Video: the boost for your content marketing campaigns

Summary

Video is the most important format to integrate into your marketing campaign for a number of reasons: it provides the user with what they are looking for, it performs very well when it comes to conversion, and finally, because it allows your company to talk about itself…but not too much.

That’s why everyone in content marketing is using video, or at least they want to. Fortunately, digital solutions are available today that make it easy to create effective video content without the staff or budget typical of a large organization.

When it comes to digital marketing, one of the most popular topics in recent years is content marketing.

Not surprisingly, in a recent SEMRush report, the term “content marketing” was one of the most used and searched word combinations in the context of digital marketing.

Basically, everyone is doing content, and even if they’re not using it yet, they’re planning to in the near future, and they’ll be employing the best possible solutions to make quality content effective and functional for their strategy.

And it’s no coincidence, since content marketing is worthwhile, in many ways.

For example, content marketing materials make it possible to create an interesting and relevant storytelling system for users and consumers, which tells the story of the brand, products, or services of each company in a different light, and even from an unexpected point of view.

Content marketing is also useful for positioning one’s own company in an effective way, since it transforms the brand into a real protagonist of a story, a specific value universe where users can recognize themselves and even connect with their own choices, not only as consumers, but also in their lives.

Beyond this, however, content marketing is a particularly functional approach for other reasons related to the quantitative yield of the use of content.

Content marketing is worthwhile

There is a lot of data that demonstrates the effectiveness of content marketing and it shows the different aspects of these advantages.

First of all, content marketing is relatively inexpensive. In general, a content marketing strategy costs on average 62% less than traditional marketing and generates three times more leads than other approaches.

This means that with the same amount of money you can pursue more ambitious results, and, with the same investment you can more effectively push users to perform the actions you’re aiming at, as we will see later in this post.

The “quality-price” ratio is, without a doubt, an aspect that should not be overlooked, but we should also emphasize that this is only possible if you decide to use the best technologies to build and distribute content.

From this point of view, Babelee is an excellent example of an affordable digital solution that enhances your content marketing strategy.

Babelee is a digital platform that gives all companies the possibility to create personalized videos in all their parts (from graphics, to audio, even music) through a system that is extremely simple and immediate. Babelee makes it possible for users to create videos without needing to involve the IT department or other specialists. Instead, through the dynamics of video automation, users can easily create video without any special skills in graphics or editing.

Returning to the advantages that content marketing offers, those who engage in content marketing receive 8 times more traffic on the site than those who don’t.

Content marketing, in fact, unbalances the narrative focus of communication, which passes abruptly from being all about the product to being entirely dedicated to stories or messages designed specifically to intercept the interest, curiosity, or needs of users.

It is clear, therefore, that if the company stops talking about itself and begins, instead, to pay attention to its customers–both current and potential–then those people are more likely to return to the site or social profile to continue to follow the story being told or to get new information.

And the benefit in this sense is twofold: on the one hand, you ensure the attention of consumers that is never taken for granted and, at the same time, you transform your company into an important reference point for the users themselves.

Content marketing also plays a fundamental role when it comes to conversion, i.e. the “moment when a website visitor takes a desired action.”

For example, 77% of users read blogs, and where content marketing elements are included, conversion tools are found to be remarkable, allowing to reach a conversion rate 6 times higher than when other marketing tools are used.

The same is true even when the content is not written, but also just listenable, as it happens with podcasts, which have become, also thanks to this long lockdown period, one of the most interesting advertising mediums in terms of content marketing.

Suffice it to say that the percentage of those who listen to podcasts from start to finish has increased from 2019 to 61%, which means that more than one in two users enjoy audio content in its entirety, which is surprising when you consider the amount of information and stimuli that reach users on a daily basis and how much the average attention span of those who surf the internet is decreasing.

Among other things, the majority of podcast listeners are willing to enjoy branded content, provided that the content is of high quality and with high added value; moreover, hints and references to a brand inserted in the context of an articulated and captivating narrative are perceived as less invasive and, indeed, in the end the marketing message is remembered much more easily.

And this is because, once again, using content means putting the listener (or reader) and their interests at the center, leaving the company in the background, which becomes a sort of “experience enabler.”

Obviously, this does not only apply to audio content, quite the contrary.

