Video marketing has grown increasingly popular over time. Thanks to an increase in individuals accessing content online, more individuals than ever before access videos online - video is quickly becoming the top medium. Being engaging, memorable and easy to read makes video an effective means of customer engagement for companies aiming to engage customers online. But video's effects extend far beyond increased shares or interactions - let's examine here how using it as part of content marketing could enhance overall efforts while producing tangible commercial benefits - sit back, grab some coffee and let's discover this fascinating world together!
Video Marketing
What is video marketing? Video marketing refers to using videos as part of your advertising strategy to advertise a good, service, or brand. Video is an engaging medium that engages viewers more deeply while conveying information more efficiently than text-only marketing can do.
As social media and other online video platforms gain in popularity, video marketing is increasingly essential to any company's marketing plan. From behind-the-scenes views of your business or educational videos to commercials aimed at increasing sales, video offers a dynamic way of engaging your target market while driving revenue growth.
Read more: Branding & Marketing - The Key to a $100,000 Brand Image?
Why Use Interactive Video?
Interactive video has quickly established itself as an efficient and successful marketing strategy, according to research conducted by Spiel Creative. Over 90% of marketers reported an increase in online sales after employing interactive videos, and more than 85% intend on creating more such clips in the future.
These figures may continue to climb as companies experiment with various video content marketing strategies and identify which works best for their target markets. Consider why so many businesses are adding interactive video to their digital media tools before making your assessment about whether this approach could work for you.
It's Popular
Interactive videos have quickly become the go-to form of media when it comes to marketing efforts, with customers' behaviors as evidence of their growing popularity among both customers and brands. Brands are creating interactive videos at an astonishing rate: as of right now, 36% of videos generated are in interactive format! Furthermore, viewers respond more actively when engaging with interactive media - according to DemandGen, engagement rates are twice that for static pieces!
It's Trackable
View rates were once used as the sole way for marketers to measure a video's effectiveness; many people encountered difficulty when trying to demonstrate its worth without data demonstrating a relationship between video activity and conversions; in such an absence, it can be hard to measure its true impact.
Interactive videos enable much more effective video metric tracking. Now, it is easier than ever before to monitor clicks within videos, use branching analysis of various routes taken, collect data via form fields in videos, and more - using tools such as:
- Leading interactive video creation platform, WIREWAX monitors a variety of parameters, such as dwell time, interactions, shares, and "add to carts," as soon as a video is launched.
- Rapt is a cloud-based interactive video creation and publishing solution that tracks user pathways, plays, demographic data about users, and more with an integrated analytics dashboard.
- DilogR is a video hosting platform that analyzes how interactive video affects the overall user experience by integrating with email marketing and CRM systems.
It's More Engaging
It can be simple for a consumer to become sidetracked when watching a linear video. Since 87% of viewers use multiple devices at once, competition for your audience's attention is already fierce. With a game-like experience that captures and holds a user's interest, interactive video turns watching from passive to active viewing. This leads to a 591% increase in user engagement, a significant gain that most marketers can't afford to miss.
It Converts
Comparatively speaking to many other digital video ad formats, interactive videos convert at substantially greater rates. In particular, conversion rates for YouTube annotations, Google display advertisements, and banner ads are less than 1%. All of those are completely outperformed by interactive video, which converts at a rate of over 11%.
It's More Memorable
Consumers are more likely to remember your brand when they can interact with the content in an interactive film. Interactive video advertising is 32% more remembered than linear video ads, even if the viewer doesn't interact with the video itself.
It Delights The User
In addition to the actual statistics mentioned above, watching interactive video is just more fun than watching linear video. While your viewers explore an interactive story and discover more about your company, you may add a delightful moment to the user experience.
What Makes A Great Interactive Video?
While interactive videos can be used in many different ways, the best ones all have a few characteristics in common. Take these recommended practices into consideration when thinking about how to use this media in your marketing mix.
They Use Interaction Thoughtfully
Excellent interactive videos must, first and foremost, be thoughtfully created. When designing interactive video content, end-user consideration must always come first, similar to when developing user interfaces for websites or digital products. An exceptional interactive video doesn't exist just to be interactive but instead uses interaction as a means to improve the user experience.
