Is Video Important to Digital Strategy?

You’ve probably heard a few of these around the digital marketing communities: “Video drives engagement”, “The audience loves videos better than text”, and “video is where ‘it’ is at”. But do these claims convert to results? If you focus on video, will you just be entertaining your audience or can you expect growth in conversion? Well, the data says… yes.

Consumers don’t just love watching videos. They process and recall the information in videos faster than text. This has an impact on their actions and inactions towards the brands they see everyday. Keep in mind that whether you’re creating videos or not, your competition is. If your digital strategy does not include video marketing, now’s a great time to start.

Video is quickly becoming an essential tool in every digital strategy. Still on the fence? Here are some research-based statistics that prove the benefits of video to digital strategy.

Statistics That Prove Video Is Important to Digital Strategy

According to Social Media Today, 90% of consumers say that video helps them make buying decisions.
For every buyer who prefers to read about a product before buying, there are 4 times more who would rather watch a video about that product.
According to Forbes, one-third of the time people spend online (globally) is used to watch videos.
Video marketers bring in 66% more qualified leads to their companies per year.
The consumption of mobile videos rises by 100% every year.
Viewers will retain 95% of the information in a video, compared to 10% in text.
If time and resources didn’t limit them, 83% of marketers would increase their reliance on video for digital strategy.

With the right strategy and efforts, video can impact your digital strategy in several ways. Here are the top factors to look out for.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Video content is becoming increasingly cheaper to produce. On social media, you can connect with your audience for free using live stream. Outsourcing is a lot easier for better quality videos and animation.

With the low costs in mind, here’s some good news; video is beneficial in converting visitors into leads. Adding a video to your landing page could increase your conversion rate by 80%. That addition will make a big difference in the performance of any marketing strategy. Videos, when used to effect, could bring in your projected ROI and then some.

Increase in Engagement Power of Your Content

In the US, adults spend an average of 6 hours watching videos every day. We expect that similar numbers are reflected in different regions of the world. Videos are engaging, and we consume them more than we think. Your audience may not always be interested in long articles and case studies, but they can watch videos. When you create video content that fits in with their interests, it becomes easier to connect with them.

Studies also show that people recall 95% of the information from a video, compared to 10% of information from text. This is not just a short term effect. Another study shows that 80% of consumers will recall what they saw in a video from a month ago. This proves that video can help your brand improve its recognition and recall among the target audience.

Your ability to create for different social media platforms also increases your sharing power. Social videos could generate up to 1200% more shares than text and images combined.

Improved SEO (Hint: Google Loves Videos)

Videos now appear in 70% of the top 100 search engine results. Google loves video content even more than they love your 2000+ word blog posts. The reason is simple. The audience now prioritizes video content more than they do blog content. As users continue to favor video, Google’s algorithms will continue to give them what they want.

This shift goes beyond Google. Think of every social platform you know of, and their recent optimization of video content. Online streaming is suddenly a lot better. Search results now have dedicated sections for video. Even LinkedIn is pushing video content to its users. If you’re creating consistent, good-quality videos, your visibility could improve significantly.

Conclusion

Video offers a promising impact on every digital strategy. Marketing platforms (social media and search engines) will continue to optimize towards video, and you should too. Don’t hesitate to explore different video concepts and formats until you find what resonates with your audience.