Video is on the rise; it’s inescapable, and there’s no stopping it, so asking why your business needs video marketing is almost the same as asking, ‘why does my business need to appeal to my target?’. After all, 81% of businesses are already using video marketing, and this is only set to increase, but that doesn’t mean all 81% of businesses are doing it effectively. Even if you’re already aware of the prevalence of video in digital marketing, it can be difficult to understand the context and know where to start if you’re not a digital marketer or video specialist.

The rise of video

For decades, video marketing was reserved for businesses with big marketing budgets. Few smaller businesses would have been able to produce good quality video marketing without spending a significant amount of money- a spend that was difficult to justify.

Now, almost everyone has access to a camera (most often on their smartphones) and can create their own amateur content. Increased accessibility to camera equipment has seen an explosion in video content on the internet and has completely altered the way we think about digital marketing.

Take influencers as an example. The first blog was published in 1994, and have launched the careers of many people, but it was vlogging that really sparked consumer appetite for videos saturated with marketing content. Think of any of the biggest YouTubers today; they don’t really hold any bars when it comes to self-promotion and sponsored content. With 6 out of 10 people saying they prefer to watch online videos rather than live TV, it’s unsurprising that entertaining online videos are seen as primed for marketing opportunities.

This example provides you with an insight into how consumer trends have drastically shifted in the last decade, but is it relevant to your business? Paying big influencers significant amounts of money to push your product is a risky tactic, as a good ROI isn’t guaranteed. Smaller influencers might be the answer if you want to go down this route, but creating your own video content is by far the better option in most cases.

How can video marketing boost your business?

It’s all well and good hearing about the video success stories of others, but when you’re thinking about why your business needs video marketing, you need to think about how different types of video functions in your wider digital marketing strategy.

Unfortunately, it’s not always as simple as blowing your budget on a single high-quality video. While it may look good and perform well on your landing page, it’s more ephemeral in other areas of your digital marketing, such as social media, where you can only share it a short number of times before it gets old and repetitive. Your video strategy needs to take into account every aspect of digital marketing so that you can figure out how video is going to work for your business and where it will perform at its best.

Improve the stickiness of your website

The stickiness of your website is how many minutes people spend browsing on your website a month. It indicates what level of quality your user experience (UX) is, how good your SEO is, and whether you’ve included internal links effectively. Essentially, you need a credible, engaging and functioning website to achieve a good level of stickiness. For tips on how to remove the drama from your business’s website development, click here.

But where does video come into it and why does your business need video marketing? Investing in a video to feature on your landing page might seem like only a marginal improvement, but the average conversion rate (CVR) for a website with video is 4.8%, while those that don’t have video have a CVR of 2.9%.

Not only this, but the overall stickiness of your site will be improved because the visitor will spend more time watching the video as well as browsing the website. The search engine algorithms will pick up on this and rank your content higher up.

What kind of video do you need?

Credibility is everything, especially for B2B businesses, and your landing page video should build on that. When visitors come to your website, you want them to see you as an industry expert- and video can demonstrate that.

When you realise why your business needs video marketing, you may be tempted to invest a lot of money into having a highly stylised video, but just because it looks attractive doesn’t mean it has the depth it needs to inform the visitor. Opting for a video that is a few minutes long and includes the MD talking about what the business has done, the solutions it provides and their technical expertise is much more informative and educational. The viewer will truly understand what impact that business can solve their problem or improve their lives, leading to more conversions.

Improve traffic and build credibility through social media engagement

Video would not have grown to be as dominant as it has without social media. Take Facebook as an example, users collectively spend 100 million hours a day consuming videos on the platform, and marketers know it. The prevalence of video across social media has led to views of branded video content to increase on Facebook by 258% and on YouTube by 99%. If you’re trying to generate engagement for your business on social media (and you should be!), it’s going to be increasingly difficult to compete without video.

Depending on the business, you can create some video content for free. For example, if you offer a solution to the construction industry, you could film your solution in action on a project; this can be done easily with a steady hand and a smartphone. This kind of video is usually seen as ‘authentic’ and can generate high levels of engagement.

You can also share smaller segments of your longer landing page video via social posts. This can be done relatively easily, so your investment in the landing page video stretches further and is more cost-effective, as well as building engagement and your brand’s credibility, justifying why your business needs video marketing.

Conclusion

As we enter a new decade, digital marketing tactics are conspicuously evolving (click here to find out how), and the pervasiveness of video marketing is here to stay. This doesn’t mean you need to invest a huge amount of money, although utilising the skills of experts is going to generate higher engagement and conversions. By now, you shouldn’t be asking why your business needs video marketing, but rather, how are you going to implement it? Video marketing is only going to become more prevalent, and fighting against the inevitable isn’t an option if you want your business to remain competitive.

If you’d like more information on why your business needs video marketing, or how to implement it, KUB is here to help. Get in touch to see how you could be growing your business by innovating your digital marketing strategy.