The Most Overlooked Marketing Tactic: Video

The following is adapted from Stop Random Acts of Marketing.

In marketing, you should always keep your audience in mind. We live in a time in which visual learning is the norm and millennials now expect to consume the majority of their information in this manner. Most millennials aren’t going to read white papers the way previous generations did, so you need to use other methods of conveying information.

Many mid-market companies miss out on one communication channel that holds a lot of opportunity: video. Why not serve rising generations the way they want to be served?

With video, you can share information in a visual, engaging way that will resonate with younger generations. Let’s take a closer look at why you should use video and how you can create effective video content even on a budget.

Why You Should Use Video

Video is one of the most effective methods of communication. According to Forrester Research, one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words, because you’re able to express a very complex message in just sixty seconds of video.

Video is also one of the most widely consumed forms of content. YouTube is the second most trafficked site after Google, with over a billion active users. On mobile alone, YouTube reaches more people in this US audience than any TV network. 

Here are a few other interesting stats about video from sources such as Unbounce and Buffer:

• Viewers retain 95 percent of a message when they watch it on a video, compared to 10 percent when reading it in text.
• Companies that use video in their marketing have a 27 percent higher click-through rate and 34 percent higher conversion rate than those that don’t.
• 59 percent of executives would rather watch a video than read text, which is a key point, particularly if you’re targeting visual-learning millennials.

From a Hubspot 2018 research study, video was often cited as a tool that helps drive various areas of business performance. Among its benefits, video is an excellent teaching tool. Ninety-seven percent of marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service, and a lot of people watch video for precisely this purpose. In fact, 95 percent of people say they have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. Greater user understanding can reduce support queries as well as increase sales.

Don’t believe that videos can help close sales? Seventy-six percent of marketers say video has helped them increase sales, and 81 percent of people say they've been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.

There’s really no question: video marketing has been proven to be a valuable tool. However, many companies feel that it is not feasible for them due to cost. In truth, creating video content can be much cheaper—and easier—than you would think.

Video Content on a Budget

Executives often have a wrong perception about the costs of video production. They might imagine, for example, that they will need to spend $10,000 to $15,000 to produce the perfect company video. They also might think that making each video will require significant time and attention. Because of such thinking, many companies neglect video altogether.

The fact of the matter is that any company today can create videos in-house at very little cost. With a smartphone (IOS or Android) and a basic tripod, you can capture video with enough quality to get your messages across. Yes, there are always more expensive options, but those options would only make sense if video is a core communication method. For most companies, it is simply another communication channel to utilize.

At CenterBeam, an IT managed service provider, we produced a new technical solution that was incredibly powerful for CIOs. The problem was that no one, except our CTO, could explain the solution fully. I could barely write about the new software integration because it was so complicated.

With a limited budget, we weren’t sure how we could adequately communicate what we now had to offer. I suggested that we use my iPhone and a tiny tripod to film several snippets of our CTO being interviewed about the innovation we had developed.

Each video began with someone asking him a simple question or prompt. They might say, “Tell us why this is so relevant for the mid-market CIO today.” Then our CTO would share a brief explanation and the story behind the solution.

After we filmed him answering all the questions, we broke the video into parts, uploaded the snippets to YouTube, and embedded those onto our website. At the end of the day, we had spent nothing other than a small amount of time to share this critical information with the world.

How to Use Video

There are many ways to use video content. You can use video to answer questions about a product, like we did at CenterBeam. You can also use video to support your sales process. If a sales rep can’t answer an important question a prospect has, they can quickly pull up a video on a tablet or a phone. Video content is also well suited for many social media channels. 

Keep your videos short, each with a clear message. This way, viewers are more likely to watch until the end, and some viewers will also take an action—like clicking a link to visit a landing page or reaching out to contact you.

Video marketing can seem overwhelming if you’ve never done it before, but 85 percent of people say they’d like to see more video from brands. Why not give the people what they want? You can start small. Work on creating just a single video. The more you do it, the easier and faster it will become, and the more you can reap the rewards of video, from increased web traffic, to greater conversion rates, to higher sales.

For more advice on video marketing, you can find Stop Random Acts of Marketing on Amazon.

Karen Hayward relocated to the US after two decades at Xerox Canada. She has focused on mid-market and high-growth companies, right-sizing the sales and marketing strategies learned from a world class organization. For the past four years as CMO and managing partner with Chief Outsiders, she has focused her practice on mid-market companies needing to accelerate top line revenue growth. She has been a guest lecturer at various universities and has been a featured speaker at conferences and on webcasts.