facebook: 1 minute
16 The optimal length for video marketing content? As short as possible17 How Long Should Your Videos Be? Ideal Lengths for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube 18
Source: Wistia
TABLET
PROJECTION
EMAIL MARKETING
Video designed specifically for viewing on tablets can be a great resource for your best sales people in one-on-one or small group presentations. This video can provide background on your company and give highly detailed information about products and services. Touch-screen interactive features can be a great value-add for this distribution channel.
Speaking with a large group? No PowerPoint can compete with the visual and emotional engagement of video. Charge up the presentation with a video that tells your company’s unique story. Video optimized for projection should be shot in 4K or other very high resolutions.
As we mentioned before, including links to videos in email campaigns dramatically improves click-through rates, particularly welcome emails. Target potential clients with a quick branding video that tells your unique story, and be sure to pair the video on your site with a mid-funnel conversion event, such as an e-mail newsletter sign-up form.
Time the average person spends viewing video advertisements every month.
Source: ComScore
TRADE SHOWSProjecting your video is a great way to cut through all the noise at trade shows. Consider the auditory limitation of the space and edit a version that tells your story with images and motion graphics.
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BRANDED THUMB DRIVES
COMMERCIALS
When your sales team is done with their presentation, be sure they distribute your video content and PDFs of other sales materials on branded thumb drives. This is also a great tactic for trade shows – a keychain flash drive makes a great tchotchke, and potential clients will have information on your company they can share when they get back to the office.
Consider producing a 30-second or two 15-second spots for broadcast or social media distribution. And remember that on social media, humor and entertainment value are huge factors in getting users excited about your videos.
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WHY HIRE A PROFESSIONALVIDEO COMPANY?High-definition cameras are now available for under $10,000 and a “video edit suite” is a laptop computer with the Adobe Creative Cloud. This low barrier to entry has created a class of “low-cost video providers,” churning out videos in their basements.
But creating powerful video messaging requires more than just equipment. It requires the experience, dedication and creativity to be a partner in telling an organization’s story.
You want to work with a video production company that understands trends in the market and will be with you in the coming years as video becomes an even more essential part of marketing and organizational communications.
As you evaluate video production companies, here are some key questions to ask.
HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEENIN BUSINESS?
DO THEY HAVE THE STAFF TO HANDLE LARGE OR MULTIPLE PROJECTS?
The costs of starting a video production company have decreased significantly over the last two decades. But small shops regularly come and go, often leaving clients scrambling to finish a work in progress or obtain the footage from a completed project.
While you might only have one video in production, if a larger or more lucrative project comes along, does the production team have the necessary in-house or freelance talent to complete both? Or will your project slow down or get completely derailed.
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DOES THE PRODUCTION TEAM HAVE EXAMPLES OF PROJECTSSIMILAR TO YOURS?
CAN THEY CONCEPT AND WRITE?
WHO OWNS THE FOOTAGE?
Not all videos are the same. A how-to video is much different than a commercial, which is much different than a branding video.
A professional video production company will archive your footage for about three years and make it available for use in new projects or additional outlets. Fly-by-night shops might not even be around in three years, or they might routinely dispose of files to keep their storage costs barebones. Be sure your valuable video assets will be there if you need them in the future.
If you need concept and script writing as part of your video creation process, make sure the examples you review are, in fact, the work product of the creative team on your project.
Often production companies maintain ownership of raw footage and provide the client only the final product. Be sure to ask if you intend to use the footage for other purposes.
ARE THEY INSURED?
HOW LONG WILL THEY KEEPTHE FOOTAGE?
As with any contractor you hire, ensure that your video production professionals carry liability insurance and workers’ compensation coverage. Many freelancers, especially those new to the profession, are operating on a shoestring budget. Although video production and editing are not high-risk ventures, any profession that requires climbing ladders and hauling gear has the potential for a fall or injury. Most reputable video production companies carry insurance to cover the loss or destruction of video assets during or after a production.
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ARE THEY PREPARED FOR THE FUTURE?
CONCLUSION
A professional video production company will view your project as an investment that pays off over a long lifespan. While high definition (HD) is today’s media standard, the conversion to 4K (UHD) content is just over the horizon. Just as standard definition (SD) video appears outdated today, HD will eventually pale in side-by-side comparisons to 4K. While HD is the likely standard for the next few years, shooting on 4K today, although slightly more expensive, lengthens to the lifespan of your footage.
You also should ask if a production company is prepared to shoot 360 | Virtual Reality (VR) footage for your product demos and other how-to videos. A VR tour that Videobred produced for the University of Mississippi football program quickly became one of the most shared pieces of content on social media.
VR is an emerging force in corporate video, and producing VR content will ultimately become a core skill you will need from a video production partner.
Whatever your message, video is the most powerful media to engage your audience and tell your organization’s unique story. Partnering with a professional video production company will cost a little more upfront, but the decision will pay off in a deeper connection with your audience, higher sales and conversions, and greater return on your investment.
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1000 HAMILTON AVE.LOUISVILLE, KY 40204
502-584-5787
www.videobred.com
Videobred, the Louisville region’s premier and most experienced video and multimedia production facility, works with clients to clearly establish your objectives, layout a production plan, and deliver your product on time and on a budget.
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