Why Video Marketing is Important

What exactly makes video marketing so important? Why are the biggest companies in the world so eager to create video content for their social media pages and YouTube channels?

Let’s start with some statistics. Firstly, humans are addicted to video content at the moment. We spend 5 and a half hours watching videos per day, according to eMarketer. Meanwhile, Cisco predicts that 69% of the content online will be made up of video by the end of next year. If you want proof of how popular video sites have actually become, just look at the Alexa rankings. YouTube is the second most visited site in the world after Google, and is also the second most popular search engine after Google.

What About Business?

Okay, so that proves that video content is popular. But you might be thinking that all those popular videos are just for entertainment purposes – cats and puppies and so on. And yet, many of the biggest brands in the world have pages on YouTube, Vimeo or other video platforms. So let’s look at the ways online video content can actually help your business.

Well, let’s look at the statistics regarding branded content. 84% of people have liked or shared a branded video on their social media page, and 64% of people said they’ve been influenced to try a product based on a brand’s video appearing on their news feed.  And despite the myth that millennials are ‘anti-corporation,’ they’re more than happy to subscribe to the YouTube channels of their favourite brands if the content is good enough. Take a look below at the most popular brands on YouTube and their impressive subscriber counts:

The Popularity of Video Content

So  what is it about video content that seems to grab hold of people? Well, as was mentioned above, people are addicted to narratives. In 2016, people are surrounded by video content, from YouTube to Netflix to gaming. Human beings are constantly bored and looking for something to do, and video content has filled that role very well thanks to the internet, smartphones, and mobile data.

At the end of the day, people not only enjoy video content, but they’ll actively go out of their way to find videos to hold their interest. And if your brand has videos that can fill that need, that is a sure-fire way to get new fans, no matter what you’re selling. Now more than ever, consumers appreciate content that can engage them, especially since there is so much amateur and boring content on the web.

So let’s go back to the question at the start of this blog. Why is video marketing so important? Well, at its core, marketing is about creating awareness of your brand and its message through the most effective platform. And since the demand for video content is seemingly unquenchable among consumers, and videos are actively influencing buying habits, it takes the number one spot as the most important marketing platform in the world today.