Why Video is a Marketing Must-Have
We are already more than halfway through 2017 - the year Forbes called "The Year of Video." So, if you aren't already part of the over 60% of businesses using video as part of your marketing plan, what are you waiting for? According to Cisco, by 2019 video is going to account for 80% of all internet traffic. 80%! But now is the time to be jumping on this trend, not 2 years from now.
These stats already speak for themselves:
- Four times as many consumers would prefer to watch a video about a product than to read about it.
- Using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19% and clickthrough rates by 65%.
- Shoppers who view a video in the pre-purchase stages are 1.81 times more likely to make a purchase than non-viewers.
- Your content is 50 times more likely to make it to the first page of Google results if it includes video.
But why is video making this much of an impact?
Video is Built Into your Brain
Think about it. You look at moving visuals all day long. Everything you see is a combination of images, sounds and motions. Your brain is already hardwired to take that all in, experience it and store it away in your memory. Your brain automatically processes visuals 60,000x faster than it does text. Why fight that natural instinct?
Emotion is Human
Videos tell at story. That story can be happy or it can be sad. It can be inspiring or controversial. Being able to watch that story come to life right in front of you, instead of having a read it, can be a very powerful thing. Emotions are an important part of the human experience and sharing those emotions with other people, and maybe even a brand, is something really special.
The Sharing Experience
People inherently want to share things with other people. Sharing starts a conversation and brings others into our world. These days, almost every social platform these days has made sharing online as easy as clicking a button. And videos are so sharable because they have so much data, but in such a captivating, understandable and relatable way. The important thing to remember is that video isn't going away anytime soon, in marketing or anywhere else. It is only going to keep growing. Video as part of a full marketing campaign is a necessity to stand out in sea of content from other brands. So really, what are you waiting for?