You’re planning for Q4 2019 – or, maybe you’re ahead of the game and sketching out what 2020 will look like – and you’re focusing on where to funnel your marketing dollars. If so, then we’re betting you’re probably also interested in maximizing the bang you get for your buck. And that hunt has brought you to video marketing, the not-so-surprising Trojan horse of marketing in 2019. Because video marketing is here, it’s big, and it’s the key to beating out your competition.
In this guide, we’ll make the case for devoting some of your marketing dollars to video and provide some great resources to help you get started.
What is video marketing?
Video marketing is a generalized term that means exactly what it says: the use of video to market a product or service.
What’s the difference between video marketing and video advertising?
Screenshot from Dove via Facebook
Here’s the first area where we can refine our definition and better understand what video marketing is: All video ads/advertising are a type of video marketing, but not all video marketing is a type of video advertising.
In other words, video advertising is a subset of video marketing. The paid subset, to be specific. Whenever you create a marketing video – say, a customer video testimonial, product unboxing, customer interest-related tutorials, or even just a standard commercial – and then pay to publish and distribute that video, then it qualifies as video advertising.
To finish clarifying, though, note that you don’t pay to distribute all types of videos. For example, social videos with organic reach – that is to say, you publish them to your Facebook page but don’t pay to boost them – qualify as video marketing, but not video advertising.
The benefits of video marketing
Here’s where we jump into the real meat of it: why use video marketing?
According to John Surdakowski, CEO of Avex, “80% of consumers would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog. From Instagram to Facebook and other channels such as LinkedIn. Live videos from both brands, consultants and influencers will be very popular in 2019.”
It’s not just that: social media users are 40 times more likely to share video content over any other type, and 71% of users have increased how much they watch on Facebook – and that’s just in the past year. What’s more, 60% of those users expect that they’ll be watching more video next year than they have this year.
Video is on the rise. It is the up-and-coming marketing star. That is reason enough to jump on board the video train, but wait, there’s more!
- Mobile-optimized video reaps a 67% lift in brand awareness and increases message association by 41%.
- 30% of all mobile shoppers prefer video over other mediums, when it comes to new product discovery.
- People love video. Facebook users will watch video 5 times longer than they’ll look at static posts.
- 88% of marketers report that they’re satisfied with video marketing ROI.
- What’s more, video easily wins as consumers’ #1 favorite type of brand content.
For more reasons to incorporate video in your marketing mix, check out our recent post on 50 social media statistics every marketer should know in 2019.
More video marketing resources
There are lots of articles out there that market themselves as the complete guide to video marketing (or similar), but the truth is that the video marketing landscape is forever changing and always evolving.
It’s also true that there are dozens of very gifted, highly innovative video marketers out there who are constantly shaking up the video marketing landscape. So, instead of hitting you with a 10,000-word graduate-level thesis here, we’ve decided to link you to a few in-depth, well-researched, easy-to-understand guides published in the last few months.
They’re innovative, they’re updated, and their combined knowledge is better than any single source, any day:
- Hubspot’s Ultimate Guide to Video Marketing: From a primer on the basics to an in-depth look at the 12 types of marketing videos, Hubspot delivers (no email address required!) an incredibly in-depth look – including 5 videos – at the ins and outs, ups and downs of marketing with video in 2019.
- Vidyard’s Introduction to Video Marketing: For those of you with organized and analytical brains, you’ll do well to review Vidyard’s excellent intro. Divided into seven easy-to-digest chapters (+ a preface), this guide peruses everything from building your video marketing strategy to tracking your video analytics and ROI.
- Animoto’s Complete Guide to Video Marketing: If you vibe off an infinite-scroll kind guide, then you’ll love Animoto’s take on video marketing in 2019. With a hyperlinked table of contents and plenty of visual content, this guide scratches beneath the surface to highlight the various types of video marketing, including via email and social media, and a wealth of ideas and inspiration to get you started.
So, ball’s in your court: Can you make room in your budget for a little extra video marketing this year? Where do you think you’ll start?
Naturally, YouTube is one of the primary tools in your toolkit when it comes to video marketing. But you don’t have to rely on search algorithms to grow your YouTube following. Download the easy-to-install YouTube follow button today – it takes just minutes to install, and it enables your website and blog visitors to follow you on YouTube to keep up with all your entertaining videos with just one click!
