We all know that internet marketing is constantly changing. And if businesses want to remain competitive, it is vital to keep up with new techniques and strategies. Today, many digital marketers are talking about how videos are rapidly changing the online marketing landscape. Unfortunately, many businesses still remain reluctant to include video in their marketing strategy.
Most companies say that they don’t have enough resources to make business videos, while others are still struggling to get results from their existing strategies. Perhaps you’re also in a similar situation. You’re probably on the fence about video marketing and are curious about its effectivity. You might be asking, “Is video production really worth it?”
No matter what’s keeping you from the idea of video marketing, you’d be surprised to know that it can actually help solve some of your marketing problems. Below are some common marketing issues that today’s online businesses encounter. Find out how video production can resolve these problems and perhaps you’d be more enlightened about video marketing.
10 Common Online Marketing Problems and How Video Marketing Can Solve Them
Ineffective Marketing Strategies
You’ve tried them all – paid advertising, search engine optimization, email marketing and possibly every single social media platform there is. But sadly, you’re still not getting the results you hoped for. There are a lot of probable reasons why your current marketing strategy isn’t working. But perhaps the simple reason is, it isn’t competitive enough to grab your audience’s attention.
The truth is, print marketing isn’t as effective as video marketing anymore. We’ve been told many times before that humans are highly visual beings, which is why many of us tend to think that static images alone would suffice. It’s time we go beyond this fact and realize the strengths videos can offer.
There are three things a video can offer that a simple print cannot. No matter how well-designed a print product may be, it still cannot compete with the capabilities of video – especially in an industry where capturing your audience’s attention proves to be a challenge.
A video contains movement, emotion, and sound – all of which a printed product does not have. It is said that movement grabs attention faster than an attractive ad. Also, the sound of a human voice speaking to us allows us to process information better than reading. And to top it all off, videos can also ignite strong emotions. Use these tools right with a video and you might have an effective marketing strategy in your hands.
Other Marketing Strategies Are Costly
Marketing isn’t cheap. It doesn’t just cost money to produce a certain ad, it also takes a lot of money to get those ads seen. When competition becomes tough, most companies would use their budget for paid advertising. What most of them fail to understand is that customers do not like to be bombarded with unwanted ads.
Video marketing is one inexpensive way to reach out to an audience. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses avoid it because of the impression that creating a professional video is expensive. But if you have a chat with a videographer or a video production company, they’ll tell you that it’s not that costly. And compared to the amount of cash you might be wasting on ineffective marketing methods; a video is worth the investment.
You Aren’t Getting Any Leads
In the online space, grabbing someone’s attention is quite different from gaining someone’s interest. An attractive banner may catch a viewer’s eye but after a few seconds, he or she could decide that they aren’t interested in what it has to say. Turning passers-by into potential customers has always been a challenge for online companies.
In print marketing, you are required to use a variety of ways to present information. A beautiful poster might be the bait but your copywriting might be the fishing line that will decide whether or not you will be able to reel them in.
Through a promotional video, you can deliver all types of information while you have your viewer’s full attention. Through video marketing, there’s a smaller chance of losing them along the way because you know that they are most likely going to finish that video. In fact, it is said that an average viewer will spend about 16 minutes watching your video – that’s a long shot compared to the 15 seconds people spend to read a blog post!
You Have Lead Conversion Issues
Whether companies like to admit it or not, most of them experience problems when it comes to lead conversion. Only a minimal number of leads get converted even after putting out all of their marketing efforts.
Perhaps the problem was in the copy? Or was it the photo, or even the positioning of the “Buy Now” button? While user interface design does play an important role in your audience’s experience while browsing the page, it does not ensure that they will be fully invested in your brand. Marketers today are too focused on the finer details that they forget the one important factor: trust.
As we’ve mentioned above, viewers will spend more time watching a video, which means that there is ample time to gain their trust compared to a sales copy. In fact, studies also show that visitors are 64% more likely to purchase an item that was featured in a website video.
This is simply because they were able to see the product used in action. In the same way, a company can gain more trust from their viewer when they are able to see them in action. Besides, as the old adage says, actions speak louder than words.
Your Audience Doesn’t Know Your Company Story
With tons of other brands also competing for your audience’s attention, your company has to put in extra effort just to be remembered. When one thinks of branding, style and personality are the first things that come to mind. But many forget one key factor that it is perhaps more important than appearance, and that is storytelling.
Most businesses make the mistake of simply writing their stories as text. Their company information is limited to a page or two on their website. However, not a lot of people actually visit those pages unless they are genuinely interested in the brand.
Among all other marketing strategies, video marketing has the capability to tell your story effectively. Through storytelling, you are able to kindle emotion and create a human connection with your potential customers.
Calculating ROI Is Difficult
Do you often feel like your marketing strategies are more like a gamble rather than a carefully researched plan? After creating a campaign, do you find yourself crossing your fingers hoping that your ideas won’t be a flop? Measuring ROI is never an easy feat, even for the experienced digital marketer.
This is probably because all other marketing strategies cannot measure the personal interest of a customer. Just because a viewer liked a photo on Instagram doesn’t necessarily mean that he was genuinely interested in it. On the other hand, when a viewer watches a 10-minute video from start to finish, it’s safe to say that he may be truly invested in the topic.
Besides, according to Hubspot, 52% of marketers say that video has the best ROI. If more than half of digital marketers say so, there must be some significant truth to it.
