Video is slowly replacing the written word. Newspapers, magazines, books, even marketing materials are on a glacial course towards irrelevance. Today, people carry around portable phone/camera/video screen combos that are always connected, always online. Year after year, we see the demand for online video rise and the demand for other online content forms diminish. According to Hubspot, 81% of businesses are using video marketing in 2021. That’s 18% more than 2020. Video is what your prospects want, and it can help your business capitalize. Continue reading to see how.
Video Marketing Helps Tell Your Brand Story
Your brand has to be more than just a logo and look to influence your prospects and drive conversions. Your brand needs a story. According to a Stackla survey, 86% of consumers say authenticity is essential to determining which brands they like and use. Developing your brand story creates a personality for your brand and allows you to be authentic and purposeful in your communication with prospects. If you’re looking to redefine your brand story or define it for the very first time, ask us about Bold Entity’s proprietary branding process.
However, creating your brand story is just the start. You also have to put your brand story into the world and share it. Your brand story should permeate and influence all your business communications, including your emails, website, and social media. To ensure your authenticity has an impact, follow the wizened advice of show, don’t tell. Words are great and do things no other communication medium can, but if a photograph is worth a thousand words and a video is thousands of images, you can do the math. Video marketing allows your authenticity to shine and can create emotional resonance with your prospects in a matter of minutes, even seconds. And when you have less than 15 seconds on average to capture an online user’s attention, every second counts.
Video Marketing Increases Online Presence and Engagement
Video is no longer the future of social media. It’s the present. The popularity of Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, Twitter Video, and TikTok all prove that video is where people are, and it’s where your brand needs to be. Add to social media the continued success of live streams, YouTube, and webinars, and it’s apparent that if you’re not using video marketing, you’re behind the curve. According to Hubspot, just using “video” in an email subject line increases open rates by an average of 19%.
You can increase your online presence and engagement by creating videos to be shared on social media and improve your SEO. Video content gets more social media engagement than any other type of content and creates another vector for your brand to show up on search engines. Your video is content that can show up on Google and YouTube (the third most popular search engine). Video marketing creates a higher quality of communication than words and still images. It’s the perfect media for showing real-time results and disseminating complex information.
Many businesses believe producing video is time-consuming and expensive. But it doesn’t have to be to start. You can make an excellent video with the phone in your pocket and natural sunlight. Here’s our Get Started Video Marketing How-To for more information. Or, you can Contact Bold Entity for a professional video shoot. It’s less expensive than you think.
Video Marketing as Your Sales Tool
Any sizable purchase made in today’s world is researched online. The more expensive the product or service, the more research is done to make sure your prospects make the right decision. This quantity of research is especially true for B2B buyers.
You can use online video to inform and educate your audience. Product and service demonstrations are an excellent place to start with video marketing. Address your prospects’ problems and show how your offering is the right solution and can be implemented to resolve their challenge. Video marketing is an especially great medium for demonstrations for niche and complex products/services that require more explanation.
Consider using video for installation or setup instructions. The iconic IKEA furniture instructions show rather than tell you how to construct a piece of furniture. Some products and services now include a quick start guide with a link to a more informative step-by-step video. And video marketing can be used to improve your post-purchase support. Adding a video component to your FAQs or help section makes it twice as easy for your customers to find the answer they’re seeking.
Another way to use video marketing as your sales tool is by turning the camera on your customers. Social proof is a critical weapon in your sales arsenal. Seize every opportunity you have to showcase someone else saying how great you are. Video testimonials often perform better than their written counterparts because they show the actual customer and their authentic feelings towards your brand and its offerings.
Next Steps
Now is the time for you to start creating video marketing for your brand. You can dip your toes with your iPhone and Instagram Stories or take the plunge and Contact Bold Entity to help you create a brand overview video, holiday greetings, or video testimonials for your website. We can even help you record training videos and educational webinars. Get started video marketing today.
