VIDEO CONTENT – THE FUTURE OF MARKETING AND ITS IMPORTANCE, TRENDS, CHALLENGES AND STRATEGY – CONTENTNARRATIVES.COM (Creative & Qualified Content)

“Content has been used extensively for marketing since the rise of the digital era, and the ever-changing trends indicate that videos for content marketing is here to stay forever.“

The reason behind the wide use of content for the digital marketing is the engagement and awareness.

Previously, with the traditional marketing and advertising, the metrics were different. And marketers were focused more on the impression. But, the landscape has shifted completely towards the digital platform, and metrics have changed also.

To create a relevant online presence, businesses need to create awareness among the users. They need to provide useful information in form of different types of content.

Web Content is what you see online. Whether it is a website, social media, email, or anything, there is content everywhere. Blogs, videos, images, audio, infographics, ads, social media posts, vlog (video blog), podcast, etc are web contents.

As the digital landscape is expanding, the need for more and more content is increasing. People also consume a lot of content everyday for various purposes. So, marketers need to find a way to allow users to consume the content easily and effectively.

And that’s where the importance of video content marketing becomes visible.

Why the video content is important?

As the trends suggest, video is and will be consumed more than any other type of content. As I mentioned earlier that the metrics have changed, marketers now focus more on engagement. And videos get more number engagement than any other content.

Previously, videos were used in TV ads only, but now they are tools to provide relevant information.

As per the research data, most of the internet is accessed through mobile devices. With a mobile device, it is quite convenient to watch a video than reading a long article.

The mobile penetration is at its peak, and with such a large viewer base, you have a chance to stand out from others by creating attracting videos.

The content distribution becomes very easy and effective with videos using smart algorithm, as it creates preferences and provides you content that you would like to see.

The Science Behind Better Engagement with Videos

A person’s brain transmits visual information much quicker than texts. Actually, our brain can process visuals 60,000 times faster than texts!

A video presents information in form of visuals. And with those visuals, it transforms signs like body language, sound and expressions to understand the emotions and message well.

Watching a video consumes less time than reading a long article, especially in a mobile device. And also, it is easy to understand the context of the content.

And that’s why videos generate 1200% more shares than texts and images together!

Benefits of video content for marketing

Videos have an appeal that connects with viewers, attract them with visually impressive presentation. And apart from that, video content marketing strategy has many benefits, making it the future of content marketing.

Better engagement – In digital marketing, engagement is the first and one of the most important performance metrics. And it is an important characteristic of online world, as you can engage with your audience through various mediums and content. As your content gets more valuable and attractive, you get more engagement. And what else can be more appealing than videos? The visual element connects with people’s nerves and touches their emotions, excitement and feelings. If your video content is of the best quality in all aspects like, information, relevance, appeal, resolution and education, it will generate more viewership. The viewers will be compelled to share your videos and purchase from you.
Organic reach and SEO – Why organic search is so important? It is important for your brand’s recognition, as organic search is related to the relevance and quality of your content and value you provide with your business. Another important performance metrics, that shows that how popular is your brand. If your videos are of the best quality and relevant to your audience, and offers the value and solutions that people are looking for, they will find a good amount of viewers. It will eventually improve your SEO ranking prospects, and generate higher leads and ROI.
Brand recognition – As you know that videos connect more with our brain than any other content. So, obviously your business’s online presence improves with very good quality video content, and achieves a brand’s recognition. Remember, that the core values of any content should not be compromised to recognize as a brand, and videos are no exception.
Videos and social media – The social media for marketing is an unavoidable strategy because it is the most used online medium across the world. And, videos are the most used content in social media. For example, the YouTube viewers view more than 1 billion hours of videos everyday, and 75 million people visit Facebook video page! And another encouraging social media fact about LinkedIn, a prominent professional networking platform is that 38% marketers use videos for promotion, and more than 20% users share video content. And 75% LinkedIn users say that they have benefited from using videos! It’s not just in these platforms but many others also like, Twitter and Instagram. So, if you want to implement video content marketing strategy to expand your horizon, then no other online platform can be more beneficial than social media.
Great performance – Reading long articles or viewing other types of content will not be a smooth experience in every device. For example, in mobile devices, viewing images and infographics or reading articles will be very uneasy. But, videos perform great on all the devices. So, this performance will improve the marketing performance and give you the best possible results in terms of lead generation, conversion and ROI.

“Remember you need to create a video which is engaging, informing and entertaining to get the best out it.”

Challenges and Strategies for creating video content

If it a completely new game for you, there will be many challenges for creating video content.

The first challenge would be to develop a content strategy, such as how to create content. And another challenge would be to achieve the goals set by that strategy.

“The millennial use mobile devices to view videos more than TVs, looking for educational, informative and entertaining content. And most of the time they skip through the ads displayed while watching the videos. So, how do you reach out to them with your content?”

How do you make a start? – Define your goals first. So, you can start searching for tools that will enable you to create content specific to your goals.
Define your target audience – By defining your audience, you will be able to create content to target them in various stages for different purposes. For example, at the awareness stage, you should create videos that provide enough information about your product/services and your industry to create recognition among your audience.
Research on what type of content to develop – Based on your research of user persona, decide what type of content would connect with them. For B2B customers, thought leadership content is the best recipe, even with videos also. Create video content which showcases your expertise in your industry. And for users who are looking for some useful information or solutions to their problems, you should create educational and resolving video content. For example, you have your own garment manufacturing business and want to create videos for social media marketing. So, you should create videos on how to measure yourself for online garment shopping or how to alter your clothes. Because these are the main pain points for customers while shopping clothes online. With such type of content you can get many relevant users in to the your marketing funnel.
Add SEO elements – You know that millions of videos are uploaded everyday. So, how do you they find yours? Yes, video platform such as YouTube has become a big search engine now, and people use it to find relevant and useful videos. To improve your search ranking, you can add SEO elements to your content. “The most relevant and attention grabbing title, and adding keywords in your video description can be very useful.“
Testimonials and Influencers – They both work extremely well with videos. Using testimonials and reviews from customers, showcasing metrics such as likes, shares, views, downloads and subscriptions will help you to spread a word about your business. And as per the research data, people tend to rely on reviews given by influencers like celebrities, experts and present customers to make purchase decisions. And the influencer marketing has become an integral part of any marketing strategy.
Conversion based tactics – As we discussed about how to target customers to create awareness, after that you need to create interest among them to generate leads. And finally you need to get those leads to make a purchase. Add some effective elements in your videos to convert those leads into customers. Creating a landing page with a clear message and compelling call to action (CTA) button at the end of the video can be a useful tactic to get them to your desired destination. You can also provide some great tempting offers or create promotions, especially to retarget users who visited your website page, but didn’t make any purchase.
Where to distribute videos? – While researching your target audience, you can get insights about on which platforms they are mostly present. Publish your videos on those channels to get maximum viewership.
Always measure your performance – You can check on how your video campaign is performing, and make any required changes to achieve the goals. It is a binding strategy for a successful marketing campaign. If your content is not performing in line with your set goals, you have to rethink and realign your strategy to put it back on track. Every platform where you publish your content, offers tools to check the performance metrics.

The most important thing to consider while creating video content is the overall appeal. People have a very short attention span, and they don’t watch or read content as a whole. So, make a video as short as possible, because they don’t have time to see each and every video released online. And above all, create a video with attractive visuals, sounds and effects to get users tied up with it.

Current and Future Trends To Boost Your Campaign

Innovations and popularity create trends. So, while looking at trends regarding videos, you can use your creative instincts to make innovative content to develop trends.