INTRODUCTION
If your company is not using video to build its brand and attract new customers, you are already behind the curve.
In the rapid-paced world of mass-media and Internet marketing, simple text or boring PowerPoint presentations no longer grab and retain consumers’ attention. Four times as many customers would rather watch a video explaining the benefits of a product than read the same information,1 and video’s popularity continues to grow. 43% Marketing software company Hubspot reports that 43 Consumers who actually percent of consumers want to see more video content want to see more video from marketers.2 When was the last time you heard that from marketers. Source: Hubspot consumers actually want to be marketed to?
1 Animoto, 2015 2 16 Video Marketing Statistics to Inform your Q4 Strategy 1 The numbers on video’s rapid and continued growth as a business communication platform are staggering: • 80 percent of internet users will watch • 100 million people watch a video on the a video, while only 20 percent will read internet every day. the full contents of a web page. • Video will account for 80 percent of all • Users spend 88 percent more time on consumer traffic on internet by 2019. websites that include video content.
And video’s value goes well beyond simply getting customers to hang around your website a little longer. Video is also a powerful medium for creating a lasting impression. Research indicates that viewers retain 95 percent of the information they consume while watching a video, compared to just 10 percent if they read the same information in simple text. As you can see, your company needs to incorporate high-quality video in your marketing, sales and business communications, both online and in personal interactions with clients. Note that we said “high-quality.” The lasting impression your video makes on customers may be a negative one if the content and production values don’t show your company in the best possible light. High-quality video is an upfront investment, and it pays off enormously. 2 WHY VIDEO? Video content engages viewers at every level – it educates, entertains and inspires them.
The best way to get and hold someone’s attention is with the interactive, immersive potential of video.
This isn’t just a bunch of award-winning videographers and editors talking. The hard numbers on video content’s payoff for your company are impossible to ignore. VIDEO INCREASES SALES AND CONVERSIONS Perhaps the most compelling argument for Product and how-to videos are the best way to incorporating video into your company’s messaging is provide consumers with easily accessible, actionable that it dramatically increases customer engagement information about your products and services. You can and conversion. You can increase conversions by 80 demonstrate a product in action, or show before-and- percent just by adding a product video to a landing after footage or animations to illustrate the ultimate page on your website. benefits of using a product or service. 3 VISUALIZING THE FUTURE OF AN ENGINEERING PROGRAM
Videobred produced an animated video to help Seeing a product in action engages consumers: Hanover College, a liberal arts school in Indiana, 57 percent of online shoppers say watching promote its new engineering program. Hanover’s videos made them more confident to purchase goal was to recruit nine students to the program, online.3 In fact, 90 percent of shoppers say which had never held a class and had no facilities in online video is helpful as they make purchasing operation at the time of the campaign. The school decisions. ended up enrolling 25 students, almost three times its target, due largely to the power of video to attract and The power of video extends to marketing engage young people. channels well beyond your website, including email. According to marketing firm Syndacast, “Video’s a great media for high school students; that’s open rates on emails jump by 19 percent where they live,” said Rhonda Burch, Senior Director when the word “video” appears in the subject of Communications and Marketing at Hanover. “Video line. The results are even more dramatic for helps us tell a story in a way that’s more relatable.” introductory emails, where some research4 shows that click-through rates increase by more than 95 percent.
Overall, video marketers see 34 percent higher web conversion rates and 27 percent higher click-through rates than companies that don’t include video in their messaging, according to The Aberdeen Group research firm.
3 eTailing Group: How Consumers Shop with Video Animation from Hanover video 4 Implix 4 EXECUTIVES LOVE VIDEO It’s not just online shoppers who find video so The preference for video is also dramatic among compelling. Forbes reports that 75 percent of business Millennial professionals, 29 percent of whom say executives watch a work-related video each week.5 And video is their preferred source of product research 59 percent of senior executives would rather watch a for their company. That’s more than even formal video than read text in a presentation or on a website. case studies, which came in at 19 percent.
