Ask Silver Bullet February 2018

Over recent years video marketing has developed to become one of the most influential marketing tools across multiple platforms. 2018 is seeing a surge in video use for businesses in a range of different ways allowing the power of video marketing to expand. Video advertising is rising (mainly across online platforms), video testimonials are increasingly popular and companies are attracting people on social media to watch video, highlighting a popular form of viral marketing. 

Due to an increase in advertising and online engagement all distributed video marketing has the potential to go viral. The vast numbers of people who go online are continuously being targeted with videos which companies are integrating into a viral campaign to direct the masses to their product or service. 

Traditionally video marketing was concentrated around television advertisements, but with 6 out of 10 people preferring online video to live TV - online streaming, catch-up TV and on-demand channels are taking over and therefore marketers must be creative with video marketing. This new change has brought the opportunity for viral advertising to be a main focus, however choosing the correct video platform is important and competition is fierce. Visual content attracts more engagement than stand alone text, and as 65% of the population are visual learners, video is the main form of media that goes viral making it an increasingly powerful marketing tool. 

The impact of traditional television advertising is slowing and contemporary online video marketing is now a popular choice. Video content is high on people’s agenda, being used for online advertising, website integration, social media strategy, etc. These marketing ideas are taking over Internet activity and are expected to expand during 2018. 

Many companies are attempting to stay current by creating a video marketing strategy; marketing experts are increasingly being asked to develop video into marketing campaigns in order to attract more people. Video space is being formatted in company web designs for the purpose of adverts or customer testimonials, this essential idea should be utilised before every company catches on to the power of video marketing. The reason this trend is so powerful is due to the vast number of people engaging online, we live in a ‘now culture’ and as a result of impatient natures an image or text does not give us the information we need quick enough with minimal effort. Videos produce the ability to really understand something within seconds, visuals demonstrate company ethics and personalities in a short space of time. 

One of (if not the most) powerful and popular video platforms is YouTube receiving over 30 million visitors per day – this online sensation multiplied the value of online video and changed the world of Internet marketing strategies. According to 2017 YouTube statistics around 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute and almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every single day. YouTube video marketing has become the norm for some companies because it can be used as a sure way of getting seen by the desired target audience, but can be quite costly. YouTube is one of the key reasons why video marketing is so powerful, starting out as a website for people to upload video content, generally of music and quirky videos, has become a business network for viral marketing through advertising, vlogging and informative tutorials. As a pinnacle for online video marketing, YouTube now works with Google for promotion purposes, and since its development companies such as Amazon, Netflix and SKY have followed becoming Internet royalty. 

Social media is another online platform that has improved the power of video marketing – in particular, Facebook holds the majority of advertising and viral videos. Companies can pay to promote their content or advertise their services in order to be seen by the masses. Social video marketing is also an easy and cost effective way to monitor and analyse the engagement of a promotion. 

The power of video marketing is predicted to rise throughout 2018 as more people are venturing online for streaming, social media, daily consumption and general content. It is important for businesses to be aware of these new developments in order to stay on trend and relevant. 

Do you need some assistance with your marketing? Do you need to review your strategy or do you have another marketing question we can help with? Talk to us. Email your questions anonymously to us today hello@silverbulletmarketing.co.uk  or Tweet us (not so anonymously) @SilverBulletPR .