Bill Gates was a true visionary when he wrote the essay, “Content is King” in 1996. Gates believed the Internet would provide consumers a low cost medium to publish and access information. He even foreshadowed the coming of video content as a key component for online marketing.
With more than half of the world’s population online everyday, the Internet has become the premiere battleground for businesses to vie for the consumer’s attention.
For businesses, the challenge is to come up with the most efficient way to reach their target audience and consistently deliver quantifiable results.
Does such a low cost, high reward marketing technique exist?
Yes and that is why you need to include video content in your marketing tool box.
5 Benefits of Video Content for Your Business
Video content or video marketing is simply the process or strategy of using videos to promote your brand, product or service.
Text content remains a powerful vehicle for delivering your branded value proposition but it will not match the efficiency of video content.
Put it this way, would you rather spend seven minutes reading a 2,400 word article on the 10 best smartphones in the market or 2 minutes watching a video on the same topic?
In 2015, Microsoft came up with a groundbreaking study that showed people have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. The marketing takeaway being if you don’t capture the attention or interest of the consumer within 6 seconds, you may lose him or her at that moment.
One of the best tips we give our clients at Mountaintop is to add an explainer video on their homepage.
An explainer video is a great way to hook a potential customer because everything they would need to know to convince them to explore your site further can be done in 1 or 2 minutes.
And studies show, videos extend the attention span of the consumer by another 10 to 20 seconds.
Here are 5 other benefits of video content for your business:
1. Video is an excellent medium for delivery.
Video engages with at least two of your senses: sight and sound plus the added bonus of empathy if it is a well-executed production. A study by HubSpot showed that 80% of consumers remember the content of a video they saw one month earlier.
2. Video content can significantly boost your website’s SEO.
In the same Hubspot study, it revealed that 65% of decision makers will visit a website after viewing its video content. Also, vendors of products report 39% of inquiries come from businesses that have seen their marketing videos.
3. Video content delivers on all devices.
Responsive design has become the norm in website development since 2014. Videos will perform well on mobile devices. Whether you are using a tablet or a smartphone, videos will continue to enhance and influence User Experience or UX.
4. Video content enhances your branding efforts.
As we mentioned earlier, video has the advantage of appealing to your senses of sight and hearing. The smart use of color, voice, music and imagery can strongly influence the perspectives and opinions of your viewers and enhance your branding efforts.
5. Video content has a higher probability of going viral.
Another interesting statistic from the HubSpot study is that 92% of mobile users who watch videos will share them with others. Another study by Single Grain showed that video is shared 1,200% more than links and text content combined.
Believe us when we say there are still more benefits of video content for your business. Adding video content as part of your Digital Marketing strategy is not just because “Everybody’s doing it”.
Below is a chart from HubSpot which shows the type of content Internet users most want to see from brands and businesses. You can clearly see the wide, significant gap video content has over other types of content:
If you want to reach out to your target audience in the fastest, most effective and cost efficient way, you should invest in video content marketing.
12 Types of Video Content to Consider for Your Business
Before you start filming, you should know what type of video content would be most beneficial for your business. There are 12 types to consider and each one will have its own set of advantages depending on your goals:
1. Demo Videos –
Show your audience how your product works. This will be effective for businesses that have products which need assembly or have several features. Examples would include kitchen appliances and smartphones.
2. Brand Videos –
The purpose of brand videos is to introduce yourself, the business, products and services to a target audience. This is a great way to build relationships with your target audience.
3. Event Videos –
If your business is hosting an event, business forum, trade show or roundtable discussion an event video is the way to go. Take video snippets of the most important and relevant activities such as keynote speakers, product shots and audience turnout.
4. Expert Interviews –
One of the best ways to gain credibility and trust with your audience is to have a video interview with a respected and acknowledged expert in your industry.
5. How-to Videos –
This is a type of video that will help the audience find the answer to the question, “Why do you need my product or service?” For example, at Mountaintop we could produce a video on this article.
6. Explainer Videos –
We discussed this type of video in the previous section but we should also note that it can be done similar to a How-To video by simply shooting it from the perspective of the end user.
7. Animated Videos –
Do you want to show your audience how bitcoin miners calculate complex mathematical formulas in the blockchain? Animated videos can greatly simplify information that would otherwise be too complicated to explain.
8. Testimonial Videos –
Client testimonials are one of the most powerful ways to build trust for your product and service. This is often the final push to get your audience to patronize your business. A testimonial video is perceived as honest and sincere because it discloses actual results and the genuine response of an end user.
