It’s no surprise that video is taking centre stage this year in our ever-evolving digital world as we, as consumers, expect visual content over print (both on-line and offline). Video content is becoming a surefire way to increase click-through rates and digital conversions, and marketers are starting to take notice.
It has been cited that the play button has become ‘the most compelling call to action on the Web’.
Let’s look at some of the stats….

• Almost 50% of your web traffic comes from online video and, moving into the future, 74% of all internet traffic in 2017 will be by video (syndacast).
• Some 65% of viewers watch more than three-quarters of a given video, according to Invodo – Any content marketer would be thrilled with that kind of readership for a piece of text!

If you still aren’t convinced then ask yourself: “Would I rather watch a punchy 2-3 minute video or read an 8-page document giving me the same information?”
Whether it be internal communications or targeting your customers online, production is an important channel to get your message across clearly and concisely and Rich Media content on your site is more likely to get you on page one of a search engine.
As you can see video marketing is growing rapidly in the online marketing space and should be considered a vital tool for the growth of your company in 2015 and beyond.
Even the largest social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are paying attention to this important trend by creating video sharing features to cater for the future of content marketing – so if they are making waves in the online video space, so should your company!
To fully maximise video, like any marketing channel, you need to have a plan and that plan needs to align perfectly with your business goals – if you just fire clips around the web hoping that any one of them will ‘go viral’ then how are you ever going to truly justify your efforts and measure ROI?
With a solid video marketing strategy in place, you can gain the insight required to evaluate your efforts, adjust tactics, and most importantly measure effectiveness!

Here are our top 5 tips when it comes to your Video marketing strategy:

1. Keep the focus
Your video content can be as entertaining or engaging as you like but if it isn’t achieving your objectives then where’s the ROI? Save time, resource and money right from the off by creating a mission statement that aligns your video content with the goals of your company.
When planning each video, ask yourself:
– What type of content are we promoting?
– What should our audience take away from our videos?
– What value do our videos add?
– What do our videos help our audience do?
2. More of the show, less of the tell
Marketers need to put more emphasis on creating a story that shows viewers in an engaging way and captures attention. It’s all about striking the balance between viewer enjoyment and marketing measurement and remember – your customers and prospects are probably just as busy as you are so it needs to need quickly digestable and something that doesn’t make them hit the stop button!
3. Cut through the noise
Grabbing the attention of potential customers has never been so difficult! The online space is cluttered with everyone shouting and bare-knuckle fighting against competitors for the hearts and minds of their prospects. The buyer journey has been shifting over time and buyers do most of their own research online before ever contacting a vendor. So you have to cut through that noise and engage with prospects through video content that entertains, educates and inspires them about what it is you do and, most importantly, how you can meet their needs.
4. Find the perfect home
Every video needs a place to live. For the most part, prime video content real estate is either on your website or on YouTube. By hosting videos on your website you have the added benefit of being able to create a smoother video content journey across your website for prospects to dive deeper into your content long after the video has ended.
Our multi-video platform, Channel View, allows you to display and personally organise a wide variety of user-selected videos without burdening your busy IT department. You’ll have your own branded management portal, giving you an easy way of managing online video content, and complete control over all your videos, to change and manipulate formats, without having to amend confusing underlying HTML codes.
5. Track the important stuff
I think we are all aware that data-driven marketing is the key to success and video marketing is no exception. The video analytics you extract from your data will become extremely important AND valuable. Not only can you gain better insight into your hottest leads, tracking video viewing activities will allow you to truly evaluate that conversion path.
Wherever you are on your video marketing journey, should you need any further help in developing strategy, hosting your videos – or even shooting them! Get in touch with us.
Image courtesy of nongpimmy at FreeDigitalPhotos.net