Executives who watch videos don’t stop there. Forbes reports that after viewing a video: • About 65 percent click through to visit the vendor website. • 50 percent look for more information about the vendor. 59% • 45 percent contact a vendor after seeing Senior executives who an online video would rather watch a • About 50 percent make a purchase for video than read text. their business. Source: Forbes
5 Forbes: Video in the C-Suite 5 For business-to-business marketers, this presents a compelling case for investing in high-quality video to SEARCH ENGINES speak to both the most senior decision-makers and LOVE VIDEO emerging leaders in a prospect account. Your website is one of the most important tools for Executives’ affinity for video also makes it a growing your business, and the best way to fuel that great platform for other kinds of corporate growth is to attract potential customers and clients communications, including internal strategic to your site via results in search engines such as messaging and education. Videobred client DLA Google. Search engines aspire to provide users with Piper, a leading international law firm, reported great results they will enjoy, so Google and its competitors results after using a 45-minute corporate drama to have been on the video bandwagon for quite some educate corporations around the world about key time. issues in cyber-security and privacy. Forrester Research6 famously noted that the odds Everyone – including executives – learns faster, of your website showing up on the first page of retains more information, and is more motivated to Google search results increase by more than 50 take action after watching a video. percent if you include video content on your web page. The importance of video in being found in internet searches has only grown since then. Overall, researchers suggest that you will see a more 150% than 150 percent increase in organic site traffic as a Increase in organic result of adding video to your website. website traffic attributed to video content. Source: Forrester Research
6 Forrester Research: The Easiest Way to a First-Page Ranking on Google 6 In addition to winning in general searches, publishing Video is a perfect fit for mobile since it lets viewers videos also makes your content eligible for the high- quickly get an overview of a product or concept value video results channels on Google and rival without having to engage with a 1,000-word blog services, including Bing. And remember, YouTube post. In fact, about 70 percent of smartphone users is now the second-largest internet search engine, say they prefer video content when researching processing more than 3 billion searches a month. purchases on the web. Mobile users are 1.4 times as likely to watch video advertisements as consumers A key factor in ranking highly in Google results is who view online content on their desktop computers. how long your visitors spend on your web page engaging with valuable content like a video. This is often described as “long clicks versus short clicks.” Basically, if users like your content, then search engines like your content – and users really like video. MOBILE USERS LOVE VIDEO Mobile data speeds have increased dramatically over the last few years, and so has consumers’ desire to view 53% videos on their smartphones and other mobile devices. Mobile users who feel Mobile now accounts for more than half of video more favorably about views7, increasing more than 230 percent since the companies who offer middle of 2013. And YouTube reports that mobile video mobile video. Source: Hubspot consumption is roughly doubling every year, confirming that more than half of its views came from mobile in 2016. That’s more than 1.5 billion hours of mobile video viewing each month on YouTube alone – a pretty 7 significant audience to tap into. Ooyala report: “Cord Cutters on the March” 8 The 5 Mobile Marketing Mistakes Infographic 7 The growth of mobile video is not just a volume play. socPub8 reported two years ago that average smartphone conversion rates were up more than 60 percent when compared to the same metric for desktop users, and the trend continues. Compound that with the conversion edge video brings to any landing page, and the advantages of mobile video are obvious when it comes to closing the deal.
But video’s impact goes beyond getting consumers to pull out their credit cards or download a whitepaper. Smartphone users are twice as likely as TV viewers to develop a sense of personal connection to brands that show them internet video, and 1.4 times more likely to do so as desktop users, according to Google. This makes a strong case for including high-quality Hours of video watched on branding videos in your mobile marketing program. Facebook daily. Source: Facebook
Leading social media platforms such as Facebook VIDEO GETS SHARED ON have recently introduced their own video services to SOCIAL MEDIA - A LOT encourage users to post more video content to their networks. It’s working. Facebook video posts have Here’s a stat for you: video is shared on social media 135 percent greater reach than photo posts, and the more than 12 times as often as all text and images time users spend viewing video on Instagram – the combined, according to video platform provider social media network launched specifically to share BrightCove. photographs – increased by 40 percent after the platform began pushing video content.
