Capture More Customers with Video -The Why, What and How

By Jules Blundell

Your customers are watching more video than ever before, with online video users expected to double to 1.5 billion by 2016. Add this to the fact that video is more affordable and accessible than ever, and it's clear that there has never been a better time to leverage this medium in your business. But how can you use video strategically, in a way

• Language: English
• Publisher: VideoBuzz
• Release date: Oct 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9780992595760

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

WHY VIDEO?

We are watching more video than ever before, with over a billion users watching 6 billion hours of video each month on YouTube alone.¹

What’s more, online video viewing is still growing, with video users expected to reach 1.5 billion in 2016 and with predictions that 74% of internet traffic will be video by 2017, non-video content will become increasingly obsolete.

So with video getting more and more consumers’ attention and hours of watching, it’s no surprise that it’s become a very attractive tool for companies, big and small, to market their products and services. Beyond the amount of traffic alone, there are some fundamental reasons why video is becoming so attractive. The main ones are as follows:

Videos create more ‘buying ready’ customers

Watching a video about a product or service makes people more likely to buy. 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchasing decisions. Consumers viewing a video online are more likely to phone in an order, or make a purchase right then and there. And, according to Video Statistics: The Marketer’s Summary by Invodo (2014), shoppers who view videos are 1.81 times more likely to purchase than non-viewers.²

Videos create more engaged consumers

Only 20% of people will read the entire text on a website, whereas 80% will watch a video containing the same information.

Why? This is because watching is far less taxing on the brain than reading. It reduces the time it takes to consume information, meaning you can communicate your message faster, and it also engages both a consumer’s visual and auditory senses, giving them a more stimulating experience for brands.

We remember a video better than we remember what we’ve read

An interesting feature of the human brain is that we can remember a great deal more pictorial information than we can remember words and letters. For this reason, after 72 hours people only remember 10% of what they’ve read, as opposed to remembering a much more impressive 68% of what they’ve watched.

Videos can accomplish more in less time

As business products and services around the world become more complicated with the rise of technology, so do the messages that describe them. Video is an ideal platform to convey more complex, intricate or nuanced messages. In just two minutes you can entertain, get your message across and have a call-to-action.

Videos cut through the clutter

Today, your customers are inundated with information. They’re seeking ways to cut through all the noise and clutter to get to the one thing that will solve their problems. Video is superb at doing this because it packages up company messages in an accessible and memorable way – two vital features in a world congested with content.

Videos are great for SEO

SE-what? SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the art of getting your website to rank higher in Google’s search results (or any other search engine’s results), which means your business will be found by more potential customers.

Videos are a staggering 53 times more likely than traditional web pages to appear on the first page of search results and, once a visitor clicks through to your site, the amount of time they spend on your site also increases as you incorporate more video. And once they leave, they are far more likely to come back.

Videos are easy to share

Sharing online content is an integral part of modern life, and videos result in more shares, tweets and likes than plain text. This means your videos are far more likely to spread the word about your business than any other marketing content.

Video is extremely mobile friendly

The widespread shift from traditional media towards the consumption of content on people’s mobile devices is hard to ignore. One of the obvious features of this shift is that people are now reading and seeing things on quite small screens, often the smartphones in their hands. A lot of effort has gone into repurposing online content into mobile-friendly formats but a significant driver of the move to video is that it’s one of the best formats to receive information on a small screen. It’s not surprising that consumers prefer to watch a video about a product or service on their mobile than to try and read the small text on a mobile-friendly website.

Put simply – videos sell. They sell your services, your products, your brand and your commitment.

And there has never been a better time to communicate your company messages, products and services through video. Why? Because, in the past, making a video for your business was expensive, which meant it was an option only available to large companies and brands that could afford to advertise on TV. Today almost any business can produce a video, even on a mobile phone.

So how can you take advantage of video?

We’ve discussed some of the reasons why video can be a great vehicle to carry marketing messages or content about companies products or services. But before you jump in, it’s important to understand that video production requires strategy, planning and structured execution.

I’m sure we’ve all seen poorly produced or conceived videos. They are generally uninteresting, meaning you click off as soon as you can (usually in the first 5–8 seconds). And when a company publishes a bad video, it makes the viewer wonder if their products and services are of the same