5 Benefits of Video Marketing for Businesses

By the time you finish reading this article (approximately 10 minutes), 1,830 hours of video content will have been published on YouTube alone.

This shows you that we’re in an era where video content reigns. And it’s not just for entertainment. 

Today brands are taking advantage of video content to stand out in the crowd of marketing materials. So if you haven’t joined the bandwagon, you’re missing out on a game-changing marketing strategy that could improve your sales and revenue.

In this guide, we're looking at why you should incorporate videos as a marketing strategy for your businesses. 

Let’s jump into it.

5 benefits of video marketing for businesses

Here are five benefits of video marketing for businesses:

1. 1. Video creates brand awareness and boosts social shares 

Customers purchase from brands they trust. 

And to build trust, you must appear on your customers’ radar early enough to start building a relationship. That’s what brand awareness is all about. 

A report by Sprout Social found that 89% of customers said they prefer purchasing from brands they follow on social media. 

While other forms of marketing content aim for this, there’s no better way of building brand awareness than video content. 

Why? 

The human brain process visuals faster than written text. People connect faster to visuals that combine sound, movement, and text. 

So you can quickly capture your audience’s attention and evoke emotions that personally connect with them. 

Adding your product to the video makes it even better. Chances are that you will remain top of mind with your audience when they’re ready to purchase. 

The exciting thing about a good video is that it can quickly go viral. 

The reason is that videos combine digital media in a super-sharable package. That’s why most of the content that often goes viral and records thousands of social shares are videos. 

When it comes to video marketing that works, Billy Gene from Billy Gene is Marketing is on top.  

During the Traffic & Conversion Summit 2019 presentation, he said something that resonates with most markets. 

He said, “People don’t buy for three reasons. They don’t believe you; they don’t trust your company. They don’t trust your promises.

So how does video content solve the problem he stated above?

In the Hustle and FlowChart podcast, he provides the answer by showing how he comes up with video ads that create brand awareness and ultimately lead to thousands of social shares.

“So I do a simple exercise where I take out a blank piece of paper and draw a giant capitalized T, the letter T on a piece of paper. I write the problem on the left-hand side, and on the right side, I write the solutions. I’ll write the top 10 or 20 problems that my ideal customer faces. And I will put down the solution, and then boom, I’m done. That’s my video content. So as far as, like, well, what do I say? What do I talk about with solving a different problem that day? Make them three to five minutes, and boom, you’re golden!”

In short, he’s saying that anytime he publishes a marketing video, he’s assured that it will create awareness for the product he’s promoting.

The challenge is getting the right edge to talk to your audience. Once you crack that, creating insightful and viral-worthy videos won’t be an uphill task. 

1. 2. Helps in SEO ranking

The second biggest search engine is YouTube, which brings in roughly 2.5 billion monthly users.

However, despite the massive potential YouTube can bring to businesses, only 9% of small businesses in the USA use it. This gives you an idea of how the SEO side of video hasn’t been given a fair shake. 

And it’s simple. Just optimize your videos for SEO to drive traffic to your site. The best part? 

Searchers on Google can still be directed to your YouTube videos. 

Google search results have a video section with YouTube videos that rank for the keyword a user typed in. 

But that’s not all; if you have a YouTube channel with many subscribers, you can leverage the ready audience by referring them to specific pages on your website. 

This will signify to Google that your website is valuable and rank it high on the SERPs. 

That’s how YouTubers with a massive following leverage their audiences to drive traffic to their websites. 

A good example is the SEO king, Neil Patel. He has a YouTube channel with over one million subscribers. 

Whenever he posts a video, he asks viewers to check his website for the written version of what he’s covered in the video.

The increased backlinks signify to Google that his website has valuable content, hence will rank it for more keywords. 

Videos can also improve your SEO ranking through backlinks from other websites. 

Google treats backlinks like votes. The more backlinks to your site from multiple sources, the more Google will give your site more attention. 

However, this can only happen if you create valuable, shareable videos published on your website.

Another way videos can improve your website's SEO is through the increased time on the page. Let’s say you’ve created a Youtube video and want to embed it on a blog post. 

