Pros and Cons of Video Content Marketing

Actions
Pros and Cons of Video Content Marketing
Stefan Ivanovic

Article by

Stefan Ivanovic

Sep 24, 2017

Trends in digital marketing are slowly shifting towards video content. Here are some pros and cons of being a part of it.

The reason behind the rise of video marketing is because people are just becoming bored of written content (too much hassle!) and they just want to consume content faster! Video is the best way to do it because it is visual, informational and most of the time – short.

Let’s get to the point!

Pros

Engagement

The engagement of video, compared to other forms of communication with audience, is roughly 10 times higher (based on Content Marketing Institute). Based on this data it is easy to understand the appeal of video to everyone who is doing serious marketing. Just plain wrong to ignore it!

Engagement on videos is particularly strong on social media (especially Facebook). Based on a study by Buffer, the most popular content format on Facebook is video and by far! So make sure that you are posting videos on your Facebook Page. Any video! Doesn’t always have to be something that is attached to your company, but it should have a connection to what your company represents or stands for.

Conversation Rates

Adding a video to pages can have a huge influence on raising conversation rates.

In a case study featured at the Unbounce blog, Vidyard experimented with adding a video to one of its landing pages. The baseline conversion rate of the landing page was an average of 6.5%. Vidyard tested two variants of the same video on this landing page: one in a lightbox modal pop-up and one embedded in the page itself.

The results were amazing.

The figure above shows conversion rates for each of the three tests. The blue line (“Challenger D”) represents the video displayed in a modal lightbox pop-up. The orange line (“Challenger H”) represents the embedded video. The third line (“Challenger J”) represents the page without any video.

Challenger H – the video embedded in the page – had an average conversion rate of 11%, an impressive lift of 69%. However, the real star of this test was Challenger D, the lightbox pop-up video, which boasted an average conversion rate of 13%, a lift in conversions of 100%!

Future Projects

The beauty of video is that, most of the time, parts of the video can be used for future projects. Elements such as title cards, images, and even footage can all be reused in order to make new stuff.

In terms of money and time investment this can be a pretty important factor. Not to mention the influence on continuity on your marketing. The ‘secondary’ footage you use can just be a very short message lasting 5-10 seconds, and still have a huge influence!

Also, if someone else is making videos for you (which can be costly), make sure that you end up as the owner of every frame that has been done, otherwise you can end up paying for additional fees to get what belongs to you.

Some stats that add to the 'pros' scale: 

stats from a Social Media Today webinar on Getting Results with Video:

- According to Forrester, videos are 53 times more likely to receive an organic 1st page search ranking than a traditional web page

- YouTube is the world’s 3rd most popular web site and 2nd most popular search engine
DoubleClick cites 400-700% higher click through rates with video

- Engagement time for video is ten times longer than static content (flimp media)

- 75% of executives watch videos and 50% share videos with their colleagues

Cons 

Cost 

Even a modest office-based studio setup can cost thousands of dollars in upfront equipment costs, regardless of whether you rent or buy your gear. Without training or experience, actually making videos can be tricky, and newcomers to video production often end up making costly mistakes or screwing up entire shoots.

You could always hire a production company to make your videos, but this can be very expensive and also demands that you take precious time to evaluate the reels and portfolios of various production companies before you even receive your first estimate.

The barriers to entry for video production are falling all the time, but it’s still beyond the means of some small businesses and marketers

Not Everyone Loves Video 

According to data from the Reuters Institute and Oxford University, 41% of Millennial media consumers prefer reading news content to watching video, claiming it’s faster and more convenient.

Interestingly, a further 19% of respondents said they felt video content added little or no value to a text-based news story. Considering how often news sites will embed or include accompanying video content alongside text-based content, this is a particularly striking statistic.

No Hack for Good Video Content

You may have heard of a little website called YouTube. Its birth has impacted our world in marvelous (and also not so marvelous) ways. YouTube gave anyone the chance to show their video to the masses: your business included. Since the sudden demand for video marketing, a match has been lit under marketers’ seats. There’s been an obvious scrambling amongst organizations to broadcast their stories, and fast! But creating a video that impressively represents a company’s team, motto, or backstory is not a task to be rushed. If you don’t already have staff members with the appropriate skills, you may have to dip into a freelance network of video specialists or hire a marketing agency. No need to start replacing all your bloggers with video techs though – you’re going to need somebody to write the script.

If you think watching a quirky DIY video will charm your audience, then put some weekend time aside to create something wholesome. If you think that you can make a quick video on your lunch break and have it up by day’s end, you may find yourself disappointed by the final product. Your company’s story isn’t a topic that should be addressed as an afterthought. If you treat video as an art form, your audience will see that and hopefully appreciate the hard work that went into it.

 

Comments (0)

You must Register or Login to post a comment

1000 Characters left

Copyright © GLBrain 2024. All rights reserved.