Keeping Up with Marketing Trends and Technology
Online marketing continues to change as long as technology advances. Without the necessary modifications to accommodate those changes, any marketing strategy won’t perform the way we want it to. This is not to say that video marketing isn’t progressing like other forms of online marketing. The problem with most marketing strategies is that every time changes take place, it negatively affects the current strategy in place.
Take content marketing as an example. A 500-word article would have sufficed a few years back but today, the new word count requirement is at above 1500 words. Although previously written content helped build the website’s reputation, it would eventually be covered up by newer, longer forms of content.
On the other hand, video marketing still succeeds in bringing in positive results, despite changes. In fact, many consider video marketing to be the future. Popular social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook have already integrated video sharing features into their systems.
And according to YouTube, mobile video consumption grows by 100% every year. These are sure signs that video marketing will continue to shape the way online businesses connect with their customers.
Audience Engagement Is Low
It’s very easy to get distracted in a busy space like the internet. Every time your potential customer gets a notification on their phone, you are already losing their attention. The problem with print marketing is that there is little incentive to continue reading the full content. Most people will usually browse the page and leave right after they’ve found what they’re looking for.
Meanwhile, watching videos require the viewer’s full attention. And they are also required to view the whole thing from start to finish. With that in mind, you are more assured that your audience will consume your content as a whole rather than just bits and pieces.
You might have also noticed how social media videos are getting more views than photos, even on Instagram – a place where photos used to reign. This just goes to show that video is in demand and that your audience will more likely engage with your content if it is in video format.
Your Audience Reach Is Also Low
There are some people who don’t like to receive promotional emails. And certain types of people use certain social media platforms. How do you know where or even how to connect with your potential leads?
The common way to address this problem is to be present in wherever your crowd is online. If your ideal customer uses Pinterest, your marketing strategy would most likely prioritize Pinterest. The bad thing is, you might be putting all your eggs in one basket by focusing only on one platform. You are also limiting your reach to other potential customers.
Meanwhile, everybody watches videos – regardless of age, gender or interests. Statistics say that about 100 million internet users watch videos every day. By making your content available as a video, you are actually making it accessible to many different kinds of people. And this could help you significantly raise the number of leads with just one piece of content.
No Results With SEO
There are currently 1.5 billion active websites on the internet today – some of them probably trying to target the same keywords as you are. Search engine optimization used to be easy a few years back but now that the competition is tougher, the stakes have gone higher as well.
It’s not enough that content is being published on your site, your content has to be really good and reliable as well. Without passing these standards, Google won’t direct you to your potential customers. The good news is, you don’t have to depend solely on SEO anymore.
YouTube is the second largest search engine today. And while keywords may come in handy, they are not the only factors that determine how your content will be shown on the results page. Beyond having the proper title or even the right hashtags, the more popular and well-liked content you produce, the more likely your videos will show results.
Besides receiving likes and comments, your fans are also able to connect to you on YouTube much like other social media platforms. The only difference is that you are now able to share longer forms of content rather than just short news and updates.
Take it as an opportunity to build a following online. The longer these people follow you and interact with your account, you are assured that they are fully invested in what you have to offer. And we all know that this connection is far more important than simply having your content found via Google search.
Text Vs Video
Almost everyone is connected to the internet via their smartphones or tablets, which means that they are most likely to browse the web while on the go. This also means that your audience has a limited amount of time to spend consuming your content.
This poses a very pressing problem for those who are focused on their content marketing strategies. How is it possible for your audience to read a 2500-word long article in under a few minutes? A person who reads on a regular basis might feel comfortable with it, but your goal is to make your content accessible to everyone – not just a handful.
Now, most marketers may think that the solution is simple – surely, there may be no harm to cut down the amount of words in an article. But as we have come to know, 2500 and above is the new requirement if you’d like to rank better on Google. In this light, videos win over written text. A video can pack a lot of information without taking away too much of your audience’s time.
Ironically, statistics also show that on average, users will spend 2.6x more time on a page that has a video – whatever happened to not having enough time?
The answer is quite simple – it isn’t actually the time that’s being consumed that’s the problem. It is actually the willingness to spend that time. Most people might think that reading takes up a lot of time and effort. Meanwhile, a video might take up a lot more time but because it requires little to no effort on the viewer’s side, it appears to be convenient.
Top it off with the amount of distractions one’s phone is exposed to everyday, it’s just difficult for a lot of people to stay focused on reading.
Conclusion
When done right, video marketing can become a very powerful tool for your business. Don’t let your misconceptions about video production keep you from exploring the opportunities video marketing can offer. And as you’ve read in the paragraphs above, video marketing has a lot of advantages, and it can even help you alleviate some of your marketing problems.
It’s understandable to be skeptical about new strategies or techniques, especially in online marketing. Creating a video can be quite overwhelming as well, especially for beginners. The good news is that there are people who could help you through the process!
Talk to a professional videographer or to your local video production company and see how you can better communicate with your audience through video. For those of you looking for video production Colorado or Denver video production, feel free to send us a message! We would be happy to help you out.
In the meantime, share with us your thoughts and concerns about video marketing. What are your favorite examples of videos? Have you started incorporating videos into your marketing strategy? Why or why not?
To jumpstart the process of creating an efficient video marketing plan for your business, contact us here.
