Let’s assume that you don’t know anything about video, but are seeking to run a business in 2019. Now, let’s cut to the chase. Why must you use video?
- You’re Living in a World of Video
An article written by Forbes in 2018 opens with this line: “Marketing via video is the biggest way to reach people today. It is nearly unstoppable.” According to their research, “viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.” This means that your marketing and sales efforts must utilize video if you want to attract and communicate to today’s consumers.
Considering that more than “500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube each day,” video is the new marketplace. If you’re thinking of running your business without video, then you’re risking going fishing in a lake with no fish.
2. Video Engages
We’ve all seen someone at some time watching a video on their phone. We were immediately interested in what was going on…and maybe even tried to watch over their shoulder. But we wouldn’t have the same magnetism to the person if they were reading a book. Why? Humans watch things. It’s natural for us. That’s why movies work so well; they allow us to do what we naturally do: watch others.
Apart from all of the creative and interesting things that you can do in video, video engages. There’s an inherent pull to watch something as opposed to reading it. Considering that you want your business to draw people in, video is the best option to really grab someone’s attention.
3. Video Enhances Communication
Although you might spend hours designing a nice looking website or writing an awesome article, video uses more of a person’s senses than previous methods of communication. Good video uses sound, picture, and nonverbals to communicate its message.
Thus, you can actually say more in video than in some other format. Creating the setting, adjusting colors, choosing sounds, and designing an experience for the video means that you can have careful control over someone’s thoughts. Not only can you grab their attention, but you can direct their psychology. Want to make a lasting impression? You must use video.
4. Video is Stable
Another article by Forbes in 2017 predicted that internet video traffic would be more than 80% of all consumer internet traffic by 2021. In other words, online video is becoming extremely prominent. The author, who reads a lot of tech research, finds that “video in business…[exceeds] nearly every other category that hits [his] wide tech-focused stream” of information.
Today, we live in a world where video is highly valued. With an additional rise in streaming content (Netflix, Amazon, etc.), consumers and customers are more and more accustomed to having video accessible to them. Reports in July 2016 from ThinkWithGoogle, a site that provides tips on marketing to shoppers, showed that ~50% of “internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store” (quote from Forbes article). These statistics and research data are now about 2 years old, meaning that video involvement has increased significantly since these were written.
All of this said, it is becoming increasingly more important that you use video in your business. It is the new, stable marketplace that everyone is interested in. It is an excellent way to communicate and bring your business into. Evidently, you must use video.