Lights, Camera, Action! How Video Could Boost Your Biz

Video is taking over the web, and could be your next big marketing tool to engage today’s customers.

We reported this year about new video platforms Meerkat and Periscope, the latter of which has teamed up with Twitter in an attempt to give competition to the video giants of the web. Facebook and Twitter’s less than subtle attempts to dominate the online video environment have led to some pretty impressive buy-outs, and Twitter has gone as far as to block users from embedding Meerkat streams into their Tweets.

Are social media sites becoming real competition for original video giant YouTube? Research would suggest so, but YouTube’s recent announcement of the upcoming YouTube Gaming platform shows they’re not quite out of the race.

But what does all this competition show? Video is big business, and we as consumers are watching a lot of it. In fact, 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube each day, and around 4 billion videos are viewed daily. Facebook are challenging YouTube with their embedded video feature, although their viewing figures are boosted by auto-play (which could possibly be the most annoying Facebook feature we’ve seen yet).

Why has video become so popular?

Back in the early days of the internet, any visual content slowed a website down to a snail’s pace, encumbered by the archaic download speeds of yesteryear. Now, however, super-fast download speeds mean that high-quality visual content can be downloaded in a snap, and this isn’t likely to slow down in future as mobile networks progress and more powerful web hosting solutions become more common.

So how could your business use video for a marketing boost?

Provide tutorials

YouTube is rife with tutorials, from makeup artistry to household DIY. It could be the perfect platform to provide a visual representation of your product or service in action. Interaction is encouraged in their comments section, which is an additional social tool for you to connect with your customers. If you think you’re swift enough to keep your video to six seconds or less, you could provide whirlwind tutorials on Vine which currently has over 40 million online users.

An example of some ingenious Vine use is Lowes’ Home Improvements, whose DIY videos earnt them a spot in our Friday Inspiration Station blog post. #lowesfixinsix provided step-by-step guides to home improvements within the six-second parameters of Vine videos.

Add a personal touch

Video provides a great platform for get-to-know-us videos. Short introductory videos showing your team at work will drive engagement with your audience; any video content on a landing page increases conversions by 86%, so why not make it relatable to your audience?

Not every brand DNA is to be personable and relatable, but corporate video could also be a hit with your audience regardless of how personable you want your brand to be.Video is a great choice of content if you want to visually show off your professionalism as it is easier to digest for your audience than written content.

Make sales!

As the end game in any business plan, a boost in sales should always be welcome. Statistically, videos increase the likelihood of your visitors purchasing a product or service by almost 65%; what’s not to like about that? Creating a visual bond between business and consumer should be a primary aim of any business, as human consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand with a relatable personality.

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