8 The 5 Mobile Marketing Mistakes Infographic 8 AND IT’S NOT ALL CAT VIDEOS Wysowl reports that more than three-quarters of internet users say they would share a branded video,9 so long as it’s entertaining. So the explosion of social video has clearly created a new opportunity to reach consumers with your video content. Social media marketers have taken notice. In its 2016 state-of-the-industry report, Social Media Examiner noted that 73 percent of social media marketers planned to use video in 2016, up from 60 percent in 2015.10 And the trend continues.
It’s important to note that successful social media videos tend to be shorter than those produced for desktop internet users or internal distribution. [We’ll have some helpful hints on the best lengths for your social media videos on page 19 of this whitepaper. They also tend to be more humorous – they don’t necessarily need to be about cats, but a few laughs never hurt. Remember, the goal of social media video is to engage users and ultimately bring them back to your website for conversion and sale.
9 Video Marketing Statistics 2016 10 2016 Social Media Marketing Industry Report 9 VIDEO ADVERTISEMENTS The engagement benefits of video advertising are immediate. Video ads boast a click-through rate of 1.84 WIN BIG percent, the highest among all digital ad formats, with some ad lengths reaching an unheard of 2.5 percent Video is a great medium for engaging users on your CTR. own website and social media presence, but it’s also the killer platform for paid internet advertising. For a 15-second non-skippable YouTube video ad, the Because, as everybody knows, plain old banner ads view completion rate is 92 percent. (For skippable video just don’t cut it anymore. ads, it’s 9 percent). Facebook research suggests that users will recall seeing a video ad within the first 10 The average internet user spends more than 16 seconds of viewing. So video ads are almost certain to minutes watching online video ads every month. create a lasting impression on viewers that will result in Remember, people are far more likely to retain them building a deeper relationship with your company. information they process visually than if they simply read it in plain text. In fact, 80 percent of people who watch a video ad will remember it a month later,11 and 12 percent of those folks will end up buying a product featured in the video.
The Online Publishers Association reports that when users remember viewing an ad: • 26 percent looked for more information about the subject of the video • 22 percent visited the website named in the ad Source: YouTube
11 Video Brewery: “10 Reasons Why Your Business Needs an Explainer Video 12The Facebook Video Statistics Everyone Needs to Know 10 TRADE SHOW VIDEO GETS ATTENTION
The payoff of attending trade shows has come Some other excellent uses for video at trade shows under fire in recent years as the internet has made include. delivering all forms of content much cheaper than paying an exhibitor fee and fighting for attendees’ • A running loop that introduces and attention. On average, trade show attendees spend provides background on the staff giving eight hours moving between numerous vendor your presentation. booths13 – that’s a lot of noise to cut through to make sure your message is heard. • Recorded Q&A sessions that offer answers to the most common inquiries Video can generate interest in your booth by from show attendees. This frees up your continuously presenting your company’s message, team’s time to answer more even when your in-person staff members take a quick in-depth qusetions for the most engaged break. You can also use video to present a message prospects. from the CEO or other key team members who couldn’t make the trip to the show. • During the show, be sure to record visitor testimonials for use in future marketing Prior to the show, you can circulate snippets of videos. your video on social media – particularly via pages or hashtags devoted to the event – to create buzz • Branded thumb drives with videos as a for your both. Quick looks at the products you will takeaway. demonstrate or debut at the show are a great way to build momentum for your upcoming appearance.
13 How to Use Video To Maximize Your Trade Show Experiences 11 VIDEO PAYS FOR ITSELF WITH GREAT RETURN ON INVESTMENT The bottom line for business is the bottom line, Hard-and-fast ROI calculations on marketing and and using high-quality video in your corporate sales expenditures require analysis of many factors. communications is a significant investment. But it’s Traditional TV metrics like number of views don’t an investment that pays off, according to companies adequately reflect the power of video since customers who have adopted video as a key component of their are more likely to remember video content than any marketing strategy. other form of online information. And hosting video content on your site is a key tactic to increasing your A few key data points: organic traffic, both to pages with video and other forms and catalog pages. • 76 percent of businesses say video provides a good return on investment, Fortunately, the performance of video content is according to a 2016 survey conducted by increasingly quantifiable. Wysowl.
