As a small business owner, you have to wear many hats, and unless you’re a production company, creating videos to market your business probably wasn’t on your list.
However, multimedia (now more than ever) can help tell your story and reach new audiences.
About 85 percent of all internet users in the U.S. watched online video content monthly on any of their devices, while 54 percent of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support.
Here are five reasons why you should incorporate more multimedia into your marketing strategy.
Boost your brand awareness
To create, post and share videos is to expand your online reach.
About 73 percent of U.S. adults use YouTube, the second-largest search engine in the world (after Google). Beyond just the U.S., there are a billion YouTube users watching more than 250 million hours of video every day.
Because Google owns YouTube, it’s important to consider the SEO (search engine optimization) boost you can get from regularly posting SEO-optimized content to that platform.
In other words, simply adding a video to your website can increase your chances of ranking on the first page of Google Search results by 50 times. This is important because about 75 percent of people never go past the first page of results.
Between video ads, video posts, stories and live streams, Facebook videos garner up to 8 billion views per day on the largest social media network in the world.
With the right multimedia content for your brand, your message can reach far beyond your target audience.
Increase engagement
Multimedia content is typically the most engaging type of content on any social media platform, from Facebook to Instagram to Twitter.
Because of their higher per-user engagement factor, platforms will prioritize multimedia content to some degree in their user feeds.
Think of it this way: If a photo tells a thousand words, then a video could be a billion words.
In fact, videos are so engaging that internet users spent six hours and 48 minutes per week watching videos online in 2019.
About four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. You’re meeting your potential customer where he or she wants to be.
When viewers like what they see, they will share with their own network and/or follow (or subscribe to) your account.
But this higher engagement isn’t limited to social media. It translates in email marketing as well.
Using the word “video” in an email subject line can increase your open rates by 19 percent and click-through rates by 65 percent.
Check out our how-to guide for embedding videos into emails.
Expand your brand’s voice
This is your opportunity to build up your brand’s online personality and voice.
Whether it’s an emotional video with a message, a humorous video or a sleek product preview, this is the medium where you can really level up that communication with your audience.
The audio and visual stimulation can help build up your brand affiliation and connection with consumers.
Not sure what your brand’s voice is or should be? Check out our tips.
Low barrier to creation
These days, an effective video can be shot and edited on your smartphone. Seriously!
Granted, we’re not ruling out the value of a bit more production, but the creation and publishing can be as simple as where you point and shoot with your phone.
There are several video-editing apps out there (like iMovie on the iPhone) that can add sophistication to your video. The key is to have a plan and a vision.
Check out these video-editing apps that you should know about.
Improve conversions and sales
Businesses using video get 66 percent more qualified leads per year possibly because of the “quality of education that video content brings.”
In fact, visitors to your website are 64 percent to 85 percent more likely to purchase a product after watching a video about it.
More sales can happen as a result of your use of multimedia when your expanded brand awareness and increased engagement come together to build trust with an audience.
It’s not necessarily an overnight success. It can take time. But the payoff is worth it.
In conclusion
Remember, video is nothing more than an effective and low-barrier form of marketing. You can incorporate it into your website, emails and social media. Just start small and work your way up.
