Marketing campaigns built around video allow you to engage with your audience on a deeper level. Telling stories through video will build brand awareness, increase leads, conversions and ultimately sales.
However the upfront costs required can make businesses hesitate. The root cause of hesitation can stem from not understanding how the video will give a return on investment. Working with brands and businesses for nearly a decade, we have seen this.
We thought we would share some awesome facts about the power of video!
94% of marketers agree that videos have helped increase users understanding of their products or service. According to a yearly report completed by wyzowl, nearly all marketers agreed on the benefits of videos. How does a customer know what makes your product etc special, how will they know why to buy from you and not your competitor. Video is a great way to show audiences why they need to purchase from you.
Video now accounts for 65% of all internet traffic. According to the intelligence firm Sandvine – in 2022 their Global Internet Phenomena Report proved an increase in data usage from video sites, increasing by 24% each year. With the growing availability of video, customers are going to start expecting to see videos answering their questions. So they can get the information they need when they want it. If you don’t have videos you are running the risk of your competitors getting an edge.
71% of marketers created social media videos in 2022. Analysing the data from wyzowl, they saw that the main types of videos which were being created were made for social media - with a massive 71%. Other interesting stats show that in the top 5 of types of videos being made are Social Media videos, Explainer videos, Presentation videos, Testimonial Videos and finally video ads.
Viewers retain as much as 95% of a marketer’s message when they watch it in video! Forbes compared video marketing to other sources, and much like “a picture says 1000 words”, video allows audiences to take in and remember a massive amount of information. Another interesting fact is that the increase in the click through rate associated with using video is as high as 96% when compared to image and text based content.
Back in 2019, 49% of people asked watched more than 5 videos per day. According to Promo’s 2019 marketing study about video consumption habits, 49% of people said they watch more than 5 videos a day. I would be inclined to think that these figures are even higher now.
87% say video marketing has helped them increase sales. Once again reading data from the 2022 report made by wyzowl – they saw that a massive 87% of those marketers asked had seen a direct increase in sales from using video. But also interestingly 91% of those asked reported increased traffic.
89% of people say watching a video has convinced them to buy a product or service. The report from wyzowl even considered consumer behaviour. Think about it, the last time you were looking at making a major purchase, did you go online and watch any video content which helped you make your decision?
YouTube has more than 2.5 Billion active users! According to a study from Statistica in January 2023, YouTube has more than 2.5 billion active users. Think about that for a moment, the potential customer pool from using video could reach people worldwide. Some businesses may not need a global reach as they may provide services to customers locally, in that occasion there are many clever ways of targeting your video to people with certain interests, ages, job roles etc. Raising your local profile and brand awareness would give you the best opportunity to gain new customers.
51% of people are more likely to share video with their friends than any other type of content, making video comfortably the most ‘shareable’ type of online content. Another interesting take away from the article from wyzowl – its obvious that when creating any kind of content, from text to photos to video –the key is getting people to see it. If no one sees it then you have 100% chance of getting nothing from it. Since the explosion of social media the more audience interest you gain then you may even be able to leverage your customer base to share your products for you, this becomes free marketing!
41% of responses from a survey said videos reduce support calls. Additionally from wyzowl - Think about how long that you may speak to customer’s trouble shooting issues. Videos can be a “say it once” approach which can then give you hours back from you or your team’s working week. Visually walk your customers instillation and set up of their purchase in an interesting way. Another version of this can be deepening sales conversations, say you have a new prospect and you are setting up a meeting, why not have several explainer videos and share them with the prospect before the meeting. No longer on the sales meeting would you have to walk through some of the simple frequently asked questions, you can get right into your customers needs.
It’s clear to see that Video marketing is crucial for any business, but going in with a clear plan as to how you will track its performance is important in understanding the return on investment.
Here's a couple of tips on how to understand your returns:
It all comes down to data, if you understand your profit margin on your products and services. You can actually make a direct connection between how many units were sold against the costs of the videos. A great way to track direct sales would be to add a discount code to the video. That should give you an indication of your conversion rate from those that watch your video to those that purchase. And you can then work out how many products would you need to sell to cover all of your costs and at what point you begin to make a profit.
For Product videos, understanding how much time on average you spend answering customer’s calls and assisting them with their products is an important metric. For each customer that calls with issues you could then let them know you will email them through some instructional guides, or lead them to where they are on the website. If you saved 30 minutes 3 to 4 times a week, you could then work out against your hourly rate, how many customers you need to send the videos to cover your initial investment.
Like all marketing endeavours it is important to work out the data and parameters which will allow you to understand how your investments are performing.Having a clear goal to start: amount of views, sales, hours saved will be important in figuring out that information.