• Marketers who use videos grew revenue 49 percent faster than those that did not.
• 82 percent of marketers say video had a positive impact on their business. 72% Businesses that say they have seen a solid ROI on • More than 50 percent of marketers say their investment in video video has the best return on investment Source: Wysowl (ROI)14 of any content format.
14 The Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics 12 VIDEO PERFORMANCE IS MEASURABLE
It’s next to impossible to know exactly what content Coupling this information with other user behavior a user actually reads when they visit your website or data, including site visits, empowers web marketers view a banner ad. All you know is that they accessed to design very specific, high-performance campaigns the content since flat text and images are passive way to target your best prospects. Identifying viewers of communicating online. who engage with your videos is one of the best ways to pinpoint your best prospects. In fact, marketing However, many video playback platforms offer you a firm Vidyard suggests that watching a how-to video wealth of user behavior information, such as: should weigh more heavily in your evaluation of a “hot” sales lead than most other key marketing • How long the video was actively played / activities,15 including reading a case study or even viewed. viewing your pricing page.
• What segments of the video were viewed.
• Where the video may have been paused or replayed (this is a dead giveaway for potential customers with a high level of interest in your product).
13 15 What Every Marketer Needs to Know About Lead Scoring With Video WHAT TYPES OF VIDEO? We’ve talked a lot about the benefits of video as a content delivery platform, but the ultimate success of your video will depend on how skillfully it tells your company’s unique story.
The content and approach to your video project will depend largely on the business goals for producing the video and the audience you want to reach.
BRANDING VIDEO NEW PRODUCT VIDEO
HOW-TO VIDEO RECRUITMENT VIDEO
FUNDRAISING VIDEO 14 BRANDING VIDEOS A VIDEO IS WORTH A CHAPTER OF A BOOK Whether your organization sells pizza, serves a social cause or makes work easier for another Videobred client West Unified Communications, a business, video helps deliver a compelling managed service provider and information technology firm, story about your brand. Be sure to focus on uses video as a tool to visually explain complex IT processes. “Using animation and graphics, we’re able to explain the personality of your team and corporate a complex concept like unified technology to the average culture. If your executive team laughs during business owner in a two-minute video that would have taken the video shoot, leave some of the footage in an entire chapter of a book,” said Bill Yackey, West Unified – it builds a sense of personal connection and Communications senior marketing manager. Increased affinity with viewers. bandwidth over the past decade has made extensive, professional-quality how-to videos a viable option for online Simply relating a company’s history can be a marketing, Yakey added. powerful way to build your brand. Videobred The West team will occasionally shoot an iPhone video for quick social media use, but when it comes to core client Hank Menke found tremendous success video assets, they turn to professional videographers. “The with a branding video that depicted his difference is like recording a song with your phone versus a morning routine visiting with employees at OFS professional recording,” Yakey said. “The phone recording Brands’ furniture manufacturing plant. sounds fine, but it doesn’t sound professional. When you use professionals, it bumps the quality to 100 percent.” And remember, there’s nothing more powerful Animation from WEST IP video than an unpaid customer testimonial for building your brand, as opposed to impersonal statistics. Even if your customer satisfaction rating is 99 percent, some viewers will still wonder about what happened with that 1 percent. Potential customers want to hear from satisfied customers. 15 RECRUITMENT NEW PRODUCT / SERVICE VIDEO
Top job candidates vet potential employers as closely In advance of your formal product or service launch, as human resources checks the backgrounds of release a creative video campaign on either social applicants. From casual dress to flexible hours and or traditional media to generate buzz. Video can a diverse workforce, a video helps show how your demonstrate the story behind a new product, the organization is different from the herd seeking a job problem it solves for customers and its unique candidate’s unique talents. place in the market. A high-quality video can have exponential returns when brining a new product or HOW-TO-VIDEO / service to market. A 2012 e-tailing and Invodo survey found 57 percent of consumers say video gives them ANIMATED EXPLAINER more confidence to buy online—up 5 percent from the previous year. A family stands on their deck, coveting the neighbors’ new patio furniture. Finally, Mom calls across the privacy fence to inquire about the beautiful set. “Yes, it’s great, but it was a nightmare putting it together,” FUNDRAISING / ISSUES VIDEO comes the reply. Video how-to directions are vastly superior to poorly illustrated written instructions, The competition for the hearts, minds and checkbooks especially for complicated products. Homemade of the masses is fierce among non-profits. Rallying assembly instructions for a vast array of products support for a cause requires more than plain facts litter the internet, but do you really want Bubba from and figures. It requires telling your organization’s Peoria influencing the perception of your brand with unique story. Video stirs the emotions that create a a poorly made assembly video? Take charge of your longstanding bond between your organization and your message. audience.
