YouTube Killed the TV Star: Why Online Video Marketing is Essential for Marketers in 2012
No other tool in your marketing toolbox delivers the bang-for-your-buck-like video content.
From our ebook Biggest Social Marketing and New Media Predictions for 2012, Jay Baer, social media strategist, coach, speaker, and all-around good guy, shared that 2012 will be “the explosion in short-form multimedia, as companies start to truly embrace video and mobile photography.” With predictions like this, we asked: Could 2012 be the year marketers embrace video in their social marketing efforts? We think yes, and here are four reasons why:
1. Video is Getting Bigger
Since May 2011, there are more than 48 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute. And as of December 2011, YouTube boasted more than a trillion videos viewed this year alone. With 71% of all online adults participating in platforms like YouTube, video sharing is up 38% since 2006, 28% of which share on a daily basis.
2. Video Sells to the C-Suite
If you think that video marketing is only suitable for end consumers, then think again. Senior executives watch videos to make purchase decisions. A Forbes Insights report points to 65% of senior decision-makers visiting a vendor’s website after watching a video. In fact, 83% of the surveyed senior executives report watching more online videos today than they were a year ago, with 75% indicating they watch work-related videos at least weekly. Younger executives (those under 40) are more likely to make a purchase based on the video alone. It is clear that video is becoming an essential way to connect with and sell to both senior decision-makers and end consumers.
3. Video is Essential for Inbound Marketing and SEO
Hosting videos on your site is a great way to attract and engage visitors. Visitors spend an average of two more minutes on websites that host videos than on sites that don’t. Video helps to increase a website’s quality score too. A ‘long click’, which leads to more time spent on the site, results from higher quality content, ultimately enhancing user engagement. In fact, video can increase your chances of getting on the first page of Google’s search results 53 times!
4. Video is Killing the TV Star
A Bright Roll survey early this year reveals 65% of marketers plan to reallocate campaign dollars from TV to online video. Over 25% see online and mobile video as the two areas that will see the overall largest spending increase this and next year. Most marketers report taking advertising budgets away from television and display. Marketers plan to spend more on video because it works – video drives sales.
For instance, meet Old Spice, the men’s body wash and deodorant manufacturer. About now, everyone has likely heard of the Old Spice campaign, The Man Your Man Can Smell Like. This one commercial, originally aimed at television, generated 5.9 million views on YouTube in the first 24 hours of its launch. It got 20 million views in three days, and 1.4 billion impressions over six months. The ROI? Sales increased by 107% over six months.
GoPro, which makes mountable cameras, goes after current customers who are posting cool and interesting videos on YouTube using their cameras. One video, watched six million times in two days, showed a buck leaping across a mountain biker’s trail in Africa and knocking him to the ground. Quoted in a New York Times article, Stephen Baumer, GoPro CIO, said this: “The content ends up selling the cameras.” He went on to say, “These consumers, to our delight, are advertising on our behalf.”
Integrating Video Into Your Marketing Mix
We partnered with MarketingProfs to bring to our community of savvy marketers a new free white paper on Why Video is Essential to Your Marketing Mix. This resource focuses on examples from leading brands using video marketing to increase their visibility, attract new users and increase sales. You will learn how video can help you reach a specific audience, keep them engaged longer, and bring your brand to life in ways previously unimagined.
Here are a few of the examples shared in the whitepaper:
- Informative videos: WebMD is a great example of how video can be used to both inform and educate – their videos are of high quality, and focused on specific medical conditions and diseases. The goal is to help consumers take better control of their health.
- Instructional videos: Iron Mountain, the leading information management and storage provider, offers fun, creative vignettes on its Facebook page. D-Link, a company selling networking equipment, has a library of short, instructional videos teaching both home and business owners how to use and set up their products.
- Entertaining videos: Kinaxis, offering on-demand software for supply chain management, showcases a series of videos poking fun at the challenges associated with large supply chain environments. As of April 2010, the company had more than tripled its leads and was able to increase the number of registered community members by 38%.
We welcome your thoughts, reactions, and feedback. Let us know how you approach the process of video creation and promotion. What are your top video tips and tricks? Has video helped your company? As we embark on 2012, we promise to continue to provide deeper dives into best practices, successes, and notable trends to help you, social marketers, do more and do better. Comment on this blog, on Twitter at hashtag #AwarenessSMM, on Facebook at Social Media Marketing Best Practices, or on LinkedIn at the Social Media Marketing Mavens Group.
