Content marketing has been a popular strategy for businesses for many years. Until recently, content marketing typically involved articles, e-books and the occasional infographic. Now that high-speed internet access is more commonplace, and server bandwidth has become much more affordable than it was a few years ago, a new form of marketing has started to gain popularity — video marketing.
Why Use Videos?
A few years ago, video marketing was something that was used only by the biggest of brands. One of the most effective of these being perhaps the Old Spice Video. Even today, brands such as Evian and Dove are using viral video advertisements online with great success. Virgin Airlines recently managed to get more than 4.8 million people to watch a video containing flight safety information by presenting that information in the form of a music video. That's not to say that less well-known brands, or brands that operate in smaller niches, cannot also reap the benefits of video marketing.
There are several reasons that video marketing can be an effective marketing tool. Firstly, video content is heavily favoured by Google, so popular videos are more likely to bubble to the top of the search engines. Secondly, short and informative or entertaining videos are easy for consumers to watch, digest and share. Users may open a website that contains several pages of text, resolve to read it later, get distracted and move on to doing something else. A video that is a couple of minutes long is more likely to be viewed in its entirety.
Creating Videos for Marketing
Successful marketing videos tend to share some common properties. They are:
• Fairly short – videos that take longer than five or six minutes tend to be ignored, unless they are detailed guides or reviews. • Engaging – funny, informative or otherwise evocative videos tend to do well. • Speak directly to the viewer.
One advantage that a local business has when they are promoting themselves is the camaraderie of being from the local area. When someone from Sussex watches your video and notices the location of your office or hears your local accent, that will make them sit up and pay attention. The web can often feel a bit impersonal, and video marketing can be a great way to bring back that personal connection. Once you have a rapport with your viewers it is much easier to turn them into paying customers and keep them coming back for more content.
At Sussex Websites, we offer a range of content creation services, including professional video marketing. We can help you to come up with practical and effective ways to grow your local audience, and offer advice and assistance with your local video marketing campaign.