The Benefits of Video Marketing for Brand Awareness

Not so long ago, internet videos were for little more than entertainment; be it movies, personal vlogs, or silly videos of cats. While many of us still spend more time than we care to admit watching the latter, there is no denying that the role of video content has changed drastically over the years. With over a quarter of all business now conducted online, capturing and maintaining the attention of potential customers on the net has never been more important. Let’s take a closer look at how video content can give your brand awareness a much needed boost.

Massive Audience Reach

With over a billion active users watching a combined total of 250 million hours of video content every day, it should come as no surprise that YouTube ranks as the second largest search engine in the world. If you’ve ever run an ad campaign for your company, you’re probably aware that the average CPM for online display ads is between $3-10 for every thousand views. Now imagine getting your business in front of a billion potential customers daily for $0 in ad spend and it’s easy to see why more and more companies are embracing video content as an essential part of their marketing strategy.

Interested in the potential but not sure what your business has to offer in the way of video content? Thankfully, it’s not all about entertainment value. “How-to” videos are one of YouTube’s top search categories. Help to educate viewers about your industry (and how your services factor in), and you’ll soon establish yourself as a trusted expert in that sphere. This in turn will lead to more views, and more importantly, more customers.

Master the Social Media Algorithms

If your social media posts aren’t getting much love, video content could be your missing ingredient. As is often the case with businesses’ social media accounts, getting your posts to break out of the closed loop of those that already follow you is easier said than done. If you want your messages to reach a wider audience, you have to show the social media algorithms what they want to see. More and more, what they want is video content.

At their core, social media algorithms are all about finding ways to keep users on their site longer. As data has shown, videos hold viewers’ attention much longer than images or plain text ever could. Because of this, video posts are prioritized, more often finding their way onto users’ feeds or “discover” pages than static content. Savvy marketers can even make use of social media-specific video cuts to leverage the performance boost that tends to accompany native video posts over their embedded counterparts.

Customers Prefer Video

Simply put, your customers would prefer to watch a video to learn about your services as opposed to reading about them. According to a recent survey, 73% of respondents stated that they would prefer to learn about a company’s products or services via video, with only 11% saying they’d prefer to read an article, and 4% preferring infographics. Not only that, it has also been shown that that video content on your website can increase mobile conversion rate. Of the consumers surveyed, 40% stated that video content increases the chances that they will purchase a product or service on their mobile device.

Rank Higher on Google

It’s a well-known fact that most users don’t make it past the first page of Google search results. That being the case, your business needs to do everything in its power to rank within the top 10 results. It used to be that stuffing as many relevant keywords as possible into your website copy was all it took to rank as number 1, but Google’s algorithm has grown to see past those tricks. Now, site ranking comes down to a multitude of factors, including content type.

Thankfully, Google has demonstrated a clear preference for video content. As you may have noticed, Google searches now often result in a recommended video as the top result. This is particularly effective for the “how-to” type of video discussed above, as potential customers can now see how your product or service could be the answer to their question. The weight that video content adds to your website simply cannot be overstated, as studies have found that websites with video content are 53 times more likely to end up on the first page of Google search results.

Do More With Your Marketing Campaigns

Video content is quickly becoming an essential part of any brand awareness campaign. Is your company prepared? Contact me today to discuss how we can work together to get you there.