5 reasons to kickstart your video strategy

Marketers have to keep on top of a whole bunch of trends related to how people consume and engage with content but, right now, video has to be top of the list. Whether you want to expand your reach on social channels and build your audience, communicate your brand story in the most engaging way possible, or convert existing audience members into customers, supporters or users, video is the sharpest tool in the marketer’s box. Here are five great reasons for getting your video strategy in shape.

Video was 2017’s biggest marketing trend

Use of video exploded in 2017, with social channels racing to perfect their native video support and consumption of video content continuing its meteoric rise.

• Facebook changed their algorithm to prioritise video at the top of our feeds
• Instagram successfully introduced Stories and extended the duration of native video to 1 minute
• YouTube viewing time grew by more than 60% YoY

In publishing, the ‘pivot to video’ trend saw media companies build substantial in-house production capabilities in order to feed their video-hungry digital audiences and monetise their content on Facebook and YouTube.

• 2017 also saw the introduction of Watch in the US, a platform for premium video content on Facebook.
• It has been reported that Facebook will be spending $1billion on original content for Watch this year, aiming to become a rival to YouTube, Netflix and Amazon.
• Mark Zuckerberg called video a ‘megatrend’ having seen daily views explode on the platform to 32 billion in 2017.
• Nicola Mendlesohn, Facebook’s EMEA VP, said the platform will be ‘all video’ by 2021.

Video engages viewers like no other medium

• Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined (Source: SmallBizTrends)
• Video in an email leads to 200-300% increase in click-through rates (Source: Hubspot)
• 80% of users recall a video ad they viewed in the past 30 days (Source: Hubspot)

This power of video to engage audiences can be amplified when using video in innovative, context-specific ways. When Parkinsons UK came to us looking to take their annual Parkinson’s Awareness Month campaign digital, we suggested making use of emerging personalised video technology to enable their supporters to tell their personal story and share it with their friends and family.

Video delivers powerful stories

• 92% of mobile video consumers share videos with others (Source: RendrFx)
• Video posts on Facebook have 135% greater organic reach than photo posts (Source: Social Media Today)

Unicef UK understand the power of video for communicating urgent, emotionally engaging stories. But, like most marketing teams, Unicef UK’s production of video content was constrained by budget and practical considerations. When they came to us, they wanted to improve their ability to produce video content to support urgent campaigns, even when they they weren’t able to put people on the ground to capture live-action footage.

We recommended using animation, and created a library of 2D assets – including characters, objects and landscapes, overlays, subtitles and end cards – to help them efficiently create engaging content to support both new and existing campaigns, and respond to real-world events more quickly. We also produced four one-minute films to support campaigns, including their annual winter campaign.

Video converts better than other media

• Including a video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by 80% (Source: Unbounce)
• Sixty-four percent of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos (Source: Tubular insights)

When medical device manufacturer ResMed wanted to launch a new product for people with sleep apnoea across europe and the middle east, they recognised the power of video for engaging potential customers and helping them towards the decision to make a purchase.

We helped them create a series of films which followed real-life CPAP users and their experiences using the AirMini over a four-week trial. This authentic, relatable content was hugely relevant to people considering the product, and led to landing pages which delivered twice the volume of forecast sales in the two weeks following launch.

Video is cost-effective

• 51.9% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI (Source: Hubspot)
• Video marketers grow company revenue 49% faster year-over-year than organisations without video (Source: Vidyard)

In terms of delivering a consistent ROI, no other medium for content delivery holds a candle to video. That is, as long as your video content is underpinned by a solid strategy which takes into account who your users are, what they’re interested in, and where and how they watch videos.

Conclusion

Video marketing is no flash in the pan. It’s the future of branded communications. People are creating, consuming, engaging with and sharing video content like never before and the increasing number of channels and formats through which to deliver video content means that’s a trend that’s unlikely to diminish any time soon. If you’re a marketer, you need to be creating video content.

Contact one of our motion content experts to help you create and distribute video that’s relevant to your target audiences, and achieve your marketing goals.