As readers come across the video, they’ll likely spend a few minutes watching the video. The higher time on the page will signify to Google that your page has relevant content that matches the user's intent. Google will reward you by ranking your website high. 

That’s how Shopify does for most of their how-to posts. For example, their article targeting the keyword “how to sell on Etsy” ranks number 4 on Google.

At the beginning of the article, they’ve placed a link to one of their YouTube videos that tackles the same topic. Readers can opt to watch the video before reading the blog post, which increases time-on-page.

1. 3. “Automates” communication with prospects

Marketing communication brings everyone on the same page, especially when you want to build and maintain good relationships with prospects and customers. 

But most brands do it the old way through sales calls, which eats most of their time. This also affects the prospects too. 

Why?

They might not have the time to jump on a call with you as they’re busy in the office. Or they might not be ready to pull out their wallets yet and are still educating themselves on your product.

That’s where video marketing comes in. 

Instead of trying to jump on sales calls with every new prospect, you can create a video landing page on your site to “automate” the sales process.

A video landing page educates the customer about your product and illustrates its value visually. 

So you won’t have to call prospects every time to answer basic questions that a simple three-minute video would do.

At the same time, this doesn’t imply you should throw sales calls out of the window. You’ll still need to make a discovery call after they’ve watched your videos.

A brand that has successfully used this strategy is Headlime, a software tool that helps marketers create a copy using AI.

Since the idea of AI content is alien to many people, they’ve painted their landing page with bit-sized and helpful videos explaining how the tool works. 

The only task the marketing department at Headline has to do is to create content that drives lots of traffic to the landing page.

1. 4. Boosts sales and conversions

A big challenge brands face is getting the perfect marketing strategy that records the highest ROI. That’s why brands without a clear vision might test a zillion marketing tactics but still fail.

Video marketing can change that. 

While it might be costly to create videos, it has one of the highest conversion rates. According to WebFX, videos can increase conversion rates by up to 86%.

However, that’s easier said than done. 

As discussed in the previous section, one of the best ways to get an impressive ROI from videos is by adding them to your landing page. 

Or you can use Videowise to create shoppable videos that guide viewers through your product and ultimately direct them to the checkout page.

The other way is posting helpful videos on your social media channels. 

YouTube has been the go-to platform for most brands, but it no longer has the highest engagement rate. TikTok is slowly dethroning it. 

A study by Rival IQ compared four social media apps to determine which one had the highest engagement rate.

While TikTok has the lowest activity rate, it still records the highest engagement rate at 5.8 billion.

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It’s easier to go viral on TikTok than any other social media app. This is because the platform’s algorithm does not recommend videos based on your number of followers. Technically, anybody can go viral.

The last bit is the most exciting statement to businesses. 

Why? Going viral means higher conversions and more sales. However, there’s a catch. You have to be consistent in posting to make it work. 

Some small-size brands are already on TikTok and making massive sales on the platform by posting short videos.

For example, Dasha Derkach, the teenage owner of the Enchanted Scrunch, a hair scrunchie business, posted a video in December 2021 showing her organizing scrunchies on a display wall. It went wild on TikTok.

She then continued pumping hundreds of videos with content around her product which often goes viral like this one. 

Source

She said this when Christianna Silva at Mashable asked how her business performed after the video went viral. 

“I made around $400 to $600 after the success of my first video, which was not much for the number of views. But, after posting more often afterward, I’ve consistently generated between $5,000 to $7,000 just from the follow-up videos."

You don’t have to use Tik Tok. Choose the social media channel where most of your target audience hangs out. 

Once done, create videos to excite your target audience with powerful CTAs to your product’s checkout page. 

1. 5. Appeals more to mobile users

Coca-Cola is an example of a brand that’s mastered marketing. Their secret weapon? They make sure customers see their products everywhere.

You’ll see Coca-Cola ads on billboards, TVs, flyers, and social media platforms. That’s the same kind of approach you should aim for. 

But here’s the thing. You probably don’t have billions of dollars to burn on marketing like Coca-Cola. 