Paymentshield stands out as an exceptional example of an organization creating thoughtful media. Through research conducted, they found out that financial advisors generally avoided discussing general insurance (GI) with clients for various reasons; since each adviser has their motivations when discussing GI with their client base, interactive video proved the perfect medium.
Before discussing gastroesophageal (GI), this video encourages viewers to identify any reasons that might be postponing dialogue about it. By clicking on any such reasons, viewers will be taken on an engaging path designed to alleviate fears. To interact with this video and view it directly, click this link.
They Use Gamification
Interactive video provides marketers with an unprecedented way to add interactivity and fun into a video experience, similar to linear videos but in a much more engaging form. Branching is one such technique that enables viewers to build personalized journeys by choosing from various content pathways available based on each person's situation. The paymentshield video below uses it effectively by producing multiple paths depending on who was watching. Although Paymentshield focused more heavily on business uses of this approach, you, too, could take advantage of its capabilities for personal enjoyment!
Buzzfeed demonstrated how interactive video can provide viewers with a choose-your-own-adventure-like experience. By answering a series of interesting questions on our fashion quiz, users are allowed to find clothing tailored specifically to them and their personalities.
They're Engaging And Entertaining
Excellent marketing strives to delight its target audience while simultaneously selling them products or services. This can be seen across media; think back to Super Bowl or social media advertisements that stand out - they likely had elements of entertainment as part of their campaigns; video marketing's entertainment value increases greatly thanks to interactive videos. Honda was an automaker that excelled at this task. Their main objective was to highlight the Civic Type R's versatility as both an all-out performance vehicle and a family automobile.
Honda's movie allows customers to select between two unique but related narratives by typing "R" on their keyboard. One scenario features the protagonist using his Civic as a family vehicle to pick up children from school and complete household duties; entering "R" lets viewers experience him leading an entirely different, far riskier life as an undercover agent who foils an attempted heist. Honda illustrates how adding engaging storylines can transform interactive videos into cinematic experiences for viewers.
They Let The User Be Part Of The Story
At its heart lies the video's ability to tell an engaging narrative. Interactive videos allow your brand to draw viewers deeper into its tale and empower them with agency over its plot, opening up greater storytelling opportunities than ever.
Coldplay's interactive music video for their song "Ink" provides an outstanding example. Here, viewers take part in actively searching for his long-lost love by making decisions throughout - this could go in 300 separate directions and later received the Webby Award for Best Interactivity Video.
Best Practices for Video Marketing
Video content marketing services can be an extremely effective means of reaching and expanding upon your target market and improving business, but to ensure its effectiveness, it must adhere to best practices. When producing and disseminating video content, keep these guidelines in mind:
- Know Your Audience: Before beginning production on any videos or material for them, you must gain a firm grasp of their needs and expectations.
- Plan Your Content To Write: Outline how your videos will enable you to achieve the goals and objectives that have been established for them.
- As viewers have limited attention spans, make sure your films are brief and straightforward to capture viewers' interests immediately.
- Spend Money for Quality: For films to come across as both captivating and professional, invest money in high-grade gear and production values.
- Ensure that your videos include descriptive titles and descriptions, keywords, and tags to make them search engine-friendly.
- Advertise your videos: To increase your videos' impact and reach, post them on all of your channels and interact with viewers.
- Measure and analyze: Utilize analytics software to assess the effectiveness of your video marketing campaigns. Then, based on the information you obtain, modify your plan of action as necessary.
Conclusion
Video has quickly become an indispensable element of successful content marketing strategies, serving to raise brand recognition, retain attention spans and accomplish commercial objectives. A powerful and successful video marketing campaign can be achieved by including it in your content calendar, optimizing videos for search engine indexing purposes and using social media channels like YouTube to spread its reach.
Guaranteeing the success of a video marketing campaign requires adhering to best practices, which include knowing your target, creating high-quality content and tracking and evaluating the results of work done. Video marketing holds immense promise for all sizes of companies looking for growth or competitive edge - make the most out of its potential now and use video to remain competitive or foster expansion!