9. Live Videos –
Streaming live videos are a great way of getting your audience involved in your business. Show them what a day is like in the office. If you’re into product manufacturing, stream a live feed on how your merchandise is made. People in the fitness industry often stream live workouts to their followers.
10. 360 Degree and Virtual Reality Videos –
360 degree and VR videos give your audience a bird’s eye view of your business. These are particularly effective for hotels, resorts and restaurants. These types of videos are also entertaining for the audience because they allow them to control their own experience.
11. Augmented Reality Videos –
Augmented reality videos add another digital layer to your content. This is great for those in the interior design and architectural business.
For example, a viewer can point his or her camera phone to a chair and see how it would fit in your video layout.
12. Personalized Messages –
You can customize your content by producing a personal message in video format.
For example, if you are selling a fitness tracker, you can make a video message to a follower whom you have previously communicated and send him/her an update on the latest models.
Personalized message videos are effective in pushing a prospect further down the sales funnel.
How to Create Your First Video Content
When you finally decide to include video content as part of your marketing strategy, it doesn’t mean you should take out a loan from the bank and buy the latest and most advanced film equipment.
In the first place, your smartphone camera may be enough to film a high quality video. Smartphones like the iPhone 7 have amazing filmmaking features that are comparable with top-of-the line cameras.
Secondly, the video alone won’t cut it. You need a message to deliver to your audience. The content of your message will determine how your video will be shot.
If you haven’t done video content before or have but with little success, here are four simple steps on how to create one that will enhance your overall marketing campaign:
1. Revisit and Update Your Content Marketing Strategy.
Before producing your first video, review your current content marketing strategy. Whenever you introduce a new element to your campaign, its entire dynamic will change.
You may have to revise your content marketing strategy to open up a section that can be addressed more effectively through video content.
The marketing budget may have to be adjusted in case your revised strategy will require investing in production equipment, renting a studio, acquiring talent, scriptwriters or the assistance of film professionals.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- “Why did I decide to create video content?”
- “What is the primary objective of my video content?”
- “How would my audience benefit from my video?”
- “How would I go about producing the video?”
- “What would be my distribution strategy for the video?”
It will be difficult to maximize the effectiveness of video content unless you can get it to fit into your content marketing strategy.
2. Prepare a Profile of Your Audience.
If revisiting and reviewing your content marketing strategy provides the “Why” to your video content, then preparing a profile of your audience is the “Who”. Unless you develop a keen understanding of who your target audience is, then your video content may not be seen by the people expected to get the most value from it.
Where to begin?
Look back at your past content and analyze which ones generated the highest levels of “likes”, “shares” and levels of engagement.
Which distribution channel accounted for the largest viewership? Where do the bulk of your followers come from? What issues were commonly raised or commented on by your audience?
Once you’ve come up with a profile of your audience, you will be able to fine-tune the content of your video and identify the most effective channels for distribution.
3. Produce Videos According to Scale.
The advice “start out small” applies to producing your first video. Don’t pull out all the stops and come up with a Hollywood production number when you are testing the marketing waters for the first time with video content.
Again the best place to start would be your past content. Pick out high performing blog posts and create a short video which would further augment its content. For example, we at Mountaintop could produce a video for our blog post “Why Your Website Needs Responsive Design”.
You could also start out by producing an explainer video like one on your products and services and embed it on your Home Page or Services page.
If your video content generates higher returns, slowly scale up the production schedule. You may have to expand your budget but at least you will be more reassured of your investment.
4. Subject Your Videos to Frequent Testing.
Even if you’ve done your homework and followed your content marketing strategy to the letter, do not get complacent and allow yourself to believe your video content will deliver positive results.
Video content like all forms of content should be subjected to testing before getting published or distributed. Content seen through the eyes of another will give you filters you won’t have because of personal biases.
Take note of their comments and assess which ones should be considered as a basis for revising content.
And even once you’ve uploaded the videos, the evaluation should not stop.
Establish benchmarks to measure how your videos are performing and be prepared to introduce improvements in content whenever necessary.
Conclusion
Numbers don’t lie. If you want your marketing campaign to meet or surpass its goals, you must invest in video content production.
It is a proven and time-tested approach to successfully delivering content to your audience. And demand for video content will only increase as mobile technology continues to evolve and the Internet becomes accessible to more people around the world.
It does not matter if you are a large-scale corporation or a small business owner. Video content will help your current marketing strategy gain more traction.
Are you interested in creating your first video content? Give us a call or send us an email and we will help you get started!
