Aug 19, 2019 admin
The amount of time you have to capture your audience’s attention is short. If your target audience is the C-Suite, that window is even smaller. To be noticed, brands must cut through the noise and deliver a succinct and powerful message to consumers with increasingly short attention spans at all stages of the new buyer’s journey.
I’ll cut to the chase -- content marketing is the answer and video must be in the mix.
According to Forrester, 74 percent of B2B buyers conduct more than half their research online before they make an offline purchase and 59 percent of senior executives state that if given a choice between text or video on the same topic, they prefer video. So if you’ve got to attract, educate and persuade a prospect before ever speaking to them, then why would you tell your brand story in written form only?
If leveraged strategically, video can attract and engage new audiences, push prospects through the funnel and pull your customers closer -- from “how-to” content to customer testimonials to GIF’s on social media (yes, those count), there’s a video opportunity at each stage of the buyer’s journey. 
Not convinced? Don’t take our word for it. We’ve gathered lots of compelling data to prove that this isn’t just a passing fad and some suggestions on how you can incorporate video into your current marketing communications program.
#1: Your target audiences prefer iT
- 85% of internet users in the U.S. watch videos online (1)
- Video is the #1 preference for consumers on social media (2)
- 75% of executives watch work-related videos on business-related websites at least weekly (3)
- YouTube is the second biggest search engine, behind Google, generating 1 billion hours of video viewing each day and 1.5 billion users logged in each month (4)
- Internet video is forecasted to account for 79% of global internet traffic by 2020–up from 63% in 2015. (5)
INKHOUSE TIP:Try creating a video recap of your highest performing blog posts to expand the reach and impact of your message. Post the video on YouTube with the transcription of the video to improve search visibility and consider including it within the blog post itself to improve engagement and shareability.
#2: Video enhances engagement and reach on social media
- Social video generates 12x more shares than text and images combined. (6)
- According to a recent study, 80% of marketers are happy with the ROI of video ads that they’ve posted to social media. (7)
- On average, tweets with videos receive 28 percent more retweets. (8)
- Facebook prioritizes live video in the newsfeed because it receives more interactions -- 600% more to be exact! (9)
- 73% of consumers confirm that they’ve made a purchasing decision after being influenced by a brand’s social media presence (10)
INKHOUSE TIP: Recently, InkHouse produced a video for a client and organic impressions were 330% higher than the same social post without video. Have a great piece of coverage or a blog post you plan to promote on social media? Animate a quote or stat as an alternative to a teaser image and compare your results.
#3: Images & video drive website traffic and engagement
- Companies using video receive 41% more web traffic from search than non-users (11)
- On average, video drives 157% more organic traffic from search engines than landing pages without video. (12)
- Video Emails Increase Click-through Rates by 96 Percent (13)
- The average user spends 88% more time on a website with video. (14)
- Articles containing images or video receive 94 percent more views as compared to those that don’t. (15)
- Blog posts incorporating video attract 3x as many inbound links as blog posts without video. (16)
INKHOUSE TIP: Poor bounce rates can cost you new leads and customers, but they can also have a negative impact on SEO. Have an important landing page with a high bounce rate? Incorporate an explainer video or visual case study on the landing page to improve visitor engagement, time on site and search engine rankings.
#4: Visuals drive leads and sales
- 51% of marketers say that video content sees the best ROI. (17)
- Video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year and a 54% increase in brand awareness than those that rarely employ video (18)
- 93% of marketers say they’ve acquired a new customer through social media video. (19)
- Studies have shown that landing pages that contained a video hand an 80% increase in conversions. (20)
- 70% of B2B marketers think that video is more effective than any other form of content when converting qualified leads (21)
INKHOUSE TIP: Develop customer testimonials to feature on your website and in email and social media campaigns to help convert prospects into customers. People trust other consumers more than brands.
#5: You’ll be remembered
- People retain 95% of a message delivered via video compared to 10% via text (22)
- Visuals can improve comprehension by up to 400% and be processed 60,000 times faster than text. (23)
INKHOUSE TIP: Information retention is important at all stages of the buyer’s journey, but absolutely critical in the awareness stage when you’re battling for attention and striving for brand recall in a very crowded room. Incorporate video into your thought leadership program through creative brand storytelling, interviews with key executives or videos that highlight company culture to create an emotional connection with your audiences. Brands that create authentic connections win customers.
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