Video content marketing is becoming an almost indispensable part of content marketing with billions of videos being viewed every month across a number of different devices. Consumers now expect that video become part of the content they receive.
To underscore the importance of video consider the following –
- Sixty percent of executives will watch a video before reading a word of text on their screen.
- Forty-two percent of executives have made a purchasing decision based on an online video.
- 500 years worth of YouTube videos are shared each day on Facebook.
- Over 3 billion hours of video is consumed monthly on YouTube.
- Over 53% of e-commerce retailers are already using non-product related video content (informational videos) on their sites.
- An additional 30.5% plan to add informational videos to their content arsenal in 2013.
Even traditional print magazines are turning to video to supplement or provide original content for their readers and viewers.
According to Lauren Wiener who was SVP of Digital at Meredith Corp –
Video has become a compelling way to tell stories and importantly, to support how-to content through sight, sound and motion. It’s also a way for Meredith to strengthen its position in niche verticals like home, food and parenting, in the face of competition from cable TV networks and emerging online properties.
With the aim of better serving audiences and generating new content magazines including the Wall Street Journal are increasingly turning to video and social media to bolster their publications and content marketing.
However video content marketing to date is not a guarantee of success in terms of engaging the audience. In fact some of the common notions is that video is no different than blog posts or infographics.
Video content marketing will only work well if your content requires visual, audio and text elements to create meaning to viewers. On the other hand if your content does not require visual or audio elements to be engaging or even useful to viewers then it isn’t suited for video. (Image credit: Flickr)
Marketers with the mind set of creating viral videos or with virality as their game plan are likely to be disappointed. With 48 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube alone every minute, only a small portion of that actually goes viral. Keeping a long term view of your video content marketing is essential to grow audiences and keep them engaged.
Content marketing and even video content marketing should really be about the audience rather than any one piece of media that may prove to be a one hit wonder. Its more important to engage and keep your audience engaged with a steady stream of content like Orabrush. The company makes a tongue scrapper to fight bad breath. Its Youtube channel has been viewed 48 million times despite oral hygiene not being the most exciting product categories. A constant stream of quality content like its webisode series, “Diary of a Dirty Tongue” play a large part in building and engaging their audience with video content marketing.
What is the focus of your current video content marketing and how do you measure its success or engagement?
