Why Your Business Needs to Start Using Video
Over a decade ago, companies began to explore a novel concept called blogging. Early adopters and subject matter experts began writing their thoughts and addressing issues to be posted on their company sites.
They surely didn’t know it then, but this was an early indication of a game changing evolution in the way companies connected with their audience.
Around the same time, a fledgling online company called Google was starting to find it’s footing and take control of the search engine market. As more and more users regularly used the internet, they began to depend on search engines to help them find answers to their questions.
This is why today we so often “Google it” when we have a problem that we are trying to solve. Those searches usually bring us to just the right blog post that was designed to appeal to someone like us.
Once organizations realized the implications, content marketing was born. Creating written content designed to attract a specific type of person has become a staple of most organizations, big or small.
The battle for attention rages on every day, and there is a bottomless appetite for good, valuable content. Historically, most of that content has been based on text, just like the original blogs of the early internet. But there is a significant change happening …
For the first time, blogs are being challenged as the go-to source of information. It isn’t ebooks, and it isn’t social posts. It is video. Everywhere you look video is taking over. They are on every high performing website, product page, and landing page.
Even image based platforms are evolving into video platforms. Facebook is flooded with video content, and is regularly releasing new features to help support that. Instagram started as a trendy picture sharing platform, and is now dominated by video clips. Snapchat stories pump thousands of hours of short video clips into the airwaves every day.
As with blogging, the early adopters of this video based trend are already seeing benefits. If they are competing for clicks, video is demonstrably more likely to get a user’s attention over text. Over 50% of users report a preference to video, and user data reflects that fact. It is also a more effective medium for delivering information - people tend to remember 80% of what they see, and only 20% of what they read.
This means that if you aren’t using video, you are missing a chance to get more clicks due to more appealing content, and more conversions because it is more effective in sharing your message. In the long run, any company that effectively uses video across their organization has the potential to outperform a text dependent competitor in several major areas.
Importantly, preference for video is not limited to younger, more tech savvy internet users. 75% of executive level people watch work related videos once a week or more. Over 50% of these people use YouTube to do so. This means that the most important decision makers are already seeking out videos to help them in their professional life.
This infographic from Vlogging Guides demonstrates 19 effective ways that any business can better use video and make the most out of the new online demand for video content.
Author Bio:
Mike is the founder and lead writer at Vlogging Guides, a resource blog for aspiring Vloggers, Video Marketers and YouTubers. Mike is a lifelong technology enthusiast, and has spent his career helping start-ups be discovered and grow. He spent the last three years with Advocate Marketing leader Influitive, helping Marketers adopt comprehensive programs designed to identify customer advocates, and generate valuable content through their stories. When he is not online, Mike is a passionate fan of travel, and his home town Toronto Raptors. Find them on Twitter.
