Scenario: You’ve been doing print advertising and traditional outward bound marketing for years, but with the changing digital environment, you know you need to make a change. You want to make a splash, but are unsure about how to make an impact.
In doing research, you realize many of your competitors are using video. You wonder: Is it really worth putting your hard-earned money into this medium?
Let’s look at the stats:
- 45.4% of Internet users view at least one video online over the course of a month;1
- The average user spends 16:49 watching online video ads every month;2
- 32.2 videos is an average net user exposed to on an average month;3
- 89 million people in the United Stateswill watch 1.2 billion online videos today;4
- 100 million internet users watch online video each day;
- More than 1 Billion unique users visit Youtube each month, spending more than 4 billion hours watching videos;5
- By 2016, online video users are expected to double to 1.5 billion.6
OK, so a lot of people are watching video. But what can video do for your website, and most importantly, your business?
- Visitors stay on a website an average of 2 minutes longer than those who don’t view videos;7
- 50% of those who watch a video look for more information;8
- Webpages with videos attract 2-3x more visitors as those without video, while organic traffic increased by 157%;9
But do videos really have an impact on customer’s buying habits?
- 45% said they contacted a vendor after seeing an online video ad;10
- 52% of consumers say watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions;11
- 64% are much more likely are to buy a product on an online retail site after watching a video;12
- 65% of those who look at a video click through to visit the vendor websites.13
- 85% visitors who view product videos are more likely to buy than visitors who don’t;14
- 80% of internet users recall watching a video ad on a website they visited in the past 30 days. Of those who recalled the video:
*46% took some action after viewing the ad;
*26% looked for more information about the subject of the video;
*22% visited the website named in the ad;
*15% visited the company represented in the video;
*12% purchased the specific product featured in the ad;15
- *90% of online shoppers say they find video helpful in making shopping and buying decisions;16
So having a video definitely impacts consumers. But what if you’re targeting businesses through B2B marketing? How does having a video affect the decision makers within companies?
- 59%of senior Executives prefer to watch video instead of reading text, if both are available on the same webpage;17
- 75% of executives watch work-related videos on business websites at least once a week;18
- 65% of executives visit the marketer’s website after viewing a video.19
- Almost 50% of those who viewed an online video went to make a purchase.20
As you can see, most execs are like the rest of us. If you can catch their eye, you’re going to have a better opportunity to get your foot in the door and on your way to closing the deal.
One other thing to consider: If you’re going to be successful with your marketing, it’s important to utilize multiple avenues to promote your message. How does video play on various other platforms?
For e-mail marketing:
- 51% increase in subscriber-to-lead conversion rates;21
- Reduction by 75% of introductory e-mail subscriber opt-outs22;
- Video increases click-through rates by over 96% (providing nearly 2x the amount of people clicking through to a website);23
For blogs:
- Blog posts with video attract 3x more inbound links as blog posts without it (that’s why I’m posting the following video):24
For mobile devices:
- Online video accounts for 50% of all mobile traffic.25
- 92% of mobile video viewers share videos with others.26
- Mobile and tablet shoppers are 3x more likely to view a video than laptop or desktop users.27
- Mobile video ads that include social media buttons drive 36% higher engagement.28
What’s shocking is only about 24% of national brands are using online video to market to consumers.29 Part of it may be psychological, for the higher ups may think they’re so widely known that they don’t have to adjust to the changing marketing winds. However, this is an errant (and dangerous) belief, as they’re missing out on a huge segment of the population who is online, and in turn missing out on a tremendous amount of revenue.
What’s the bottom line? What can having a video on your website do for your sales? The follow stat says it all:
- When video is used on your website, there’s an increase of 403% more inquires, effectively generating quadruple the leads of those without videos.3
If you want to make more money, which should be one of the reasons why you’re in business in the first place, you need to make getting a video up PRIORITY ONE – on your website and in all your marketing. Otherwise, you’re failing to capitalize on a huge opportunity to reach customers that your competition is sure to nab.
