Video marketing, including various animated and traditional videos, has been growing by leaps and bounds since the 2000s. And now interview marketing is also coming into its own. As the name implies, interview marketing involves you or someone from your organization being interviewed by a host or third party. These are typically only a few minutes long but allow you and your company to discuss the value of your products and services and increase your organization’s stature as a thought leader.
In 2021, at the height of the pandemic, Wyzowl, a video animation company, conducted its seventh video marketing study. This one involved 813 marketing professionals and online consumers.
Here are some of their findings about video marketing:
- The number of businesses using video marketing as a tool has increased by 41 percent since 2016.
- As to being an effective marketing tool, 93 percent of marketers confirm that it is.
- Seventy-four percent of respondents say the pandemic made them more likely to use marketing videos.
- Ninety-one percent of respondents say that video marketing is even more important since the pandemic.
- As to why organizations are doing more marketing videos, in addition to being effective, 51 percent indicate it is because they are now easier to create; 47 percent say it has become necessary due to the pandemic; 44 percent because it is now more affordable; 19 percent because the return on the investment (ROI) is more apparent.
- Digging deeper into the ROI, 86 percent say that marketing videos have increased web traffic to their sites; 94 percent say it has made it easier for organizations to explain their products and services; nearly 80 percent report that video marketing has directly helped increase sales; and 43 percent indicate it has helped reduce the number of support calls from customers.
It’s obvious why businesses and organizations are getting on the video marketing bandwagon. But how do consumers feel about video marketing?
Here is what the study discovered:
- Ninety-four percent of consumers say they turn to “explainer” videos to help them understand a product or service, and for the most part, these videos address their concerns.
- Eighty-four percent indicate they have been convinced to purchase a product after watching a marketing video.
- Seventy-nine percent say they have been convinced to download a software program based on watching a video.
- Consumers now watch between 18 and 20 hours of marketing videos per week.
- Twice as many people share video content with friends and colleagues than any other form of content.
Webinars and Video Marketing
As to the types of videos that have proven most successful, the study found that webinars, including interview marketing, have jumped significantly. In 2019, just 46 percent of the respondents said they invested in webinars as a form of video marketing. By 2020, that has jumped to 62 percent.
Further, 91 percent of the marketers say their webinars have proven successful, an increase of 10 percent over 2019.
Platforms
Finally, the study examined which platforms proved most valuable in getting customer attention and viewers.
At the top, as expected, was YouTube, with nearly 90 percent of the marketers saying it was their most effective platform.
But other platforms are also proving powerful. The following sites were close behind YouTube in effectiveness:
Rounding out the list were these platforms:
- TikTok
- 360 Video
- Snapchat
The researchers concluded that “the number of businesses using video as a marketing tool seemed to really take off in 2018 and has held broadly consistent ever since. The vast majority of companies now use video in one way or another, but there remains growth potential.”
In other words, video is a powerful and up-and-coming marketing tool.
Robert Kravitz is president of AlturaSolutions Communications LLC., a content publishing, video, and social media firm. The company works with B2B organizations, promoting the value of their products, services, and expertise. He can be reached at: robert@alturasolutions.com.
