The Importance of Video and Video Platforms for Digital Marketing

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On February 14, 2005, YouTube activated its website, but the first video wasn’t uploaded until April. By November that year, YouTube was considered a success when a Nike ad was the first to reach one million views. One month later, the site was getting over 8 million views per day. YouTube wasn’t the first video site on the internet, but it certainly was the fastest growing one.

Over 15 years later, Demandsage calls YouTube the second most popular social media site in the world with 2.56 billion users. Video is one of the most popular types of content that is consumed. YouTube and TikTok have always been about video content, but today, we’re seeing even more platforms focus on video. Hubspot reports that the average person spends over 19 hours a week viewing videos online. NO business can afford to ignore this powerful tool. Are you using it to get your message across and engage your audience?

Why Use Videos on Social Media

Video is a way to connect with customers, and there are specific reasons video works so well to improve brand awareness, traffic to your website, and sales using video. Now that networks are faster, it makes sense to use videos as part of your marketing strategy. Don’t take our word for it, though. The statistics bear it out.

  • Mobile users like video.
    Hubspot reports that people are 1.5 times more likely to watch video every day on their smartphone. Yans Media says that American users spend up to 30 minutes each day watching videos. What’s more, 92% of videos watched on a mobile device are shared. Want to get more mileage out of your content? Video content is the way to go.
  • Video content builds trust and educates.
    Modern shoppers don’t just search and buy. Today’s consumers go through a process to make a purchase. Digital marketing has to appeal to customers at different points along their shopping journey. Your audience wants to be educated and to learn more about your brand before they buy. Video content is a way to connect with those users.
  • Video content keeps users on your site longer.
    One way to support your SEO strategy is to keep users on your site longer. You want visitors to interact with your content. Watching videos is a good way to increase the length of time that users stay on your website. One study found that users could spend up to 6 minutes on pages with videos and only as much as 4.3 minutes on pages without video. Of course, the videos must be engaging. Many users don’t mind lower production quality, but they want authentic videos that offer real value, rather than perfectly produced videos that don’t say much of anything.

How to Get Started with Videos

It’s easy to create videos these days. Almost everyone has a smartphone with the capability to record a video. Unfortunately, that’s the easy part. The hard part is creating a video digital marketing strategy. Your video should support your brand. You don’t want to waste time re-shooting and editing a video that doesn’t have a purpose and isn’t interesting to your audience.

Know Your Target Audience

The people who use Facebook are much different than those who hang out on YouTube or TikTok. You need to create content for your audience. Before you start creating videos, look at your buyer personas to find out what they relate to.

Know Where You Plan to Promote Your Video

When you know your audience, you’ll be able to decide where you plan to show your video. This is important because some platforms have time limits. There might be sound and size limits on your video. Also, you may want to be aware of your audience’s expectations. A 10-minute video may not go over on Facebook, where people watch shorter videos. But that same video may work on another platform.

Set Goals

Before you ever film a scene, you want to decide what the video is trying to do. What step do you want your audience to take after they see the video? This can help reduce your frustration by giving you a target when creating a video.

Decide on Your Message

Once you know your goals and your target audience, you can then decide on the message of the video. You want the video to be engaging to your audience, so keep in mind what they want to hear.

Determine How to Measure Success

When you’re creating a video, you want to know how you’ll determine whether your content was valuable to the user. Identify what metrics you’ll be measuring to see if your video does what you thought it should.

How Expert WSI eMarketing Can Help

A lot goes into making digital content for your marketing strategy. Expert WSI eMarketing has experts who can help you find solutions for your marketing problems.

Call us at 713-338-3488 to learn more about e-commerce website design and digital marketing strategies, or contact us online to book a digital strategy consultation.