Videos transmit your message like no other medium. Words can be misunderstood and a picture is open to interpretation. But a good video can cut to heart of any topic quickly, especially when presented with the customer in mind. Video is a medium that engages viewers from multiple senses – sight and sound – and can generate excitement about a subject or concept.
Consider these Statistics
• YouTube receives more than one billion unique visitors every month. A new video is uploaded to YouTube every second (yes, every second!).
• More videos are watched online every month than all 3 major networks created over the last 60 years.
• When a video is on a webpage, visitors spend 10% more time viewing that website.
• When surveyed, 60% of respondents said they would watch a video on a website if it were present rather than read text.
• 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text.
• According to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research, watching a minute of video is the equivalent of reading 1.8 million words.
• By 2017, video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic, according to Cisco. Video-on-demand traffic alone will have almost trebled.
With online video quickly becoming a key means for people to satisfy their information and entertainment needs, small businesses must include videos as part of their internet marketing strategies.
Video is the future of content marketing
Engage viewers and they will share the video with others. They will spend longer on your website and more time interacting with your brand. For any social media campaign, any SEO exercise, video is without doubt one of the best tools in the kit.
It is naturally engaging and, in an age of information overload, it’s vital for small businesses to offer content that is easy to understand and digest. If not, consumers will simply move on.
But is video really possible for small businesses? Absolutely! Production costs have fallen significantly in recent years. Nevertheless, if you’re to realize a decent return on your investment, you will need to bear the following in mind.
Always consider the audience you are trying to reach and ensure the video is relevant to them.