The world of content seems to have shifted from classic blog articles into video marketing, evident in the rise of YouTube as the second largest search engine in the world (behind Google). In this article, we’ll go over video marketing tips and some tools to get started.
YouTube started in 2005 with only a few dozen uploads and has since grown into the largest video platform with over 30 million visitors and five billion videos watched every day. On top of that, the emergence of live streaming platforms like Instagram Story, Instagram TV, Facebook Live, Periscope, and Snapchat further prove the case.
A survey conducted by HubSpot in 2017 suggested that consumers prefer videos over any other form of content marketing. As a result of this, more and more brands are shifting their attention to video marketing. In 2019, the number of companies that use video as a marketing tool reached 87%, a significant increase from 63% in 2017, and 81% in 2018.
Source: HubSpot
What makes video marketing effective?
So, what triggers this change? For starters, we’re visual creatures. We naturally understand and connect faster while watching videos rather than reading posts. Our brains remember 95% of the information that we see in a video, while we only remember 10% of the information that we read.
Source: Wyzowl
The second reason is the popularity of smartphones. Over the last decade, people have become inseparable from this electronic device. The thing is, 75% of all video viewers on the internet are on mobile devices. More importantly, 92% of those mobile video watchers are willing to share the video with their friends. That means, if you create the right content for the right audience, your videos have a chance to go viral!
Video marketing tips to increase traffic
1. Create an engaging thumbnail
A video’s title and thumbnail are the first things the viewers see when browsing on Google, YouTube and other websites across the internet. It represents what your video is about and the content inside it. The more interested the viewers are in your title and thumbnail, the more likely they’ll click the video.
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2. Create buzz on social media
When you’re doing a video marketing campaign, your focus should be on video sharing platforms like YouTube, as well as social media like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat. On average, people spend almost two hours of their time on those platforms every single day. Sounds like a good goldmine to promote your brand, doesn’t it?
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3. Optimize it to be SEO friendly
Social media are platforms to build your brand awareness and presence. The end goal remains to bring the audience to your website, so you can convert them into loyal paying customers. Thus, it’s important that the videos on your website are search engine friendly.
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4. Make sure it’s mobile-friendly
As we mentioned before, most videos are watched on mobile devices. A survey conducted by Facebook found that people are 1.5x more likely to watch videos on a smartphone than on a computer.
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5. Create a clear call-to-action
Make sure to include a clear call-to-action in every video that you post. Without a clear CTA, viewers will be confused and not sure of what to do next. If you want more traffic to your site, it’s your duty to make it easier for the audience to find your site.
Tips:
Based on the audience’s demand for more video-based content and the emergence of YouTube as the second largest website in the world, video marketing seems to be the future of content marketing.
If you want to get started with more video marketing, we made a list of 100+ video making and marketing tools, including:
Nat McNeely is Digital Marketing Manager of Breadnbeyond, an award winning explainer video company.
