Video strategy for brands: what do you need to know for 2023?

Let’s start with one certainty: video is the king of digital marketing. And in the immediate future, this role will grow stronger and stronger.

Why? The reasons are very simple: it’s the type of digital content we are most familiar with; it is the one capable of conveying messages in the most understandable and memorable way; and it’s the best way to trigger engagement and shares from the audience. 

Consequently, we are not surprised that video marketing always records the best ROI; and that brands increasingly want to invest in a marketing mix that puts video at the center.  

But generically saying “video marketing” means very little. If we want to ride the trends of the immediate future, first of all, we need to clarify our ideas. 

That’s why we decided to isolate the 7 key points on which to build the best video strategy for brands in this post. 

We will focus on the types of videos that are showing higher performance and promise than others. Then we will introduce two elements that are at the core of attention today: interactivity and personalization. 

Finally, we will close with an indispensable aspect: the need to always adopt an omnichannel perspective. Let’s proceed in order. 

In this first point, we’re referring to different types of videos, but they have this in common: they are all marketing operations focused on individual products or services. 

Let’s start with a recent survey. A large sample of people were asked the question, “What is your favorite way to find information about a product or service?” Here are the responses: 

• 73% said they prefer a short video; 
• 11% preferred a primarily text-based article; 
• 4% prefer an infographic; 
• 3% prefer a live call or demonstration. 

These percentages, in short, leave no room for doubt. And they pair well with this other data, which emerged from different research: 

• 55% of people pay more attention when approaching videos than any other type of content (source: omnikick.com);
• When viewing a video, the average user retains 95% of the message it contains; when it comes to text, this drops to 10% (source: covideo.com). 

These numbers are enough to explain the great success of so-called video tutorials. By now we all make extensive use of them: there are for every type and every taste: from cooking to make-up, from DIY to gaming the examples are really endless. It’s videos that register the most solid popularity on YouTube; and that’s why they are crucial to any video strategy for brands.

Video explainers and product videos are in this same groove: they are videos specifically focused on the clear and effective explanation of a product or service.

Caution: this is not to explain every detail in a pedantic and tedious manner. Don’t overload viewers with information, but select the details that are most useful to everyone (deferring any further discussion to other venues). And always remember to pair the informative part with engaging storytelling.

In conclusion, here is another telling statistic on the subject: 

• 96% of people said they viewed a video explainer to get information about a product or service before making a purchase (source: wyzowl.com). 

Here we come to two types of videos that, in some ways, are diametrically opposed to those we considered in the previous point. But be careful not to confuse the names! 

Brand videos are videos, often quite short in duration, whose primary objective is to tell the story of a brand’s values and identity. 

Thus, they are not videos that promote specific products or services. 

Branded videos, on the other hand, take the form of brand-sponsored or brand-created videos, which don’t directly promote the brand itself, but the same values that the brand embraces and wants to communicate to its audience.

What do these two types have in common? The goal. Namely, that of aiming to strengthen brand awareness, recognition and – most importantly – advocacy by your audience. 

We refer you to those venues for more in-depth best practices for producing this content, which really plays a central role in video strategy for brands.

Streaming videos have long been used in digital marketing. But their popularity has seen a huge surge in recent years as a result of the pandemic and emergent phase it triggered. 

It’s a common experience: we are all increasingly accustomed to following live events, presentations, debates. And, often, to interact in turn. 

Of course, marketing departments can leverage all of this in building the brand’s video strategy. In addition to familiarity of use, streaming videos perform well in terms of engagement. On average, they generate 7 times as many reactions as classic videos and as many as 24 times the number of comments (business.linkedin.com). 

Beware, again, of some aspects to watch out for. We’re mainly talking about technical aspects, which concern both image and audio quality, as well as good direction. 

It’s also important to manage the flow of comments and reactions as well as possible in order to achieve the best degree of interaction with the audience. 

The interactive video revolution is very simple, but decisive: the message, from being one-way, becomes two-way. 

To put it another way: from a monologue where the viewer is always passive, it moves to a real dialog in which the viewer is an active participant in the storytelling and conversation. 

According to a study conducted by Spiel Creative, about 90% of marketers noticed a growth in sales after implementing interactive videos in their campaigns. And 85% of them said they plan to create even more interactive videos in the future (source: spielcreative.com).

Concretely, how do videos convey interactivity? 

• Hotspots: i.e., clickable areas within a video. These are the perfect spots for calls to action:
• Data entry fields. 
• Quizzes and polls. 
• Branching paths (branches): a kind of map with multiple turns that the user can choose to take in order to personalize his or her viewing path. 
• 360-degree viewing: with the ability for the viewer to “move” in all directions within a frame of the video. 

The perfect combination? Combining interactivity and personalization, which we’ll focus on in the next point. 

For brands today and tomorrow, there is a keyword at the center of the video strategy, and this keyword is personalization. 

What’s it all about? It’s about the possibility of building videos that are tailored to each individual recipient. How? By leveraging data analytics systems.

Companies, therefore, can build videos that automatically adapt to the characteristics of each individual viewer, intercepting his or her preferences, needs, and desires. All of this, of course, has huge positive spin-offs in terms of attention, engagement, and advocacy.

How to make personalized videos? By leaning on platforms such as Babelee, which, in addition to personalization, ensures that customizable elements of interactivity can also be implemented. 

With Babelee, the revolution is twofold and complete: it breaks the one-way paradigm, transforming video into a bi-directional interactive dialog. At the same time, it overturns the old logic of one-to-many communication, of a one-size-fits-all message, and finally embraces the perspective of one-to-one, personalized, close-up communication. 

This is the real breakthrough for the video marketing of the future, but also of the present! To learn more about the possibilities offered by Babelee’s Video Platform see here.

Let’s start with two significant figures that perfectly demonstrate the importance and relevance of so-called influencer marketing:  

• On average, influencer marketing showed an ROI of $6.50 for every dollar spent (source: adweek.com). 
• About 70% of millennials are in some way directed in their choices by influencers (source: startupsmagazine.com). 

So, it’s always a good idea for brands to lean on influencers for your video strategy. 

Yet a “problem” has emerged in recent years that undermines the effectiveness of this type of approach from within. 

Mega-influencers (those with more than one million followers) are now perceived by the public as very distant and unattainable personalities. Similar to the old television stars. And, in this way, the closeness to the audience that underlies the very concept of influencer marketing is lost. So, what are brands and digital marketers doing? 

They are relying on micro- and nano-influencers, who are perceived as more spontaneous, close, trustworthy, and who have a fan base that is certainly more limited, but almost always more loyal and devoted. 

The key word, in this sense, is authenticity.

Here we come to the final point, one that is more “technical” and certainly indispensable. 

A video strategy for brands must be designed in omnichannel mode. 

First of all, it’s about optimizing videos for any type of device, prioritizing the mobile side, because today, the smartphone is the main tool through which we watch videos.

But it’s not just a matter of devices. 

Above all, it’s a matter of optimizing your videos according to the platforms on which they are distributed. Indeed, it’s one thing to produce a video for the company website; it’s another thing to create a video that you will send via email marketing campaigns, and it’s yet another thing to create a video to be uploaded on YouTube or another app. 

And then there is the fundamental social media playing field, each platform with its own technical rules and best practices.
In closing: an effective video strategy for brands is one that knows how to combine elasticity and recognizability. One that knows how to harness the power of digital to create a new relationship of closeness with individuals.