Video Marketing 101: Why It Works

This isn’t the first article to post about the effectiveness of video marketing. Video content is rapidly growing. By 2018, video traffic will be 79% of all consumer Internet traffic, according to Cisco. The importance of investing in video content has been shouted from business rooftops and heralded as a top priority of every brand’s marketing strategy. But let’s break it down into basics and understand why it works.

Easy to Process Content

Videos are very effective and versatile in connecting with an audience because the content is more personable and concise. Creating short video blogs and educational how-to tutorials that are relevant to your market puts a very personal touch to your business and creates a deeper connection with your audience. By focusing your marketing efforts on video content, you are increasing your brand recognition and humanizing your business.

Give Your Brand a Voice

Every brand needs a web presence, but not only that, a brand personality needs to be established, or your efforts at connecting with an audience may be in vain. Your company may already have a basic social media strategy in effect, but by pairing social content with video marketing, you’re creating a more personable and naturally engaging brand. By giving your brand a voice, literally, you’re establishing a more effective platform to speak from.

In order to do this, you must first decide what you want your business to say. What are your brand’s beliefs and goals? Who is a part of your business team? What do they bring to the table? These are good questions that will help you narrow down the type of brand identity you are looking for. Once you’ve established your voice, be consistent with your message. A consistent brand is crucial not only for creating a connection but maintaining it with your audience.

Endless Audience Reach

Video marketing can help your brand with web visibility by providing a platform for effectively engaging, not only with clients and potential clients but the general interested public. So, with all this talk about engaging an audience, where do you put these videos to gain the best visibility?

YouTube is a great place for hosting your videos and promoting videos through paid advertising. It is the #1 video platform, and according to Nielsen, reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any cable network. Additionally, it is perfect for videos that are tailored to a specific product, service or interest group. YouTube’s search algorithm functions similarly to Google’s web search, so creating and maintaining an account for your brand is an effective way to keep your company on the web search radar. When you link your YouTube account to your Google+ profile, you can auto-share your content across multiple platforms.

Facebook isn’t just for keeping in touch with those old high school colleagues anymore. It has an average of 1 billion video views each day. This is a great platform for brands that are already utilizing Facebook for social media strategies and would like to add a little more growth to their engagement. By adding video content to your social strategy, you are ramping up your visibility in the social world, and establishing your brand in the video marketing world. One, two, punch.

Your company website is another place to feature video marketing. This won’t necessarily gain new followers or clients as rapidly as YouTube or Facebook might, however, it will create consistency with your messaging and reinforce your brand identity among your loyal customer base. It’s not just about gaining new followers but maintaining them as well.

With video traffic increasing and the effortless accessibility of video sharing, it’s not surprising that video is taking a front row seat in marketing strategies. By establishing your brand in the video marketing world, and maintaining consistency in your messaging, you open yourself up to a broader audience, more interest, and larger customer potential. The best advice for businesses is to grab onto the video marketing coattails and hitch a ride.