Today, using video as a marketing tool should form part of any strategy as it’s more important than ever. Not only does video marketing help increase traffic to your website but it can also directly impact sales for your business. 

Based on a recent webinar with Cormac Farrelly, a digital marketing expert and leader in his field, we provide tried and tested tips on video marketing. Watch and learn how to overcome video paralysis, which video content works best, how it can drive sales with real-world examples.

Why Video Marketing?

Video marketing has become an increasingly powerful method to help communicate your brand’s story, explain your value proposition, sell your products and services. It’s also one of the best ways to engage with prospects and customers and these statistics reveal just how important video is.  

  • 90% of consumers claim a video will help them make a purchasing decision (Forbes)
  • 94% of video marketers say that video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service (Wyzowl)
  • YouTube has 2+ billion users, making up almost one-third of the entire internet (HubSpot)
  • Of Gen Z, 75% of Millennials, 61% of Gen X, and 44% of Baby Boomers visit YouTube daily (GI. Web Index)
  • Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined (Wordstream)
  • Facebook Live viewership increased by 50% in the spring of 2020
  • 91% of marketers feel the pandemic has made video more important for brands

With all this in mind, if you are not leveraging video as a tactic in your digital marketing strategy, you could be missing out on potential business.  

How To Overcome Common Video Challenges 

Considering the importance of video marketing, why are only 9% of small businesses using it? Some may think it takes too long to produce, too expensive or overly complicated. The truth is, it’s not that difficult provided you follow a process and best practices. 

Many smaller brands simply jump into video production without having any clear goals and a plan of action. Too often, smaller companies don’t have a script to work with and focus more on the aesthetic considerations of a video rather than the positive impact it can have on delivering their brand message. 

Brands also don’t invest enough time and budget to amplify their video marketing efforts to ensure the right people view them. Putting a video on YouTube, Facebook or embedding it on your website is no longer enough as it requires an integrated approach. Success is only possible if video communication, in general, comes from the top executives’ buy-in.

Video Marketing statistics

Video Script And Video Engagement Timeline 

A video is a different form of content from writing a blog or whitepaper, for example. Here, you have time to come back at it several times until you get it right. However, with a video, you do it almost in one cut so it requires careful planning and putting a solid plan in place. 

A successful video should have FIVE things to ensure maximum engagement whether it’s a 6-second bumper ad or a 10-minute promotional piece. The video should tell a story, pose a problem that you have a solution to, make it easy to understand with examples and a clear call-to-action.

If the goal is to drive more sales but you don’t offer practical solutions or a call-to-action, it won’t meet company objectives. To that end, it’s essential to follow video marketing best practices before you start creating anything. Have a look a the below example of a good video engagement timeline (VET).  

video engagement timeline

How To Leverage Video During The Customer Lifecycle

In the next section, we look at some use cases for video within your organisation. A key point to remember is that there are different video types for different use cases. Your brand should look at video content as a way to support the customer journey. 

By now you should be familiar with the concept of attracting a lead, converting them into a prospect and nurture them to eventually become a satisfied customer. At this stage, they are promoters of your brand leaving reviews and sharing experiences on social media. Video marketing can help through every stage of the lifecycle as shown in the below illustration.

customer journey

Advertising With Video

The video ad is at the very start of the customer journey and we’ll explain it more in this case study. It involves a UK customer looking to promote a new product launch. But first, let’s take a look at how advertising on television has evolved.

The Evolution Of Digital TV Advertising

The process has certainly changed over the years as we no longer sit and watch ads between shows unless you’re watching live channels on BBC, Sky or other channels. The truth is, on-demand services have all but eliminated ads including apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube’s paid channel.

When we look at YouTube data, there’s a steady increase in the TV Screens split in placements. Between 2020 and 2021, the number of ads (impressions) served on TV increased 9% to 27%. 

Data shows that people watching digital video ads on a TV device have a higher view-through rate without skipping as it’s more difficult to do than on a mobile device or a desktop. This stands to reason that people watching ads on a Smart TV are more likely to see your ads than on a mobile device.

