Digital Video

The face of marketing has changed constantly and rapidly over the past few years. In an ever-connected world where each tech innovation surpasses the previous incarnation, marketers have had to adapt in order to get the best out of the various platforms on offer. As a result, automated marketing platforms are now a necessity for many marketers, who are also optimising customer interactions via real-time analytics.

Increasingly, personalisation is key – and advertisers now have a host of information at their fingertips which allows them to adjust and adapt their approach according to a more finely-targeted audience. And throughout all this, video has emerged as the medium of choice for most advertisers.

In April 2015, over 4 billion videos a day were being played on Facebook. By September, this figure had jumped to 8 billion. And it looks set to continue. According to Ciscos predictions, 80% of all internet traffic will be streaming video content by 2019. So where are things headed in future?

Many non-marketers still view video as being firmly in the domain of Facebook and YouTube. Not so. More recently, successful brands have been utilising video throughout the whole customer journey – from campaign videos and testimonials, through to product demos, case studies, webinars and event videos. There’s little in the customer experience that can’t be enhanced by a well thought out video. The bottom line is that video marketing can help companies sell more – and this trend is only going to increase over the coming years.

The reason video works so well in a B2B context is because it’s the ideal medium for education. Case studies, charts and graphs, presentations, whitepapers all have a role; but nothing quite engages and educates like video. It’s the ideal medium for bringing information from other sources together and presenting it in a compelling and human way – creating an emotional connection with the viewer.

Vidyard, a Canadian software company, has already reported a rise in ‘micro demo’ videos which are replacing live, on-site demos to prospects. Instead, playlists of short demos are being compiled which can then be viewed according to the prospect’s interests. Not only does this free up time for businesses (who don’t necessarily have to visit in person), it also enables buyers to view videos at their own convenience and share them across the company. This form of video-selling is likely to become increasingly popular as we head into next year.

When email comms were first personalised they were – and still are – a big hit with consumers. Even something as basic as personalising a subject line can make a difference, and according to a 2015 Q2 survey by Experian, ‘emails sent with personalised subject lines, including either first name, surname, or another unique identifier such as account number, were 7% more likely to be opened than emails sent with blanket subject lines.’

While a range of personalised marketing tools have been used for quite some time, 2017 is going to be the year of personalised videos, with marketers producing unique content tailored towards individual viewers. Already in 2016, personalised campaigns were generating between 200% and 1500% more click-through and conversion rates – and with this type of success, we’re only going to see more, and better, forms of personalisation.

This has been on the cards for a while, but thanks to recent advancements in video player technology, along with improvements in recording tools for creating interactive content, 2017 looks like being the year when interactive video becomes really popular with consumers. We are already seeing the emergence of 360 VR Video that increases customer engagement.

With more opportunities than ever before to impress and engage customers via video content, it’s a given that video marketing is quickly going to have to become a core channel for businesses. As a result, the ability to use analytics in order to track the engagement of consumers with video campaigns and using this to uncover insights and drive action is key. Armed with this knowledge about engagement, drop-offs, and how each video is contributing to lead generation, we’re bound to see companies honing both their video campaigns and their analytics in 2017.