5 reasons to use video in your marketing mix

The use of videos in marketing has exploded over the past couple of years. By 2017, it is estimated that video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic (source: Cisco). Whether used for brand awareness, as part of a particular product campaign or in the form of ‘how to’ videos, the applications for video in marketing are virtually endless. Here are five reasons why we think videos are great.

They help to convey your brand messages.

As covered in our previous blog, a brand isn’t just a logo – it’s the experience a customer has at every touch point with a business. Video provides a great opportunity for businesses to portray what their business and their brand really stand for. Today we are constantly bombarded with marketing messages on a daily basis but video gives brands a platform to cut through the noise and tell their story. Nobody wants to read a bland company mission statement anymore – get creative and have some fun!

They put across your personality.
As above, video gives companies an opportunity to get their personality across in a way that is just not achievable through any other medium. For example, two years ago we were taken on by accountancy firm Stafford & Co to undertake a complete rebrand and help promote their business. As part of the process, we discussed video content; they had previously produced a corporate video that hadn’t made much of an impact. So we talked about creating a new style of ‘corporate video’ to help put across their brand personality in a fun, engaging way. We worked closely with a video specialist and the resulting video can be viewed below.

For what is often considered to be a fairly ‘dry’ industry, this humorous video really stands out and says something different about the firm and its people – therefore positioning them differently from their competitors. This video has resulted in excellent feedback from clients and helped Stafford & Co to achieve their aim of standing out in a crowded marketplace.

They’re good for search.
YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and receives more than one billion unique visitors every month. Let’s not also forget that YouTube is owned by the planet’s biggest search engine – Google. This is no coincidence; videos started to be included as a ranking factor for SEO some five or so years ago. As part of Google’s aim to provide the best and most relevant content for users, it isn’t unusual for videos to appear in search listings. What’s more, research shows that 75% of people who view a video will go on to visit the brand website afterwards, thus creating real and tangible results.

You can provide information succinctly.
In this day and age, people are busy and simply don’t have the time to go digging around for information. If you work in a particularly technical field, it may be likely that you need to convey a lot of information to potential clients. Not everybody likes to read reams of text, however, and video therefore provides the ideal alternative. In fact, humans process visual information 60,000 times faster than text, so by providing videos for clients will help to make their life easier – something I’m sure they’ll appreciate! Some studies suggest that because of the speed in which information can be digested, along with all of the other visual cues conveyed about your brand in the process, the speed of purchasing decisions is increased on the back of watching a business’ video content.

They can generate a ‘buzz’ quickly and easily.
The very nature of videos and the platforms they sit upon make them easy to like, comment on and share. If you can create a video campaign that is either extremely useful or very funny, it is likely to be shared, thereby helping to raise brand awareness. A study by Axonn Research found seven in ten people view brands in a more positive light after watching interesting video content from them. So if you can get your video in front of more potential consumers, you’re almost certainly going to see the benefit.

Videos can be tricky things to master and achieving a professional production isn’t always as quick or low cost as other forms of marketing. However, when done right, they can be extremely effective and can be used for years to come. To discuss creating a video campaign to add to your marketing mix, get in contact with the Whale team.