Sharan Gupta-
Sharan Gupta is the Vice President for Video Marketing at Beyond Codes Inc. a prominent digital marketing and lead generation solutions firm based in Southern California. Sharan is responsible for developing the company’s video marketing platform and establishing it as a leader in the field. Sharan is a graduate of the renowned New York Film Academy (NYFA). The view expressed are his own.
When Kesha wrote the lyrics for Tick-Tock in 2009 “Tik-Tock on the clock”, she didn’t realize that she was writing a part of the future. Tik Tok on the clock? Certainly!
Digital Marketing, also known as online marketing, refers to the marketing of products and services over any or all forms of electronic media. It uses, data and analytics to attract target consumers and businesses.
Consumers today are demanding and tech-savvy, they want products and services to be delivered at any place, anytime. Consumption of all digital content is increasing every day, thanks to affordable electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops and of course the intense and fast proliferation of the internet.
When a business gets started, the focus is on how to get its first customer. They can rely on traditional methods and advertise through print ads, flyers, or billboards. However, these are the methods of the past. Today, the global marketplace is available in the palm of your hands. Digital advertising costs less money and can advertise to the global market without having to spend a single penny. Many small businesses begin their marketing on social media through digital posters, and videos, engaging with the targeted customer base.
There is a profusion of websites that can help you with designing and creating advertisements for free. Stock images, Canva, Krita, Pro- create and many others.
Businesses need digital marketing to grow their business beyond the region/area they are based. Social Media platforms provide the global market for small businesses to expand, grow, connect to their customers and make improvements to their products/services if required. Digital platforms help to analyse and track, your business continuity and help you make changes to the businesses as required. Digital marketing also helps you to know your audience, drive engagement and create customer loyalty.
With opportunities extended to the horizon, digital marketing may seem a little intimidating to someone who has never done it. Some businesses opt out assuming that business will take evolve as the time passes. However, the marketplace is ruthless, your business might drive traffic through word of mouth or traditional marketing but it would not stay unless you show up at the places they are spending the most time. Where do people spend most of the time, without leaving the comfort of their cosy apartments? The Internet!
The above-given points are a few reasons why businesses need digital marketing.
If a photo is worth a thousand words, imagine the value of a video? This is what video marketing is based on – a forward-facing market strategy that amalgamates engaging videos, and customer engagement into your marketing campaigns.
Video marketing is used for anything and everything, from promoting your brand to building a customer rapport. Moreover, video marketing also serves as a medium to present know-how, how-to’s, customer testimonials, live-stream events and deliver viral entertaining content.
Using video for marketing has been popular since the 1940s. Over the years, it has garnered a lot of traction across all businesses, and now it has become more popular than ever, especially with entrepreneurs and small businesses.
When you log into your social media, most of the influencers, and companies are following one trend or another, we are constantly consuming content that advertises one product or another. Businesses have grown with the help of digital marketing platforms, and video marketing is a big part of them. Now, a good video only requires is a smartphone, editing skills and a big idea. A survey by Renderforest found that video marketing has helped average businesses increase brand awareness by 70%, traffic by 51% and sales by 34%.
And this is why video marketing is important!
Small businesses are progressively using video content to attract customers, and convert and retain new ones with huge success. The key to its popularity lies in the ease to engage both prospective clients and businesses across all platforms. Even the big corporations are asking to send a video resume!
The following chart shows the increased use of video marketing from 2016 to 2022. The growth of the use of video marketing is exponential.
When we talk of marketing, the cost is always a factor that can either make your idea sour high, double the effect or it just adds to the pile of many. This was one of the biggest challenges of making marketing videos at the beginning, now these challenges are mostly in the rear-view mirror. Technology is cheaper and accessible to all, the software is free and so are the delivery platforms. This is mostly the case with small businesses and start-ups. With bigger companies, when the ads are high-tech quality, shot in studios with world-class equipment come out of a big budget. But these are all surmountable obstacles.
The fact is, the cost is no more of a challenge in the industry. The most significant challenge in video marketing is strategic – how to build a reliable and effective marketing strategy for your brand, how to create content that people watch and how to engage them so that the videos will be shared further. Moreover, video content strategists need to have a coherent understanding of the metrics, how to analyse ad performance, and how it indicated a video’s success and can find areas for improvement.