16 HOW TO DISTRIBUTE YOUR VIDEO
As we’ve discussed, video is not a one-size- fits all solution for your marketing and corporate communications.
As with all content, you need to tailor your videos to The key is to consider and plan for multiple the preferences of users based on the distribution distribution channels upfront, instead of producing channel where they will be viewed. each project separately. Upfront preparation for multiple distribution A professional video production company will guide channels will save a considerable amount in you through the process of optimizing your videos production and post-production costs. A web video for various channels, but here are a few quick tips to may only require a few minor script and production give you an idea of how video can best help you reach modifications to produce a targeted video customers, wherever they contact your business. presentation your sales team will display on tablet devices. Additional production and post production tweaks might produce a fast-paced, visual trade show piece.
17 WEB SOCIAL MEDIA The general wisdom for the length of successful web You may want to consider creating versions of your videos is “the shorter, the better.” But of course, the video content for each of the leading social media message you want to communicate will determine platforms, since social users exhibit notably different the exact length of your video content. A post at The preferences for consuming video content. Next Web16 suggests 45-90 seconds for tutorials and explainers, a max of 59 seconds for a really You definitely want to launch and optimize a YouTube creative commercial, and perhaps 2.5 minutes for channel for your video content – remember, it’s the crowdfunding or social cause videos. second-largest search engine in the world.
Also remember that there are numerous tricks for Hubspot17 suggests these optimal lengths: making sure Google and other search engines find and suggest your videos, such as including target • YouTube: 2 minutes keywords in the video web page’s metadata. • Twitter: 45 seconds
• Instagram: 30 seconds
• Facebook: 1 minute
Source: Wistia
16 The optimal length for video marketing content? As short as possible 17 How Long Should Your Videos Be? Ideal Lengths for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube 18 TABLET Video designed specifically for viewing on tablets can be a great resource for your best sales people in one- on-one or small group presentations. This video can provide background on your company and give highly detailed information about products and services. Touch-screen interactive features can be a great value-add for this distribution channel. PROJECTION Speaking with a large group? No PowerPoint can compete with the visual and emotional engagement of video. Charge up the presentation with a video that tells your company’s unique story. Video Time the average person spends viewing optimized for projection should be shot in 4K or video advertisements every month. other very high resolutions. Source: ComScore
EMAIL MARKETING TRADE SHOWS As we mentioned before, including links to videos in Projecting your video is a great way to cut through email campaigns dramatically improves click-through all the noise at trade shows. Consider the auditory rates, particularly welcome emails. Target potential limitation of the space and edit a version that tells clients with a quick branding video that tells your your story with images and motion graphics. unique story, and be sure to pair the video on your site with a mid-funnel conversion event, such as an e-mail newsletter sign-up form.
