Value The Video

In a time when going viral is seen as an achievement, if your company isn't jumping on videos as a marketing tool - you're slacking. Whilst images offer something for consumers to look at, and text offers an explanation, videos allow you to communicate exactly what you want to your audience. Insivia states that in 2012, video was the fastest growing form of ad format, and not only that, but 90% of users say that seeing a video about a product is helpful in the decision process. Luke (2013) gives a great summary of what kind of benefits video marketing can have for your company, such as:

• Showing your firms personality, without a face-to-face meeting with your prospect.
• A video is searchable content, and can improve SEO.
• People are much more likely to watch a video than read a full page of text.
• Video is easier to consume on mobile devices (my Go Mobile blog touches on how important mobile friendly content is!)

So, are you taking advantage of video marketing?

What's effective?

source: Dove Real Beauty Sketches

Released in 2013, the Dove Real Beauty Sketches video has generated nearly 63 million views on YouTube, not including postings of the video on other platforms. Dove make a brilliant campaign, by proving that it's not always about how you directly advertise your product/service, nowadays, consumers are more enticed by the way you portray your industry or culture. It's important to realise that everyday consumers are flooded with ads to buy products, being creative and original can spread a buzz about your company that differentiates it from the rest. Videos help with communicating services to customers during 'high-consideration touchpoints', and can have a positive impact a customers decision during high consideration purchases, such as cars (Sluis, 2014). Some ideas of how to integrate videos into your marketing strategy are highlighted by Luke (2013), these include; company overview videos, video bios, explanatory videos, training/educational videos, video press release, training videos and email videos.

What's not effective?

With credit to Megan O'Neill from her article on 5 Reasons Web Marketers Fail With Viral Video Campaigns, here's a few pointers as to why video's can fail:

• Your video is too much like a commercial - people are less likely to share advertisements, they share shocking, funny, surprising, moving etc.
• Your campaign is unoriginal - people can watch thousands of different videos online, infact if yours doesn't interest them within the first 10 seconds, they've already got 3 more lined up on a new tab.
• You didn't spend enough time on metadata - make it searchable. Tags, description, title, all key things to concern yourself with with creating a video.
• You aren't promoting it right - sharing on social network platforms only works when you have a huge following, contact influential bloggers, bigger companies have the benefit of possibly hiring an expert within the budget.
• Finally, great idea, bad execution - this could be down to anything, production quality, script and acting, non-engaging content. Make sure you're always getting honest feedback and advice.

REFERENCES:

Luke, K. (2013) 12 Ways to Integrate Video into Your Marketing. Journal of Financial Planning. Vol. 26, No. 9, pp18-19.

Sluis, S. (2014) More Brands Invest in Video Marketing. Customer Relationship Management. Vol. 18, No. 3, p13.