THE IMPORTANCE OF VIDEO IN EVERY DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY

“99% of people don’t market in the year that we actually live in.” - Gary Vaynerchuk

If you’re not integrating video into your marketing strategy, you fall right into that statistic. For some companies, it means annually investing millions of dollars in video campaigns and ads. For others, it means an iPhone video showing off your products or your best-selling menu items. Whatever it is for you, the fact remains that video is a necessity for your marketing toolbox. ​

The History of Video Marketing 

Video marketing falls under the umbrella of digital marketing, along with several other niche areas of marketing (social media marketing, editorial marketing, etc). If we’re getting technical, we could say that video marketing began almost 80 years ago, thanks to a watch company by the name of Bulova. 

Bulova made a big decision to run a video commercial on a New York TV station … during a Yankees game. It was a bold move that revolutionized the way video played into the marketing sphere. At the time, the company spent $4 in total to air the commercial. In today’s world, that $4 would be more like $4 million. 

Fast forward 40 years and we land on MTV’s big impact when it launched “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Call it foreshadowing or trusty foresight—either way, MTV really hit the mark with this one. From there, several other companies (Apple, Fox, and Nike) jumped on the video bandwagon. 

The video biz has experienced many twists and turns. Think about it. 10 years ago no one was coming up with 5-second videos for an Instagram story, right? But one thing remains the same: Video undoubtedly has made its way into the marketing industry, and by the looks of it, it’s here to stay. 

Marketing, Meet Video 

It’s hard to peg the exact origin of video marketing, but one moment stands out among the rest. In 2006, Google saw a potential in video marketing and made the decision to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion. Some would argue this is what bridged the intersection of video and marketing. 

Everyone began to use videos as a way to document life experiences. By everyone, we mean… everyone. Tech companies sending out clips of their newest product and families documenting their baby’s first steps. Marketing professionals coming up with new, fresh video commercials and freelancers uploading their greatest work on film. Video became the quickest way to disseminate useful information in real-time. 

Behind the scenes, Google capitalized on this discovery by investing more and more into YouTube—rolling out new ads and paying particular attention to brands that were thriving on the video front. 

Why Video? Why Now? 

Video is useful, but as you probably know, it comes at a great cost. Video takes your message and uses words, visuals, and audio to execute it. Marketing agencies are dedicated to this craft, so it’s integral to the success of your business that you’re utilizing the latest and greatest tools to hone in on your niche. In today’s world, that’s video. 

In the spirit of “show, don’t tell,” we’ll lay out a few video marketing stats to back up this claim.

• Video marketing growth is on the up-and-up. In 2018, 63% of businesses were using video as a marketing tool, and in 2019, that number jumped to 81%. 
• After Google, YouTube is the most popular website. 
• Studies show that people retain roughly 95% of a message in the form of a video but only 10% when reading it. 
• Social videos are shared 1200% more than text and images combined. 
• If a website contains video content, it’s 53% more likely to end up on the first page of  Google results. 
• 97% of marketers believe that video is helpful with giving users a better understanding of their services and/or products. 

It’s safe to say that the numbers (and the content) back up the notion that video is a must-have for your marketing plan. It’s not enough to just send a message out to the public and call it a day. You need to actively work toward reaching a target audience, converting viewers into users, and establishing trust with your following. By putting a video out into the public, you’re making an effort to bridge this connection, and the payoff is huge. 

Ways to Utilize Video for Your Marketing Strategy 

So you’re ready to join the video movement. How do you do it? The good news is you have several options. Here are a few of those: 

• Company videos. If you’re looking to showcase your company and all that you offer as a team, you can utilize video to give a sneak peek at your operation. This could be a hero video for the main page of your site or a social media video that highlights your company culture. However you decide to approach it, a company video focuses on your mission, values, services, and people. 
• Advertisements/Commercials. The majority of video ad spend comes from commercials. It’s a no-brainer that this is an easy and effective way to get your content in front of a lot of eyes, but money comes into play here. Commercials are costly, so your agency will need to pick and choose when it’s the right time to invest in this type of video advertising. However, it comes with a big payoff when done well. 
• Live videos. It started with YouTube Live, and now most social media platforms offer some type of live streaming option. Live video is a great way to promote some of the awesome work you do as an agency. You could hop on the BTS (behind-the-scenes) bandwagon, or you could send out a direct message explaining what’s going on in your agency. The beauty of live video is it’s cheap, quick, and efficient. There’s no need to bring in a camera crew to get beauty shots and glamorous cuts. Live video is meant to be real, and it’s quickly catching fire in the marketing realm. 
• Explanation videos. Sometimes products and services require an explanation. Your agency may have a client that specializes in something totally out of the box, and in order to market that specialization, you’ll need to explain it first. That’s why explanation videos are handy. An explanation video is your marketing sidekick for niche industries and companies. Sure, you could write a 2-pager about a product or service or you could give an in-person presentation. But video is much quicker and sends out a clear message in less than 2 minutes. 

That’s a wrap! Looking ahead toward 2020, we can see all sorts of trends beginning to surface. While digital marketing trends come and go, video is one that is bound to stick around. How do you plan to incorporate video into your digital marketing strategy this year?