19 BRANDED THUMB DRIVES When your sales team is done with their presentation, be sure they distribute your video content and PDFs of other sales materials on branded thumb drives. This is also a great tactic for trade shows – a keychain flash drive makes a great tchotchke, and potential clients will have information on your company they can share when they get back to the office.
COMMERCIALS Consider producing a 30-second or two 15-second spots for broadcast or social media distribution. And remember that on social media, humor and entertainment value are huge factors in getting users excited about your videos.
20 WHY HIRE A PROFESSIONAL VIDEO COMPANY?
High-definition cameras are now available for HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN under $10,000 and a “video edit suite” is a laptop IN BUSINESS? computer with the Adobe Creative Cloud. This low barrier to entry has created a class of “low-cost video The costs of starting a video production company providers,” churning out videos in their basements. have decreased significantly over the last two decades. But small shops regularly come and go, But creating powerful video messaging requires more often leaving clients scrambling to finish a work in than just equipment. It requires the experience, progress or obtain the footage from a completed dedication and creativity to be a partner in telling an project. organization’s story. DO THEY HAVE THE STAFF TO You want to work with a video production company HANDLE LARGE OR MULTIPLE that understands trends in the market and will be PROJECTS? with you in the coming years as video becomes an even more essential part of marketing and While you might only have one video in production, if organizational communications. a larger or more lucrative project comes along, does the production team have the necessary in-house As you evaluate video production companies, here or freelance talent to complete both? Or will your are some key questions to ask. project slow down or get completely derailed.
21 DOES THE PRODUCTION TEAM HOW LONG WILL THEY KEEP HAVE EXAMPLES OF PROJECTS THE FOOTAGE? SIMILAR TO YOURS? A professional video production company will Not all videos are the same. A how-to video is much archive your footage for about three years and different than a commercial, which is much different make it available for use in new projects or than a branding video. additional outlets. Fly-by-night shops might not even be around in three years, or they might routinely dispose of files to keep their storage costs barebones. Be sure your valuable video assets will CAN THEY CONCEPT AND WRITE? be there if you need them in the future. If you need concept and script writing as part of your ARE THEY INSURED? video creation process, make sure the examples you review are, in fact, the work product of the creative As with any contractor you hire, ensure that your team on your project. video production professionals carry liability insurance and workers’ compensation coverage. Many freelancers, especially those new to the profession, are operating on a shoestring budget. WHO OWNS THE FOOTAGE? Although video production and editing are not high- risk ventures, any profession that requires climbing Often production companies maintain ownership ladders and hauling gear has the potential for a fall or of raw footage and provide the client only the final injury. Most reputable video production companies product. Be sure to ask if you intend to use the carry insurance to cover the loss or destruction of footage for other purposes. video assets during or after a production.
22 ARE THEY PREPARED FOR THE CONCLUSION FUTURE?
A professional video production company will view Whatever your message, video is the most powerful your project as an investment that pays off over a media to engage your audience and tell your long lifespan. While high definition (HD) is today’s organization’s unique story. Partnering with a media standard, the conversion to 4K (UHD) content professional video production company will cost a is just over the horizon. Just as standard definition little more upfront, but the decision will pay off in (SD) video appears outdated today, HD will eventually a deeper connection with your audience, higher pale in side-by-side comparisons to 4K. While HD is sales and conversions, and greater return on your the likely standard for the next few years, shooting on investment. 4K today, although slightly more expensive, lengthens to the lifespan of your footage.
You also should ask if a production company is prepared to shoot 360 | Virtual Reality (VR) footage for your product demos and other how-to videos. A VR tour that Videobred produced for the University of Mississippi football program quickly became one of the most shared pieces of content on social media.
VR is an emerging force in corporate video, and producing VR content will ultimately become a core skill you will need from a video production partner.
23 CONTACT US
Videobred, the Louisville region’s premier and most experienced video and multimedia production facility, works with clients to clearly establish your objectives, layout a production plan, and deliver your product on time and on a budget.
1000 HAMILTON AVE. LOUISVILLE, KY 40204
502-584-5787 www.videobred.com