Luckily, customers have something you might use to appear on the radar with video content repeatedly. That’s their handheld mobile devices. 

90% of consumers watch videos on their mobile phones. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, there’s been a significant rise in the use of mobile phones in the last decade; hence it's accessible to many users. 

Secondly, when it comes to capturing attention, mobile takes the trophy.

A few years ago, people would say smartphones weren’t reliable for video consumption due to the small screen size. That’s changing as more people are adopting the new normal.

Here’s an interesting stat.

Research by Google found that smartphone users are 1.4 times more likely than desktop viewers and twice as likely as TV viewers to have a personal connection to brands that show video content on mobile devices.

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This implies that watching videos on mobile devices has a powerful, intimate connection that gives a better personal experience. 

So it seems natural for brands to build personal connections with customers by creating videos that are optimized for mobile.

However, brands must also keep customer satisfaction in mind. One way is to give their viewers the ability to skip ads. 

No one likes ads, and those five-second ads you see on Youtube are an eternity to most viewers. Their mobile device is their space. Don’t ruin it by allowing many ads to disrupt the video.

7 types of videos to create for your marketing campaigns

For your marketing campaign to be effective, you want to create multiple types of videos that address your customers at each stage of their buyer journey. 

Here’s a detailed breakdown.

1. 1. Product demo videos

Product demo videos show how your product works. They target customers who’ve shown an interest in the product but are curious to see it in action.

Product demo videos establish credibility and build trust with the audience as they picture themselves using the tool.

A good example of a product demo video is this one from that Slack. It’s short, quirky, and mixes a case study and product demo.

1. 2. Shoppable videos

Shoppable videos are a game changer for eCommerce brands. They add a layer of interactivity that lets customers purchase your product in real-time from the video. 

That’s what we’ve specialized in here at Videowise. We’ve helped many brands create shoppable videos to scale and peak their eCommerce performance. 

One of our recent customers is Immi-eats, a Ramen Shopify shop that wanted to boost its conversions through video. 

1. 3. Case study videos

Potential customers are more likely to purchase a product when they see a testimonial from a current customer using your product. That’s what case studies are meant to do.

Below is an example of a case study video from FreshBooks.

1. 4. Brand films

Brand videos aim to attractively show your business's mission and goals to your target customers. 

We particularly loved how Volvo did it. They went with a brand film video that showcased their mission, values, and benefits. The video uses an influencer to express Volvo’s value in an awe-inspiring way.

Check it out. 

1. 5. How-to videos

As the name hints, how-to videos is an information video that walks your target audience through a process. Since the goal is to educate, it’s not a must for you to add your product unless it’s a process related to it.

70% of marketers created how-to videos as part of their marketing strategy in 2022. This is because they are the perfect options for TOFU content. Here’s an example: 

1. 6. Videos in emails

Can’t publish videos on your social media channels or website? No need to worry. You can take the videos to your customers' inboxes. Adding videos to your newsletters makes you unique and excites your customers. 

Use a large thumbnail with a play button to boost engagement and encourage subscribers to click the video. 

This is a perfect example - a video inside an email from the CEO of CopyBlogger, Tim Stoddart.

1. 7. UGC videos

User-Generated Content videos can work wonders for your marketing if customers become your fans. 

As the name hints, your customers do everything, from creation, editing, and even sharing on their social channels.

Reach customers who’ve been happy with your product and are willing to do the heavy lifting. As a result, you’ll get an authentic video that builds trust with customers with little to no investment from your side.

Check out this piece for the top ten examples of brands using UGC videos. 

Conclusion

Video content has lots of benefits. It boosts conversions, drives traffic, and lets you communicate personally with customers. 

Furthermore, more people are adopting videos as the best way to consume content from their smartphones. 

These are important data points that you should keep top of mind.

We know this all too well as a video platform for eCommerce brands. We’ve seen the impact of shoppable videos, and our customers can attest to this (Check out some of our case studies).

We want to help you to be ahead of competitors by creating videos tailored for conversions. Book a demo today to see Videowise in action.