We talked about challenges, and from these challenges, rises best marketing practices in video marketing. It all, in the end, comes down to strategy: If you want your videos and marketing strategy to succeed, then you must plan, test analyse and test again. The goal of these videos is to tell stories, put your point forward, convince the audience to trust your product and engage your customer. Further, from a marketing perspective, your videos align with your sales funnel. Ask the questions to need the right answers, before you began planning and strategizing – What is the purpose of each video? Who is your audience? How is this video going to help with your marketing goal?
The bottom line, data, analytics and overall strategy should drive your video marketing strategy. Began by developing a solid strategy to create a video(s) for each level of the sales pipeline. Strategise the content and goals for each video. Use data and analytics to determine the video’s success, make changes to your plan if necessary and whatever you plan, make sure, there is a video fit for your marketing plan and the one that represents your brand. In this digital age, these practices are the cornerstone of every brand’s marketing efforts
2020-2021 have been the most successful years for video marketing since the beginning of time
2021 was the year that saw video content grow beyond all other types of content on the internet and social media. Video traffic on the internet is predicted to account for more than 85% of internet users in the US and India, 92% in China and up to 95% in China and Turkey. If the brands want to stay ahead, they need to know the top marketing trends in 2022 and predict the future trends to be flag bearers in the industry.
Let’s take a deeper look at the trends that have dominated the industry.
Short form videos and stories
Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Snapchat are all providing users to share short-form videos lasting from 5 seconds to 20 seconds, that disappear after 24 hours. This is such a big deal, because, unlike traditional video content, these short-form videos, allow marketers a new way to reach their targeted audience. These can be viewed on mobile devices, and that makes them ideal for capturing the attention of the audience as they scroll through their social media feeds.
With added filters, music on the queue and editing and shooting on the phone makes it much more affordable for marketers to produce the videos. This trend has helped a huge number of small business owners to grow their brands. Influencers use short stories to market products and over the last few years, they have become the backbone of marketing.
Vlogs
The term was only coined in the 21st century. Video blogs or video logs are one of the most popular content formats. The reason for its popularity lies in the fact that they are personal. Audiences can get to know the creators at a personal level and this helps them create a connection that cannot be duplicated with other types of video. The trends suggest that vlogging will continue to grow and if a brand is not already a user, it’s not too late to begin!
Social Media Advertisement Video
The top marketing trend of 2021 and 2022 has been video marketing.
With billions of users from around the world, social media platforms are the mother-lode for businesses, influencers, and content creators who are looking to expand their reach. When the videos are engaging, it has a higher chance of attracting the right audience. Creating social media ads can be a huge advantage for the business. It will help them increase brand awareness and drive traffic to their websites and pages.
For influencers and content creators, using video ads can help promote blogs and products that they want to market.
Live videos, webinars and Live Streams
Since 2020, when the world went into the lockdown, businesses adopted webinars and since then, it has come a long way. Live streaming services, platforms surged since then. Most of the events, especially in corporates are not taking place through webinars, town halls and company engagement programs are all hosted on platforms.
This has also allowed brands to become popular as live streaming and webinar, have become a way for them to connect with the audience. They share their content, business, and progress all through live webinars and live streams.
Live webinars offer the chance to demonstrate their product and services, build relationships with potential clients and customers, generate leads and keep the audience engaged. The only challenge for the business is to get a good internet connection and a good microphone set-up.
What do we know about the video marketing trends so far?
Video marketing has evolved; now, it’s moving quicker than ever!
Video ads and marketing started as a simple product demonstration, customer testimonials and product information, however, now it has turned into a paramount marketing tool. Studies show that including a video on your website and social media pages increases the likelihood of visitors staying by 80%. Experts in the field believe that video marketing is the perfect way to convey the message efficiently and effectively.
With so much at stake, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve and know what video marketing trends will dominate in the coming years.
As we move further into the 21st century, video marketing will only continue to become more popular.
- An increasing number of businesses are adopting and using videos to promote their products and services.
- Videos have become a very important part of content strategy and marketing.
- Paid ads will continue to grow at affordable prices. Businesses will start allocating a huge portion of their marketing budgets to making videos and promoting them through social media ads.
- Live video has been growing in popularity and it will continue to do.
- The next step in video marketing will be VR. With Meta launching its virtual reality platform, there will be others to follow the suit. This system is completely virtual and more interaction would be in the form of videos. Most businesses will be used to create an immersive customer experience.
[Creative Commons: Nick Youngson]
