Is this the year you are ready to jump on board with video marketing for your business? The answer should be a resounding “yes” for many reasons. Maybe you have been hesitant because of high production costs, or you are not sure which platforms to use, or how to produce quality content. However, video is a powerful medium that provide tremendous opportunities to engage customers, expand your brand messaging, generate leads and even sales.

Research shows that video content has been proven an effective marketing tool in multiple ways:

• According to news shared by HubSpot:
• Video is projected to claim more than 80% of all web traffic by 2019.
• Adding a link to a video in your marketing emails can boost click-through rates by over 200%.
• 90% of customers report that product videos help them make purchasing decisions.
• 64% of customers are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video about it.
• A third of all the time people spend online is dedicated to watching videos.
• Digital marketing expert James McQuivey estimates that a single minute of video content is the equivalent 1.8 million words.

Effective ROI

With the multitude of smartphone cameras, goPro video cameras and free or inexpensive editing software available, not to mention plentiful options for low cost animation, video production does not have to be the high expense it once was. Online videos are more about content than quality and with the impressive metrics observed; video offers higher ROI than other forms of content.

Effective Content?

Video content is very effective in promoting brand recall and reinforcing brand messaging. Content can include useful product tips, answering customer FAQs, How-To demonstrations or real-life customer testimonials. These all add legitimacy and personality to a brand’s messaging, while at the same time engaging customer attention span.

Effective Platforms?

Now that you created a video, what should you do with it? Along with the traditional platforms of YouTube and Vimeo, there are now multiple live options as well, such as Facebook Live, Periscope and Instagram Live. And nothing helps boost click-through rates in emails like video links. In addition to all these platforms, you should also embed your video directly into your site – like on a landing page with a clear call to action. Video never fails to increase the web traffic and provides significant SEO benefits in raising your website’s ranking within search engines.

Effective SEO?

Video creates immediate SEO results. Ranking on Google’s first page is an SEO’s top priority, so it is difficult to ignore the 2009 Forrester study that says, “pages with video are 53Xs more likely to rank on the first page of Google search results.” That study may be eight years old, but the Google algorithm continues to prioritize video results, especially videos placed on YouTube – no doubt because of Google’s ownership of YouTube.

Video can also help lower your bounce rate. The average online attention span is less than eight seconds. If viewers leave your domain after viewing a single page, it will hurt your site’s SEO ranking. Video is a very effective way to engage visitors to your website and have them stay longer.

Just make sure your video is entertaining, informative and consistent with your business goals. Nothing is worse than a video that provide little or no value to your marketing strategy or viewer. When sharing videos on social media platforms, shorter is better – between 30 to 45 seconds. Longer, more informative videos are more appropriate on YouTube or Vimeo.

A Couple of Final Do’s and Don’ts for Videos

• Avoid having your video automatically start playing when someone visits your website.
• Create an interesting title image for your video to entice your visitor to click on it.
• Avoid one person, talking head monologues without any changes on screen
• Finally, don’t use cats in your video (unless you’re selling cat nip)