Video marketing has been with us for just over a decade now, and although it had a fairly shaky start as broadband and wifi wasn’t as prevalent as it is today, there’s no denying that it is now everywhere.
Consumers just expect to see it, and marketers are only to happy to fill in the gap with a plethora of videos, good, bad, or downright ugly. But the big question is… do videos start a conversion, or do they kill your conversions? After all, not all videos are made equal…
There are plenty of studies out there that show that video is a great converter. 1 in 3 millenials have revealed that they purchased something after watching a video, and even more generally, consumers are 114% more likely to take a purchasing decision post-video watching.
There’s also the fact that 60% of people would just prefer to watch a video rather than read acres of text, and 96% of them found video the most helpful way to get information when making their final decision.
With stats like that, it’s obvious that video must be a part of your marketing strategy! But there’s more still that you can do. For example, did you know that overly long videos kill engagement? You likely already know that attention spans have dwindled down to ext to nothing, and that’s still the case here, with interest dying around the 10s mark where 20% of people will just click off.
That’s not to say you should make a whole bunch of 10 second videos – 80% of people are still watching. The reported ideal video length is currently around a minute or two, after which engagement falls off a cliff, never again to return.
You also need to consider your video size. There’s a lot of devices and screens out there, so ideally, you want a size that looks good on most. That golden dimension turns out to be between 401 and 600 pixels wide. This doesn’t overwhelm the page, but still attracts attention.
What else can you learn from stats? One interesting thing I uncovered during my extensive research was that you can leverage the word ‘video’ to boost your opening rates for email marketing. That’s right, having ‘video’ in your subject line boosts opening rates by 19% alone – and the click through rates by a practically insane 65%.
So, what does this tell you? You might be thinking it’s time to start churning out the videos, but not so fast, Spielberg. Videos are costly and take a long time to produce. Sure, you can make crappy videos, but be realistic: these aren’t going to get anywhere near the results you want.
As with all marketing initiatives, you need to first define your campaign objectives when deciding if you want to make a video. Do you want more brand exposure? Sales? Sign ups? Knowing what you want to achieve helps you to make a video tailored to making that happen.
It also helps to really know what your target market loves. Consider this, the more targeted your video is, the more your audience will love it. It’s only natural after watching a cinematic masterpiece that has ticked all the right boxes that they’ll do the decent thing and take you up on your offer.
Video marketing isn’t just the future, it’s happening right now and you can take advantage of it. So get the cameras rolling!