6 Reasons Why Video Belongs in Your Content Marketing Plan

People all around the world watch more than 1 billion hours of video every day, and this number is rising steadily. According to the latest research, YouTube is already the second most popular site in the world (no one beats Google), with over 23 billion monthly visits and 300+ hours of video uploaded every minute.

Clearly, the video is incredibly popular, and the reason for that is pretty simple: it encompasses all content types – images, music, text – and combines together two things that catch our attention most: sound and movement. No wonder that video is a proven tool for increasing customer engagement, increasing sales, and helping people make better buying decisions.

If you need more proof, here are some reasons why you should include video in your content marketing along with some pretty convincing evidence.

Reason #1: Video Helps to Increase Sales

Chances are that you’ve seen some impressive stats on video marketing and how it increases sales of online businesses. For example, according to The State of Video Marketing 2018 research, as much as 76% of marketers said video helped them increase sales, which is huge!

But why is a video so effective? First and foremost, the video combines several other content types, which makes it incredibly engaging. Second, a video is immersive and provides the viewer with much more useful information than any other content type. That’s why an average person watches about 1.5 hours of video each day.

Reason #2: Video Increases Web Traffic 

One of the most important goals of any business is to keep the traffic high to ensure that more people are coming in and checking out products and services. Of course, video can help with that, according to The State of Video Marketing 2019.

Specifically, 76% of the surveyed digital marketers said that video was effective at increasing traffic at their target websites. How have they done that? Well, there are a number of ways; for example, they produce stunning product videos and post them to a business’s social media profiles to entice more people to take a look and go to their website for more information.

One of the most popular types of marketing videos that brands use to drive traffic is explainer videos (videos that explain how to use a product or service). As more and more people use the Internet to find information about products they would like to buy, explainer videos are the perfect content for them because it provides easy-to-understand instructions and tips.

Besides, videos have another benefit: they increase your website’s stickiness, or the time a user spends on it (which is also important for Google to assess the popularity and usefulness of content).

For example, an online proofreading and editing tool Grammarly uses YouTube videos to direct traffic to their website; their videos are seen by millions of target users.

Reason #3: Video is Very Convincing

81% of customers have been convinced to purchase by watching a video from a business, says The State of Video Marketing 2019. Indeed, a stunning how-to video of a product or service can be incredibly convincing because it shows various uses and lets the viewer imagine how he or she can benefit from having it.

Besides, 90% of people claim that product videos are useful for them to make better buying decisions, so making such videos is an excellent way for online businesses to increase sales and build a reputation of a reliable source of information.

No wonder that 85% of customers say they want to see more video from businesses. Who wants to spend their time reading long articles when you can watch a 5-minute video that explains everything much clearer, right?

Besides, not only ordinary online shoppers prefer to watch videos to make better buying decisions. According to this compilation of stats from Forbes, as much as 59% of senior executives say if they have the choice of reading text or watching the video, they will go with the second respectable option.

This finding makes video a critical content type for B2B businesses whose target audiences typically include business leaders, SEOs, and entrepreneurs.

Reason #4: Live Video Can Help Your Brand Stand Out

It’s predicted that videos will make up 80% of all global web traffic by the end of 2019, so it’s sufficient to claim that you need effective techniques to make your brand stand out. One excellent technique is broadcasting live videos.

For example, social media platforms such as Facebook prioritize live videos in their video feed, so your content can be exposed to more potential customers. No wonder that Facebook users spend 3 times more time watching live videos compared to traditional videos; besides, 82% of people prefer live video from a brand to social posts and articles.

Quality is the most important factor that defines the success of your live videos because viewers aren’t forgiving of mediocre quality. This means that you should do your best to make your live feeds pleasant to watch. Here are some tips:

• Avoid broadcasting live videos in crowded areas and on the move because there’s a great chance that the available bandwidth won’t be sufficient to serve everyone. As the result, the quality of the video may not be great
• Don’t go live when the quality of the connection is poor. You may be tempted to broadcast something that happens when you have a weak signal. But the best thing is to try to take some photos instead because you won’t benefit at all from your followers staring at a screen with “loading” on it.
• Always have a power bank (external battery) with you. A low battery would be a catastrophe, especially when the moment is right.

More tips on live videos can be found on the official Facebook blog.

Reason #5: Video Can Help to Boost Your Website Ranking

If you optimize your videos for search requests, you can get to high positions in Google search. Not only videos can provide additional backlinks to your website, but also increase online reach if viewers decide to share them.

To get your videos higher in search engine results, try this:

• Embed your videos into your website and blog. For example, there’s evidence that blog articles containing videos generate 3 times more inbound links than those without videos. The most important thing to remember is to make the links as relevant as possible to maximize the chances of ranking higher
• Optimize YouTube titles, descriptions, and transcripts with keywords. Today, video transcripts are almost mandatory for increasing ranking because they allow indexing by search engines, therefore, give them an opportunity to link back to the business’s website
• Provide relevant backlinks to your video.

Reason #6: Video is Preferred by Younger Generations

Younger generations such as Millennials love videos, so if your target audience consists of people who were born after 1981, this is one of the best content types to use. Here are some stats from Impact to back this up:

• 80% of Millennials think that video is helpful for product research
• 60% of Millennials prefer videos to articles
• 76% of Millennials follow businesses and brands on YouTube
• 70% of Millennials think that video is useful after making a purchase when looking for additional items.

The Bottom Line

As you can see, there’s no doubt that video is worth producing and sharing with your audiences. Hopefully, these reasons were persuasive enough to inspire you to begin planning your first content marketing campaign featuring lots of engaging videos.

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Nadia Corey

Nadia Corey is a marketing specialist who believes that writing is the best way to express ourselves and show the world who we are. She currently works at https://www.a-writer.com/ and besides traveling, she is using her free time to write about things she's passionate about.

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• 6 Reasons Why Video Belongs in Your Content Marketing Plan - February 26, 2019