What do we mean when we say “video marketing strategy”?
We mean a couple of things. One, we look at how marketing professionals view video marketing as a part of their overall ad strategy. Two, we look at what successful channels video marketers are using. We gathered our findings from our clients, 2020’s video marketing statistics and Hubspot’s 2020 state of marketing report. Check these reports out after reading this and before building your marketing plan.
Getting Started
Video marketing has been growing in popularity steadily over the last decade. The R.O.I. of video marketing has become evident to most marketers, because they see that consumers prefer to use video during their discovery process with brands over any other medium.
This data came from over 3,000 professional marketers and a compilation of 11 other credible sources. So, we believe that this represents a realistic cross section of the video marketing world’s current state.
Getting more granular, the study found that…
- 70% of businesses say they’ve bumped up their video marketing over the past year.
- 82% percent of traffic from searches and redirects will come from video in 2020.
- 60% YouTube, Facebook, Netflix and other online platforms are reportedly more engaging than traditional cable television.
- Older Gen Z and younger Millennials (18-34 year olds) will reportedly drop what they’re doing to watch new online content that they find engaging.
These trends indicate a few things…
- Video continues to hold a strong influence over the market in 2020 and will continue to in 2021.
- A positive R.O.I. has made video one of the central parts of many marketer’s strategies.
- As video marketing strategies have evolved, a positive R.O.I. has become more certain.
This trend towards video will only continue to rise in the coming years as more and more marketers struggle to gain a foothold online.
Is Increased Video Use Good for Video Marketing Strategy?
Most people would agree that an increase in video use is a good thing for marketers and customers alike – more video means more easily digestible, high-quality marketing strategies.
However, an increase in competition in video marketing also means that there’s an increase in noise.
In other words, just “any video” will not cut it anymore. Videos need to be polished, personal and engaging to cut it in 2020 and 2021’s video marketing world. So, opportunities to use tools like interactive video software or to get a high-quality video for cheaper should be on the top of all marketer’s lists.
It’s also important to remember your SEO strategy. Even though Google favors video, it is still a text based search engine. Make sure that your videos have alt text and that they’re surrounded by high impact, SEO optimized text.
They should also be doubling down on hyper-targeted messages to reach their audience’s as quickly and as directly as possible.
What Marketing Strategy Types Are Working in an Industry That’s Becoming Saturated?
The most commonly recognized opportunity/video hosting platforms in video marketing are YouTube (85% of marketers use) and Facebook (79% of marketers use). These platforms are easy to add keywords to and easy to drive traffic to with advertisements on other platforms.
However, these distribution methods aren’t always the best platforms to drive organic traffic through.
The Best Platforms are…
- YouTube and Facebook: As we mentioned before, YouTube and Facebook are the best places to be seen according to video marketing professionals.
- LinkedIn: surprisingly enough, LinkedIn is currently the best place to be found on the internet. 87% of marketers state that LinkedIn is a useful video marketing channel.
- Instagram: Instagram was considered by many marketers to be the best platform to create content for after Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
Our Honorable Mention…
- TikTok: TikTok has rapidly grown to be a huge social media platform for all kinds of demographics. Unfortunately, the app has run through some rocky roads in the recent past and, even though we can still use it, the app is no longer downloadable. So, unfortunately, its effectiveness has been hamstrung – however, TikTok is still an excellent gateway to good marketing if you already have it downloaded. 66% of marketers report seeing success over TikTok, so consider adding this app to your marketing strategy if you were lucky enough to download it while you still could.
The Platform to Avoid…
- Only ~5% of marketers report success on Snapchat, and only 11% of marketers say they use the channel at all since its organic discovery features are limited.
What Videos Are Companies Investing In?
Now that we’ve covered how to break through the noise, here’s what kinds of video you should be investing in, according to our market reports…
- Marketers are investing primarily in purely promotional content. Approximately 25% of all videos are strictly promotional.
- Marketers are investing heavily in brand stories. Approximately 20-23% of videos are brand stories.
- Demos, customer case studies, and social engagement videos are important, but not essential. The surveyed marketers stated that these kinds of videos, combined, only make up 50-55% of the videos that they invest in – none of the categories individually breaks 20% of the total amount of videos made.
Where Does Your Video Marketing Strategy Go From Here?
Now you should know how important video is, where brands are finding exposure, and what stories are used to draw in traffic. While this is a brief overview, we think this information is incredibly valuable to any marketing professionals looking to identify what marketing strategies they should use.
If you have any questions about what stories you should tell for your video marketing strategy, shoot us an email. We’re happy to leverage our experience to help you tell the right stories.