All content is NOT equal

There are many other types of content that can be created and used to build a more interesting and engaging storytelling for consumers and to enhance the effectiveness of one’s marketing strategy, but clearly they do not all have the same effectiveness and positive impact.

From this point of view, it is undeniable that the “strongest” content of any marketing strategy is undoubtedly video.

It is true that each piece of content is more or less effective depending on the objective, but in light of the direction that digital transformation has taken and, above all, in light of the relationship that consumers have with the digital world, we can’t help but indicate video as an essential tool for anyone who wants to boost their digital marketing campaigns.

Everyone watches videos

The first aspect that should convince all marketers to adopt video as the main format for enhancing their campaigns is its diffusion: everyone on the internet watches videos.

This is confirmed, first of all, by the global report of We Are Social and Hootsuite 2021, which captures the most relevant trends and statistics in digital and which identified “watching videos, series, or films” as one of the five actions that globally push people to use the internet more.

In addition, the second most visited website in the world after Google is YouTube, the platform par excellence for watching video content.

Even more impressive are the data relating to “content activities” that are carried out online by users. In this case, video has no competition, since among those who enjoy online content, over 90% use the internet to watch video content, or to watch vlogs made by famous content creators for over 50% of respondents.

This data is consistent with what was predicted by Cisco in its Annual Internet Report for 2018-2023, where it pointed out that by 2020 over 80% of web traffic by users would come from video: indeed, the prediction was not so far from reality.

Video marketing campagins are persuasive

Obviously, diffusion is only one of the aspects that justify the use of videos within your marketing strategies. Videos also have another significant advantage, which is related to the performance you want to achieve.

For example, in terms of conversion – as mentioned above – video is a decidedly effective format, since it has been found that a page that has video performs much better than one that doesn’t, reaching a conversion rate of 4.8% (reaching only 2.9% without it ).

This figure should not come as a surprise if we consider that videos are now one of the most used types of content by users to get information about the things they are most interested in. By now, in fact, the purchase of an object, even a physical one, starts long before entering the store.

It starts from the smartphone, which is often used before and during the customer experience to gather information, opinions, compare prices, and so on.

Often, the content that is enjoyed here is video. It’s no coincidence that, according to statistics from Forbes, 90% of people surveyed said they get help from video when it comes to making purchasing decisions, while 64% said they are more likely to buy a product or service.

This persuasive power is linked to another aspect of video that should not be underestimated and is an undeniable strength.

The answer to a demand for entertainment

The strength we refer to is that video is a perfect format for entertaining users.

In fact, compared to an image or a text, a video is able to entertain users without tiring them and generally keeping their attention high, which is very important, since the amount of time that users pay attention to a piece of content is increasingly less and less.

After all, many users are just surfing to distract themselves, to have fun, or just to pass the time.

As a result, all digital platforms have become, or are increasingly becoming “broadcasters” of video content to be enjoyed on smartphones (just think of Instagram, which has implemented IGTv, or Facebook, which automatically shows seamless content on your page that might be of interest to keep users connected for as long as possible).

This explains why many of the largest brands have begun to employ substantial resources to create long content marketing products in video format: to give the user what he is asking for, i.e. entertainment.

A nice example of this trend is the campaign by Barilla, who created a 10-minute video in celebration of Carbonara Day to tell the story of the birth of the famous Roman dish.

It’s clearly a pretext to reaffirm the values of the brand, to outline and better preside over its positioning. The final result is also an almost cinematographic product where users immerse themselves in a story, internalizing the values of the brand and letting himself be involved and distracted for (more than) a few minutes.

Videos are useful, but you have to know how to make them

However, we have to be honest and recognize that not everyone is Barilla and can afford huge productions. But this is not a reason to give up on using video for your video marketing campaigns. Quite simply, the benefits are too important to ignore: they guarantee a high level of conversion, attract users easily, keep their attention, and can persuade them more effectively than other types of content.

So how to do it?

Fortunately, there are platforms such as Babelee that are based on video automation and that assist companies in the creation of effective and, above all, personalized video content, cross-referencing data and statistics in the company database relating to individual users in order to define the type of video to send and the timeframe to observe for delivery.

In this way, it is possible to reach users with relevant content that, above all, enhances the scope of your strategy and investment through precise, targeted, and effective content and by improving the results in the short, medium, and long term.