MAKING HEADWAY WITH VIDEO MARKETING IN 2019

The digital landscape is continuously evolving, where disruption is what makes you stand out of the crowd. One such disruption in the way businesses are attracting and engaging their potential customers, and consumers are consuming content and connecting with their favorite brands is through video marketing.

While it is indisputable that it's Youtube and later Instagram that made video a potent content marketing tool, but videos have been long used by organization spanning industries for more than 50 years.

From the first Bulova watches commercial back in 1941 to digital technology being introduced,  implemented and undergoing a massive transformation with the video feature becoming a unique feature of high-end mobile phones in the early 2000s. Video has drastically transformed the digital marketing landscape. But as mentioned above, the video technology pinnacle began with the introduction of Youtube in 2005, which became the ultimate platform for every up and coming social media channels to change how they strategized their content for maximum awareness and consumption by the target audience.

Now we, as a digital marketer have the cognizance that investing in creating and executing a quality content can yield higher returns. The conversions and sales see a remarkable spike with engaging video content. With smartphone penetration increasing minute by minute across the world, videos are especially appealing to mobile generations. The storytelling aspect of a video which increases the time a visitors spends on the website, also makes you shine in the Google Search Engine ranking, which not to forget has a substantial impact on your brand’s stature with Google acquiring youtube.

Did you know, one-third of total internet users, consumed video content through Youtube?

Or

As of now, more than 500 million hours of videos are being watched on Youtube, every day?

Staggering, isn’t it?

Now, in 2019, video marketing has become such a crucial element of a business’s digital marketing campaigns, which if not harnessed, would means losing out on significant revenue. Unlike the common herd mentality belief, you should strategize and implement a video marketing plan per your industry and your audience.

Allow me to share with you some groundbreaking statistics of 2018 that show how powerful a marketing tool can be your video content:

• If your email subject line has the word “video” in it, the probability of conversion is escalated by 13%.
• 95% of video content stays with the viewer unlike text, whose retention rate is merely 10%.
• Hubspot research report signals that when having to choose between what type of content do they wish their brand would post, video trumps the race with more than 50% nodding to its impact.

With the consumer behavior changing pattern with the passing years, so is the way businesses implementation of digital marketing strategies. The focus shifted from the motive behind video marketing being conversion centric to customer centric. With the consumer’s attention span exponentially decreasing as the internet is getting swamped with gazillions videos, what was always needed but realized a lot later was the need to create video content that makes a connection with the audience it's first few seconds.

Personalized video marketing is making a wave in this cut-throat competition world, with Vidyard’s reporting 35% higher average retention rate of personalizing videos over the non-personalized ones. If your video is successful in grabbing the right attention, forging a relationship with the customers and making diligent efforts through video campaigns in maintaining it, your brand is what could set the benchmark for the aspirers.

Talking about the evolving consumer behavior, the video marketing tactics have also evolved to a remarkable extent in 2018, where unlike before marketers have the freedom to make the video more actionable, measurable and optimized for the target audience.

Also, 2018 saw video marketing being more interactive than ever before with the introduction of the live video stream on social media platforms. This helped more with the engagement and retention compared to the pre-recorded videos.

How should video marketing be strategized in 2019?

With Cisco predicting 80% of the web traffic is the result of a video by 2019 and Renderforest report suggesting 93% of users will consider video creation a priority, in 2019, it's about time we strategize an aggressive video marketing approach from now on.  

• Take care of the video length:

Per the Vidyard video blog marketing statistical reports 2018, videos under 90 second see an average retention rate of 59% whereas video more than 30 minutes long has 14% of retention rate. Not that it wasn't clear, but consumers have a shorter attention span, and if you fail at striking a cord in the first few seconds, you will have a tough time enlightening your target base about your brand’s purpose.

• Reach out to the right audience:

I cannot emphasize enough on why generating curiosity of the right audience is essential. No matter how qualitative your content is, how innovative is your video production, if you are unable to send the message across the right audience, your campaign will be deemed a failure.

• Create more interactive video content:

Going one step ahead in interactive video marketing, 360 video content are sure to see a boom as they provide the consumers with a more interactive experience. 360 video content. Similarly live streaming video content will help brands with enhances brand engagement and retention.

• Strengthen the relationship with the audience:

Marketing is primarily about building trust, relationships and materializing them for the benefit of the parties involved. For customers to be able to trust their brands, they should be able to see the brand as authentic. Instead of spending big bucks on video production, it would be profitable if the videos are curated, taking inspiration from real life.

• Be consistent with video posting:

As the consumption of video content is increasing, with brand videos playing a pivotal role in influencing the consumers purchasing decision, it is essential that the businesses are consistent with their postings. Furthermore, make use of videos to not only inform the audience but also communicate with them. For example, we see Influencers on Instagram taking up queries and answering them in the videos or stories.

Concluding my take on how video marketing is going to expand further as our technology and researchers become more profound, I find the quote by Facebook’s Engineering Director, Srinivas Narayanan, apt for what we are anticipating in video marketing. It goes: If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is a library.

Share what you feel about the scope of video marketing in 2019 and beyond!