Video Marketing strategy and Trends 2015

Video marketing is fast gaining ground as a powerful marketing tool to engage with online audiences. The growing popularity of social networks that support the sharing of video content as well as increasing usage of mobile and other handheld devices have led to the virtual video marketing revolution wherein marketers are increasingly shifting budgets to video content over other forms of online marketing.

 A growing number of statistics and surveys support the fact that online audiences are more likely to remain on a website or an advertisement while watching a video clip. The rise of mobile devices means consumers can now enjoy the flexibility to watch high quality multimedia content from wherever they are, which opens up new vistas for marketers to advertise their products and services.

The growing importance of online marketing videos is also borne out by the 3rd annual 2014 Online Video Marketing Survey which saw participation from over 600 marketing professionals. Some key facts highlighted by the survey included

·         93% of marketing professionals are using online video for marketing and communications

·         84% are using video for website marketing

·         60% are using video for email marketing

·         70% are optimizing video for SEO

·         70% of surveyed marketers said they will increase spending on video marketing

·         82% of surveyed marketers stated that video marketing has had a positive impact on their business or organization

Marketers looking to increase effectiveness of their online marketing budgets need to include video marketing as a big part of their online marketing strategy. Below are the most prominent trends and strategies likely to dominate online video marketing in 2015.

Mobile centric videos will assume centre stage in 2015.

As per an eMarketer study conducted recently, an estimated 70% of more of all digital audiences will be using tablets and other handheld devices to view video content by 2018. What this means for marketers is that generating mobile centric video content and mobile optimized ads will be a great way to increase online engagement with your brand.

        Interactive videos will take user engagement and brand marketing a notch higher

Interactive videos that turn viewers from passive audiences to active participants like games, surveys and social sharing videos will take engagement to a whole new level. Video technologies that enable shopping via videos, storylines customizable by audiences as well as music videos mixed with brand advertisements will raise the level of brand awareness.

Digital only original video content will come into its own in 2015

Original digital only video content will gain prominence which means that content developed exclusively for digital media to be watched only on digital media by a digital friendly audience will become a norm in 2015 as company’s start shifting budgets from television content to original digital content in response to shifting audience viewing trends. Marketers will also need to respond to this trend by developing original marketing videos to cater to a digital audience.

Social platforms will see an increase in video sharing as compared to Youtube

With more than 1 billion videos views on an average everyday, Facebook has emerged as a serious contender to the dominance of Youtube as the pre eminent social video platform.  Also, videos on Facebook receive more shares than Youtube which implies user engagement is higher on Facebook than on Youtube, a fact of significant importance for marketers.

Video marketing will move from mass to targeted marketing

Video marketing will move from mass marketing to targeted marketing with content designed and delivered to a select target group of audience to derive maximum return. Rather than cater to many and deliver value to none, videos created specifically to provide value to a select group of people will gain prominence as organizations start demanding realizable returns on video investments.

Integration of Marketing Automation Technologies with Video

Lastly tracking budget spends on videos will gain prominence as marketing automation technologies (MAS) make it possible to integrate videos with MAS for data analytics and insights. As marketers gain greater insights into consumer behavior and viewer engagement based on data gathered from videowith MAS, targeted video marketing will get more and more specialized and sophisticated.