Why Video Marketing is so Important

For marketing geeks like us here at Squarebird, video has become one of the most valuable tools for us to use over the last few years. Users of the internet are consuming more video content than ever before and there’s no sign to suggest it’s a passing trend or one that is likely to slow down any time soon.

Utilising video on your website is something that businesses from all industries should be looking to incorporate. Research suggests that one-third of online activity is spent watching video, so the businesses who fail to capitalise on this opportunity are the ones who’ll be left behind with an underperforming website.

To help showcase just how powerful the impact of video can be, here we’ve explained the top reasons for using video marketing on your website.

What is Video Marketing?

Video marketing simply refers to a video that is used to promote or market your brand, business, product or service. It can be a short clip of your team working in the office, an in-depth interview with a member of your staff, a product review, a how-to video, or anything else you can think of – the list is endless.

Reasons to Use Video Marketing

Increase User Engagement

One of the biggest benefits of video is that they enable users to consume a large amount of content in a considerably quick time. People live extremely busy lives nowadays and simply haven’t got the time, enthusiasm nor attention span to read long chunks of text, which is why they favour watching a short video instead.

More than 1 billion hours every day are spent watching videos on YouTube, demonstrating the value of video in today’s world and highlighting just how prominent it has become in our day-to-day lives.

Visitors are much more likely to engage with videos than static text, helping to keep them on your site for longer, which is key if you’re wanting to maximise conversions.

Create a Great Website User Experience

Creating a seamless and compelling user experience is vital to captivating users who come across your site. Boring, motionless websites are out of date and have a high bounce rate because they fail to grab the attention of users.

The experience of using your website should be simple, but also enthralling. The sites with the best UX are rich in high-quality imagery, feature short videos or animations throughout, contain bright and vibrant colours, and generally present more than just paragraph after paragraph.

Increase Your Site’s SEO Performance

Using video on your website can also have a beneficial impact on your site’s position in search engine results pages (SERPs). A crucial factor on how high a page ranks in the SERPs is how long a visitor stays on the page, with Google valuing the pages with longer visits as more important. This is because Google recognises high levels of interaction and a low bounce rate with this page, therefore viewing it as a trustworthy source of relevant information.

YouTube videos are also being favoured by Google, so for some businesses, it can be worth creating their own channel where they regularly upload their videos. If you’re looking for a tutorial or video guide, such as ‘how to tie a shoelace’, there’s a good chance one of the first results you’ll see in Google’s results will be a YouTube video. This creates an opportunity for some types of organisations that is just too good to miss.

Establish a Relationship with Your Visitors

Adding bespoke videos of your company to your website is a great way for your business to start to build a relationship with visitors and potential customers or clients. Trust plays a huge part in the buying process, and people like to feel familiar with who it is they’re buying from, so a video can act as the perfect introduction to the people and faces of your business.

Stand Out from the Competition

Regardless of the industry you’re in, you’re going to need to stand out from the competition if you’re wanting to excel. When you’re looking to buy a service or product, do you always go for the first company you see? Or do you browse around and take a look at the different options before choosing the one you wish to use? The answer’s probably the latter one.

You’re not going to be the only company a potential buyer will consider, they’re bound to also look at your competitors’ sites before making a decision, so it’s absolutely imperative that you’re the one they remember. Not many businesses have the vision or creativity to add a moving, visual representation of their offering to their website, so by doing so yourself you’ll have a significant advantage over your competition. Something simple like demonstrating exactly how your product functions or showcasing your team at work will help you to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Bigger Screens on Phones

In the past, watching a video on a mobile phone was more hassle than it was worth – small, non-retina screens and poor internet connection often made for a painful and frustrating experience. Major advancements in recent years however has completely turned this on its head.

Bigger screens and better network infrastructure (developments such as mobile data and 4G) has now made it much simpler and more accessible for users to easily watch videos.

How to Make Video Marketing Work for your Business

The best type of video marketing content for your website will largely depend on the nature of your business. Some will be suited to interview or product description-type videos, whereas others may be inclined to feature more relaxed, get to know the company-types of videos – it’s not a one-size-fits-all situation so the culture of your organisation and industry will influence the type of video you should be looking to create.