Study after study confirms what common sense suggests:  when it comes to influencing customers and prospective customers, moving them through the buying cycle or increasing any of the metrics associated with growing your business or boosting your sales, video has no equal.  Video has consistently demonstrated its ability to outperform every other medium in reinforcing brand messaging and driving business.

 

Consider these statistics compiled by HubSpot:

  • Video included in landing pages boosts conversion rates by 80%
  • When videos are embedded in emails, they increase click-through rates by 200-300%
  • 64% of users are more likely to convert after watching a video
  • Combining videos with full-page ads boosts user engagement by 22%
  • Real estate ads which include videos receive 40% more inquiries

Of course, these metrics reflect average performance, and not all videos are created equal.  So, what makes some videos so effective, while others fail to meet marketers’ expectations?  The videos which achieve or exceed their marketing objectives have three traits in common:

1.  They Grab the Viewer’s Attention and Defy Expectations

The increased popularity of online videos means there’s much competition.  Creating another so-so video might get viewers to begin watching, but it is no guarantee they will finish, or that they will think more of your brand or your product.  Grabbing the audience’s attention requires creativity and taking some calculated risks—risks which pay off handsomely when they are successful.

Think of Google Android’s “Friends Forever” video.  The concept is simple enough—Google put together some unlikely animal pairs, like a monkey climbing on a horse’s back and a parrot feeding spaghetti to a husky.  The video was successful because viewers did not expect it—and because the message of shared experiences linked seamlessly into the company’s brand promise.

2.  They Convey Powerful Emotions

The combination of moving images and sound (in particular, music) create a unique platform to build buyer trust through shared emotion.  Consider Reebok’s head-turning video, “25,915 Days.”  The goal of the video is to link the company’s product to undaunted human striving in the face of our ultimate mortality.

Choosing the number of days (25,915) in the average human lifespan for their title was a marketing coup.  Telling the story by playing out one woman’s athletic life in reverse was a stroke of marketing genius.  Framing that story in video makes it compelling by evoking powerful emotions in a way no other medium could have.  Note how the video flawlessly conveys its emotional message through images and music, without a single spoken word.

3.  They Communicate More Information in Less Space

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a video is worth 1 million.  A well-executed 1 or 2-minute video can convey more information about a company and its products or services than the majority of long-winded eBooks, white papers or product descriptions—a fact which busy consumers appreciate and reward through their purchasing decisions.

When Facebook wanted to educate current and future users of the social media platform about the site’s functionality, they could have delivered a series of lengthy disquisitions which likely would have left those users both bored and unimpressed.  Instead, they created their “Tips” series of videos, each highlighting a particular Facebook function (like how to turn notifications off, add a friend to a group or use stickers to convey feelings that are challenging to express in words) as it relates to real-life application scenarios.  This Tip on how to use labels says everything Facebook needs it to say in just 19 seconds—without fuss, without waste, and without an ounce of excess verbiage.

Video represents a unique opportunity to ramp up your inbound marketing campaigns.  The best marketing videos, like the best inbound campaigns, communicate compelling messaging without an overt sales push.  They present engaging themes which grab viewers’ attention without detracting from brand or products.  They build trust with emotion and pack a great deal of relevant information into a subtle space.

As such, videos are a critical component of your inbound marketing strategy.  To learn more about the ways you can grow your business and drive sales with engaging marketing content, contact us today.