Video is quickly becoming the preferred communication style that your customers want. It’s become such a powerful communication medium that just saying that you have a video in the subject line of your email can boost its open rate! Video marketing has become one of the largest areas of movement in 2015.
Videos are extremely diverse and can be used in multiple ways. For example, you could embed videos on your website, share them in email campaigns, use them to communicate internally and train sales teams, explain services to customers, and more!
Communicating Through Video
Using video, brands can effectively communicate their stories through audio as well as through a visual format—in essence, it’s digital storytelling. Marketing and distributing the video on the appropriate marketing channels is important, as well. The year 2015 has already seen a significant increase in Facebook advertising, YouTube advertising, and, of course, the good ‘ole marketing workhorse known as email, all of which are great mediums for promoting video content.
Infographic of Video Marketing Trends 2015 – provided by Syndacast.
- Video is a such a powerful communication medium that simply using it in an email subject line gains more positive results. Just using the word “Video” in the email subject lines boosts open rates 19%, increases click-through rates by 65%, and reduces unsubscribes by 26%.
- 65% of video viewers watch more than 3/4 of a video.
- 74% of all internet traffic in 2017 will be video.
- B2B and B2C marketers all over the world say video is in the top 3 most effective social media tactics.
How can you ignore stats like these? You can’t and shouldn’t.
Vertical Video is Hot on SnapChat
On SnapChat, the social media platform that’s most popular with the Millennial crowd, you’ll even see that vertical video has made a comeback and found a home on Snapchat, where it is highly preferred!
On the mobile-based SnapChat, vertical video fills the screen entirely, making the image/video take center stage on the small screen without the distractions of extra menu buttons and ad banners. It’s video in a resolution format that’s built for phones—made for the device and optimized for those watching. This is a stark contrast to the vertical videos on YouTube, which are crucified as one of the biggest no-nos on that platform (because desktops and TVs are horizontal).
Besides vertical video, why else do we bring up SnapChat? Well, that’s because Millennials, those born after 1980 and also SnapChat’s highest demographic, have now become the largest demographic in the U.S. workforce, according to the Wall Street Journal (May 2015). This change has made appealing to, reaching, and attracting millennials a key strategy for many businesses in different industries.
Video Should be Part of Your Brand’s Content Strategy
Videos can be used to communicate many different concepts, including but not limited to:
For Non-Profits:
• Sharing the story of how a non-profit came to be
• How a non-profit is making change happen because of its mission
• A how-to video of how to give or how your dollars are making a difference. For example, giving $500 sends a child to pre-K, where he or she can gain valuable skills to prepare for kindergarten; giving $1,000 facilitates training that helps an otherwise unqualified person become certified as a teaching assistant who now has the qualifications to change his or her life path, forever!
• A storytelling video of how the programs offered by the organization are making an impact
• Successes and highlights of programs launched
• Quick highlights of initiatives in progress (taking people along for the ride)
For Manufacturers:
• Creating an overview of a product to aid in purchasing decisions
• Telling the story of how the manufacturer is creating change with its product
• Telling the story of how a product can improve your customers’ lives or the way they work
• Showcasing how a product works or its features
• Creating an explainer video or a fun how-to video recipe which uses the product
• Describing the culture of the company to attract like-minded clients and employees
Ocreative is a Digital Storyteller
Ocreative, a Midwest-based integrated marketing agency, has developed several videos for our clients. We do it all in-house – from conception and planning to pre-and post-production of the animation or live action and then to marketing the video. Let’s begin telling the story of your company or organization through video. Give us a call to chat about how video can amplify your marketing.
