Why video is powerful for marketing in 2017?

The future has already arrived. 2016 has been a full-on video revolution year for marketers. According to Wyzowl statistics, 61% of businesses have incorporated video as a marketing tool. 66% of these companies were not using video a year ago. This trend has progressed rapidly and will reach new heights sooner than we think.

Undoubtedly, video marketing is one of the newest additions in your promotion toolbox. You might still have your doubts. Is it really worth to consider using videos for promoting your business? Do you have enough resources to study and apply video content in your marketing?

The answer is simple: Yes, it’s worth it. Not only because everyone’s doing it but because video is one of the most versatile and profitable digital marketing tool out there. Here are 8 reasons why you should use video marketing right now.

First things first. Videos can make you some serious money. Adding a product video on your landing page can increase conversions by 80%.

Video can also lead directly to sales. Studies show that 74% of users who watched an explainer video about a product subsequently bought it. So better start crafting your exciting product videos now!

If you think about it, the effectiveness of video is not even that surprising. After all, vision is our most dominant sense. Most information transmitted to our brain is visual. So if already pictures can boost engagement massively, imagine what moving pictures can do to your business.

To get you even more excited, 76% of businesses say that video provides good return on investment. Even though video production is not yet the easiest nor cheapest task, it pays off big time. Besides, online video editing tools are constantly improving and becoming more affordable. And even your smartphone can make pretty decent videos already.

Another good news is that your videos don’t have to be perfect. It’s the content that matters! Latest research shows that users are mostly put off by videos that don’t explain the product or service clearly enough. Low quality and poor design didn’t matter nearly as much. So it’s fair to say that video is like pizza – when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good!

Trust is the foundation of conversions and sales. But building trust should be a goal on its own. The whole concept of content marketing is based on trust and creating long-term relationships. Stop selling and let the people come to you by providing them interesting and useful information.

Video does it all. Video content is likely to engage us and ignite emotions. And when we talk about elite people in the audience, YouTubers have become the most powerful social media figure to promote your brand. So, if you are serious about content marketing, you must be serious about video, too.

Videos allow you to increase the time spent by visitors on your site. Thus, longer exposure builds trust and signals search engines that your site has good content. Moovly gives us whopping statistics: You’re 53 times more likely show up first on Google if you have a video embedded on your website. Since Google now owns YouTube, there has been a significant increase on how much videos affect your search engine rank.

Make sure to optimise your videos on Youtube for SEO. Write interesting titles and descriptions. Add a link back to your website, products and services. Give potential customers the way to take the next step.  And explore the world of interactive videos, to encourage actions even more.

Video and mobile go hand in hand. From 2012 to 2014, mobile video views have increased by 400 percent. YouTube reports mobile video consumption rises 100% every year. Since people like to watch videos on the go, and the amount of smartphone users is growing, your video audience keeps getting bigger and bigger.

In addition, Google tells us that smartphone users are twice as likely than TV viewers and 1.4 times more likely as desktop viewers to feel a sense of personal connection to brands that show video content or ads on their devices.

That being said, brands need to be sensitive to the personal experience people have on their smartphones. For example, give them a better choice in the video content they consume.

Launching a new product or a service? Create a video to show how it works. 98% of users say they’ve watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. That is why 45% of businesses who use video marketing said that they have an explainer video on their home page. Of those businesses, 83% said that their home page explainer video was effective.

Trying to explain a difficult concept? Create animated videos. Animation can bring concepts to life that no text or live video can. Besides, boring talking heads are not enough anymore to break through the clutter. Animated videos are a perfect combination of entertainment, nostalgia and simplicity. And they work.

Video is a great tool for learning but it’s also super easy to consume. Today’s life is too busy to have time to read long product descriptions or dig deep into services. The modern customer wants to see the product in action. This is one of the most important driving forces of video advertising.

Video marketing can capture a wide audience and it works on many levels. Even the laziest ones. Make sure you target not only to the eyes but also to the ears of the potential client. Your competitive advantage gets double power!

In the 8th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report Michael Stelzner stated that 60% of the social marketers used video content in 2015 and 73% of the total respondents planned to use it in 2016. And they sure did.

Social networks also encourage video content with their new features. Facebook has launched 360-degree Video, Live Video, and Lifestage (A Video-Centric App for Teenagers). Instagram put in place 60-Second Videos & Instagram Stories, Twitter has Periscope. And YouTube is the second most popular social network in the world.

However, in social media context video marketers must remember that people share emotions, not facts.  76% of users say they would share a branded video with their friends if it was entertaining. So create fun entertaining videos to encourage social shares. Emotions are not exactly ROI but social shares can increase traffic to your site, and you can take it from there.

Video advertising is becoming more and more affordable and widespread. Partly because advanced technologies but also because it’s easy to spread across the globe. Making marketing videos for your business requires creativity and knowledge of human psychology. The cocktail of these components makes it possible to create real miracles of advertising at minimal cost.

Emotionally charged, creative video advertising can be spread on the Internet in a matter of days, getting millions of views. And this is the whole point of video marketing: the only creative survive!