by Chad Godfrey

As business owners and entrepreneurs, we all desire happy customers and more market share for our products, services, or non-profit. As you consider your business goals and marketing strategies for 2019, I’d like you to consider one approach you perhaps hadn’t thought of: video.

Video is everywhere you look: the web, social media, mobile devices, digital signage, even at the gas pumps. Does your business use video? If not, here are a few staggering statistics that may convince you to think about incorporating it more seriously:

» Online video is the fastest growing media platform in history
» Video generates three times as many monthly visitors to a website as other content
» Visitors spend 88% more time on a website that includes video
» Organic traffic from search engines increases by 157% with video
» Consumers are 85% more likely to buy after watching a product video
» Consumers have 57% more confidence in their purchase with video

Statistically speaking, video marketing is conquering the world of digital advertising. With all the benefits video brings, how do you begin to prioritize your efforts when your plate is already full with other activities and marketing strategies?
Make a list of items to focus on that will generate awareness of your brand, educate your customers and prospects for your offering, and build greater demand for your products or services.

Once you’ve prioritized your list, it’s time to shift some of your old methods out and add video in. Why? Here are five reasons:

  1. Get on the second largest search engine in the world
    If you didn’t know it, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. You need to be here if potential buyers are searching. Educational-style videos or vlogs are the greatest opportunity here since “how-to” searches increase exponentially each year. Create videos for each of your products or services, especially your flagship ones. The more you educate your audience, the better success they’ll have. This also increases engagement that reflects these products or services back to you, furthering your brand.
  2. Rank higher in searches
    While YouTube is the second largest search engine, Google is the first. Adding video to your website can increase your search rankings on Google significantly (as well as other search engines like Yahoo and Bing). The number one ranking factor for search engines is content. Video is evidence of quality content and sends signals to search engines that your site contains media relevant to search requests. The truth is, adding video to your site makes a first page Google result 50 times more likely (this fact alone should convince you to start using video).
  3. Adding videos will increase email click-throughs
    Once you have video on your website and/or YouTube, be sure to share it in your email campaigns. Simply including the word “video” in the subject line of your emails increases open rates by 7-13%. Including the video thumbnail or splash screen (linking to the video) in your actual email can double click-through rates.
  4. Videos tell a better story
    What story can you tell that will engage others about what you do? If a picture is worth a thousand words, video is worth much more. Forrester Research says, “One minute of video is equal to 1.8 million words.” There’s no better way to tell your story than through video and there’s no better way to engage buyers than with a compelling story. Think TED Talks and Kickstarter campaigns. The most popular and successful ones have a great story behind them. While it was the video that lead them fame, the story was the starting point well before that.

  5. Share your work
    Engage people by sharing the work you do for others. Share a video of how you’ve helped someone solve a problem through the work you do. This can be a client testimonial or a “before/after” video. Either way, there’s no greater fulfillment than through helping others. These efforts are worth sharing and will engage others that may have a similar problem they need you to solve for them.

Video will only continue to grow in popularity as consumers like, remember, and share it with others. If you haven’t already, it’s time to board the video train. As they say, video killed the radio star.