Technology advancements are continually shaping the way businesses and consumers interact. Gone are days of having a handful of traditional channels to market products to a captive audience. With the rise of social media and infotainment on demand, audiences continue to fragment, with consumers expecting relevant information to somehow find them. Millennials in particular expect any information to be just a click away.

Video marketing is on the rise. Video is a crucial part of any digital marketing strategy.

Marketing conference audiences often hear statistics about people’s average attention span dropping from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to less than eight seconds today.

Consumers’ attention is being stretched, and people are becoming more decisive about what they pay attention to.

As marketers this means we need to create meaningful authentic content that audiences and consumers can trust and relate to, while also serving a meaningful purpose in their lives. And we only have a couple of seconds to create that connection and impact.

According to Forbes, 90 per cent of customers say video helps them make purchasing decisions and 64 per cent report that seeing a video makes them more likely to buy.

And it’s not just marketing departments in big corporations who are getting on the video bandwagon. Many platforms perfectly cater to the needs of both solo ‘influencers’ and small businesses who have the opportunity to communicate directly with a dedicated audience. Video content is impactful both on a native website and customised for use across social and multimedia platforms.

Short-form Snapchat stories have been around for years, with Facebook and Instagram now getting in on the successful ‘stories’ sharing space – in the new world of vertical screen storytelling. YouTube has surpassed Facebook as the world’s second-leading website behind Google, but Facebook also continues to expand, including the recent introduction of Facebook Watch with original and shared content set to rival other streaming channels. The popularity of Webinars is also increasing as it reinforces its position as an important video marketing tool which combines client education while demonstrating products and services, often with live Q&A sessions.

IGTV also launched in 2018 giving Instagram fans another space to share their vertically filmed content in longer form, with IGTV previews now appearing in Instagram users’ feeds from this month onwards. The advent of Facebook Live and Twitter Live and more recently Insta Live on the Instagram platform is re-shaping the way an audience can interact with companies in real-time.

For businesses, the opportunities for video content are seemingly endless, however there are preparations to be had, and mistakes to avoid, before a deciding to hit the ‘go live’ button on any platform.

This article originally appeared in the Business Insight section of the Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper on 23/02/2019.

Blog