What is the importance of video for your business? There are many different types of content that you can create for your business. Many people focus on print content, which is great for a number of reasons. However, video provides some unique benefits that print doesn’t.
Importance of Video #1: Your Audience is Watching
When was the last time you watched a YouTube video? If you’re like most of the population, you watched a YouTube video this week. You may have even watched it today. Your audience is definitely watching.
- More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month.
- 55 percent of people watch video daily and 78 percent of people watch weekly.
- Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube – that’s almost an hour for every person on Earth, and 50 percent more than last year (Source: (http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/the-power-of-online-video-the-stats-2013-0446850).
- According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more U.S. adults ages 18-34 than any cable network.
- Millions of subscriptions happen each day, and the number of people subscribing has more than doubled since last year (Source: http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html).
Video is shared more often, and people watch videos on their smartphones, so they’re more accessible. When you embrace video as part of your content marketing plan, you may be able to reach a wider audience and to strengthen your connection with your prospects.
Importance of Video #2: Video Motivates Purchases
Speaking of connecting with your prospects, did you know that we buy from people we like and trust? And that it’s easier to forge a connection with someone when you can see their face and hear their voice.
If you are present in some of your video content, your prospects are able to see what you look like and hear you in action. This offers them a unique look at who you are and what you’re about. It builds trust and it motivates liking – both of which are buying triggers. Good video content can help you sell more products or services.
In fact, according to Retail Touchpoints, shoppers who viewed video were 174 percent more likely to purchase than viewers who did not.
Finally, another importance of video is that it offers the same SEO opportunities that print content does. It’s searchable and prevalent on Google results. In fact, according to Marketing Week, video results appear in almost 70 percent of the top 100 Google search listings.
And video is easier to create than you might think. There are free editing tools that you can use online. Your laptop and smartphone may have good cameras and uploading to YouTube, tagging, and sharing is easy. If you’re not using video as part of your content marketing, now is the time to give it a second look.
