Background: Customers are using videos throughout their entire shopping journeys, making them a must have in a brand marketer’s arsenal.

Television still reigns supreme when it comes to watching video content. However, there is no denying that online videos are experiencing a big boom, particularly with respect to marketing content. According to a Google study, 6 out of 10 people would rather watch online videos than television.

The internet’s second most visited website, after Google, is a video sharing platform—YouTube, which is mainly accessed on smart phones. In fact, mobile video consumption rises by 100% every year. According to Cisco, by 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic — 15 times higher than it was in 2017. By 2020, there will be close to 1 million minutes of video crossing the internet per second.

As a visual species, humans find videos more engaging and produce greater recall than with any other type of content, making them an essential part of every marketer’s survival kit today. Videos are no longer a tool for boosting just early-stage awareness, but are an essential part of every brand’s communications strategy. Businesses that can’t do this well, lose the edge, and over time, are likely to lose market share. To increase conversion and exposure, having a video marketing strategy is a must.

Online videos play a big role in the journey of a retail consumer. Right from the first contact to the eventual purchase, customers now use video at every stage of the shopping journey, so should brands. But how does one achieve one’s marketing objectives using online videos? How to ensure an effective video marketing strategy? Here's some help:

Stay regular

Consistency is the key. Posting videos on a regular basis helps build a strong relationship with customers. It also drives greater traffic to the videos, which then should trickle down to a brand’s point of purchase. It is observed that video sharing platforms often give preference to videos posted by channels that are regular.

Online videos play a big role in the journey of a retail consumer. Right from the first contact to the eventual purchase, customers now use video at every stage of the shopping journey, so should brands.

Keep it short

Research shows that one fifth of viewers will click away from a video within 10 seconds or less, one third of the viewers by 30 seconds, and 60% of them by 2 minutes. This behaviour accentuates for branded content. So it helps to have smaller videos to keep the audience engaged as well as ensure a greater reach. "With Instagram allowing 3-15 seconds per video, users are even more likely to create and share videos from their smartphones,” said Jayson DeMers, founder and CEO of AudienceBloom. Platforms like TikTok, that are used to share micro-videos, have a great rate of virality because of the ease of sharing and the shorter viewing length. Micro-videos ensure the quickest and widest dissemination of video content, and hence, such platforms should be a part of a brand’s marketing strategy.

Know your content

Without good content to consume, there will be no traffic. Understanding the type of content that the target group would like, creating a highquality and cost-effective video with clear information about the product, and the right kind of product integrations are crucial. As many as 37% of viewers are put off by a video that doesn’t explain the product or service clearly enough (versus 25% of people discouraged by a video’s low quality). The must-have in every brand’s video list should be ‘How to’ videos; 30% of people’s YouTube searches are for How-To queries. They are the sweethearts of search engines and have the ability to drive immense sales. According to Hubspot, 73% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase after watching ‘How To’ videos explaining a product or service.

Optimise, optimise, optimise

Content might be king but optimised content is the emperor. A lot of great videos often fail miserably online because they aren’t well optimised. Optimisation is basically honing your video to ensure that it reaches more people. Some beginner mistakes that can easily be avoided are with frame sizes as 75% of all video plays are on mobile devices. Creating videos that don’t lose their charm on various devices is extremely important. To add to it, different video sharing platforms have different frame types and frame sizes. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram use vertical videos (portrait) while YouTube and Vimeo use horizontal videos (landscape). Make sure that the video frame is customised according to the platform being used.

Marketers should also focus on extensive keyword research and adding meta tags to the video to ensure a greater reach. Because a brand video is only as good as the number of people that see it.

Encourage action

Another common mistake many marketers make is not attaching a call to action. Customers might enjoy your content but without a call to action, the possibilities of conversion reduce significantly.

There’s a lot of conjecture about what the future of retail is going to be, what the future of marketing using the internet is going to be, but amidst all of this noise, the one thing that stands out clearly is the fact that online videos are the dominant form of content today, and they are not going anywhere anytime soon. They are the next big thing.

Did you know?

• 55% shoppers say they use online video while actually shopping in-store
• 50% (more than half) of shoppers say online video has helped them decide which specific brand or product to buy
  
  

Also read: How to give your brand a boost with video marketing

Article by Osaid Butt in STOrai Magazine.

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