Video certainly is becoming the future of online marketing.  If you use Facebook for marketing purposes you will know that it has become more difficult to get reach on your Facebook page posts.  

But not with video.

If you use Facebook Live or upload a video directly into your Facebook post you will see a huge increase in your reach and engagement.  Facebook is deliberately pushing video more and more into its users newsfeeds.  So if you want your posts to be seen by more people on Facebook, you need to incorporate video into your marketing strategy.

Last year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “Ten years ago, most of what we shared and consumed online was text. Now it’s photos, and soon most of it will be video. We see a world that is video first with video at the heart of all our apps and services.” Today, “video-first” has become a reality for consumers and marketers alike.

Video also has another advantage.  It shortens the timeline greatly between someone first hearing about you and then committing to buying what you are offering.

When you are viewed on video, your prospective customers feel a connection with you a lot quicker and are able to trust you quicker. This will ultimately lead to more sales.

However, in producing videos that are going to attract your prospective customers you need to understand your customer well and know what is going to appeal to them. And as a lot of video is consumed on mobile devices, the goal is to create creative that is going to cause the user to stop browsing.  The video needs to grab attention in the first few seconds of viewing, even without sound.

Animoto recently surveyed 1,000 consumers and 500 marketers to find out how video is making an impact in today’s golden age of video. How are consumers watching? And what are marketers doing to reach viewers?

Here are some stats from the research that may convince you to start using video as part of your marketing strategy.

• 64% of consumers say watching a marketing video on Facebook has influenced a purchase decision in the last month.
• 39% of consumers are more likely to finish videos with subtitles.
• 85% of Facebook video is watched with the sound off. 
• 52% of consumers prefer pre-recorded video content, while 48% prefer live video content
• Marketers feel the most confident about reaching customers with video on Facebook and YouTube. Consumersare still viewing on these platforms, but are also starting to expand the platforms where they’re watching branded video content. The top three channels they’re watching videos from brands are Facebook, Instagram Stories, and Snapchat.
• 73% of consumers are deciding in less than 30 seconds if they will watch to the end of the video.  And 43% decide in less than 15 seconds.

Here is the infographic produced by Animoto that provides a lot more information on their findings.

How are you going to to start to implement video in your marketing strategy?  

Would love you to let me know in the comments below.