Why use video? Why NOT video. People LOVE video. When I do Boot Camps and play a video, all eyes are on-screen. We are visual people. When I set pictures to music and make a video, the pictures seem to come alive. Heck, just look at the TV-viewing stats? People are addicted to video. Much more so than radio, right? When was the last time you sat on the couch and listened to the radio? You get the point. Video trumps everything.
So then why aren’t more marketers, more sales people, more executives in any category.. why aren’t they using more video?
Last week I went on a scavenger hunt across the Web looking for compelling information about the use of video for sales and marketing efforts. Following are some of the data-points I found. Below is the same information set to a video.Which do you prefer? Which will you be more likely to share with your boss or your team?
Video About Video
Informal Door Prize: For those that take the time to Comment below or on the YouTube page, your name will go into a hat for a drawing on 6/21/13. Three lucky winners will get a video just like this one, on a topic of their choice, at a 50% discount ($1250). So drop a Comment – it’s a no-brainer.
What’s the potential ROI of video?
#1 – Social Media itself is highly effective:
“Social media marketers and sellers are 23 percent more successful than peers relying on traditional methods.” Flimp
#2 – Virtually everyone watches video:
“84.9% of online Americans watched online video in December 2012” comScore
#3 – Video improves conversion rates:
“A well-placed online video can create up to a 90 percent conversion uplift” Adobe
#4 – Video improves recall:
“According to a Forbes study, viewers retain 50% more information from watching video.”
Forbes
#5 – Executives watch videos:
“75% of senior executives watch work related videos at least weekly.” Forbes
#6 – Video helps SEO
“A video by topic is about 10 times more likely to end up in the top 10 search results than a text piece of the same topic.” AOL
Related:
Relative to SEO, “subjects’ eye movements focused on the first video thumbnail, possibly even at the expense of the #1 organic result.” Moz
#7 - Video drives traffic and leads
“The [B2B video] campaign helped Kinaxis to create buzz among its target audience, drive 2.7 times more traffic to its website, and generate 3.2 times more leads.” ReelSEO
#8 – Video is the top content marketing tactic
“The top three most widely adopted [B2B] content marketing tactics are videos (87%), website articles (86%), and in-person events (85%).”
Content Marketing Institute
#9 – Video has the 2nd best ROI
“Video was also a content strategy cited by 51.9% of marketers for having among the best ROI.” eMarketer
Note the ranks for photo’s and interactive media (e.g. Blogs).
#10 – Great video’s can be created with very little overhead
“Scripted videos with a direct call to action can be created for as little as $1,000.00 and completed in a two to three week timeframe.” Flimp
It’s common knowledge at this point, but bears restating: YouTube is the #2 Search Engine. Google
Here’s the video. Note that I started this little video project last Friday morning and completed it today, Monday afternoon. Over the weekend, I did a little bit of crowdsourcing on Google+ to get some feedback on the first draft of the vid. That’s it.
Again, please drop a comment on this post or the video, or better yet, copy and paste to both. I’ll then put your name in the hat and, if you win, within a couple weeks you’ll have a hot new video to use. Depending on what you’re selling, it’s a “sure thing.”