Video Marketing Case Study: Sunsweet

Sunsweet wanted to move its juice product from a PET plastic bottle to a new Elopak carton. One thing they needed was a creative concept that clearly showed the change in packaging as they were concerned about how it might impact customers and overall sales. 

We designed a video creative and an animated stop motion in various formats for desktop and mobile. It would be displayed as an ad on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The graphics are eye-catching and visually shows a bottle change into a carton for added impact. We created a few versions including a 6 second and 15-second video. 

Setting Up A Strategy

Once they signed off on the creative work, it was time to set up an effective strategy. In terms of relevance, we had to think about the appropriate channels and focus on YouTube’s Core In-Stream Ad Products. 

If you’re unfamiliar with this, it interrupts the video at a specific time to display the video. The ad will usually show for 5 seconds and if the viewer skips, YouTube does not charge the advertiser. 

When it comes to TrueView, the video can be 5 seconds or more than 30 seconds. Here, YouTube only charges you if the person doesn’t skip and watches the entire video. In comparison, Bumper ads are a set 6 seconds so it was important to grab attention early on.

Considering the limited time on a video ad, branding in the first few seconds is vital for ad recall but it can also suppress view-through-rate. For best results, we used their product with a logo rather than a logo on its own to flow more naturally and yield better results.  

Reaching The Right Audience With Video Marketing

You can have the best video ever but if you don’t put it in front of the right people, it’s a wasted opportunity. We all know that content plays a crucial role but what about distributing it? Nothing says it better than this quote by Jonathan Perelman at BuzzFeed:

“Content is king, but distribution is queen and she wears the pants.”

Content Distribution For Video Marketing

The challenge we faced was that Sunsweet used several TV ads in the past and assumed that reaching the same number of people on digital would be impossible. However, data showed that YouTube had the same market size as the biggest one of ITV.   

On Facebook, we could reach 43 million people which could be divided into more targeted groups. This would be based on location and age ranging from 18 to 60+ but also interests.

Facebook can target people based on their interests which makes it easier to be more specific. Seeing as they are a health brand, they wanted to reach people who are interested in exercise, natural remedies, cooking and the UK grocery retail markets.  Below are some examples of ad formats for Sunsweet.

types of display ads

Video Ad Performance

To grow a brand, you must find potential customers within your category and light users of your brand. Try to speak to all of them as often as possible and especially before making a purchase. You also need to make it easy for them to remember, find and buy your product. 

With that in mind, and the sound strategy put in place for Sunsweet, our video marketing efforts paid off. Compared to other studies of similar FMCGs in the UK over the last 12 months, this video ad was among the top 25% performing studies. 

The Benchmark Awareness Lift is more than 49% and Sunsweet achieved 61.2%. This means it resonated well with the target audience. For a more detailed breakdown of this case study and other video marketing tips, please watch this video summary with downloadable slides.

What You Need To Create Videos For Business

The biggest misconception brands have is thinking that they need a camera crew, expensive lighting, actors, a set, professional designers and an editor. With today’s technology and software, you are spoiled for choice of video marketing and creation tools. This includes Promo, Vimeo, BigVu, Loom and Vidyard among many others.

When it comes to LinkedIn Cover Stories, you can record a 30-second video clip of yourself to bolster your LinkedIn profile. The video story will be displayed as a frame on top of your normal LinkedIn profile picture. All you need is $200 for the setup that includes:

  • Webcam 
  • Tripod
  • Lav Mic
  • Portable green screen
  • Lighting
  • Laptop adaptor

Conclusion

Video marketing is here to stay and to be successful as a brand, video communication should come from the top and become part of the company culture. Without everyone’s buy-in, the process will fail to deliver the required results. 

Looking ahead, some of the hottest video trends are Shoppable Videos, Live Streams, Virtual shopping events with influencers, short-form video content and more video advertising. More than ever, video is driving sales for businesses and it’s time to get stuck in before it’s too late.

If you need help driving more leads and generating sales from video marketing, get in touch with us and request a free consultation. We can help you overcome the common video challenges holding so many companies back and leverage video advertising to the fullest.

video marketing webinar summary

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