Most businesses now communicate online to some degree, and video is a powerful tool to support their online communication. Sites such as YouTube make video distribution and measurement cheap and easy. Video can help your marketing online in these four primary areas:
- Behavioral analytics: YouTube and other video hosting sites provide extensive viewer data that can give you deep insight into the behavior of viewers who interact with your videos.
- Conversion: Amazon, Dell, and other online retailers have publicly shared statistics showing that a posted video can increase the odds of a customer purchasing an item by as much as 35 percent.
- Efficiency: Software developers continually find new ways to integrate sites so that video messages can be easily shared and broadcast via social media networking.
- Search engine optimization: Bing, Google, Yahoo!, and other Internet search sites have made video a key factor in their search formulas. Posting an abundance of video on your website can move you higher in the search rankings — broadcasting your marketing messages to an even larger potential audience.
Emotional benefits of video marketing
Video offers the opportunity to use sight and sound to connect emotionally with viewers via storytelling. Unlike reading material, video content communicates passively: The viewer simply watches and lets the story unfold. Outstanding video entertains and influences viewers by invoking a series of emotions that result from showing images that connect their hearts and their brains with your product or service.
Effective marketing practices bring efficiency to the sales process. Ideally, your marketing program helps attract customers who are predisposed to buy your product or service at a premium price. To increase the likelihood of a solid return on any investment you make in video marketing, never forget that the powerful emotions of fear and greed motivate buyers to take action.