Videos have become an inseparable part of content-mix for marketers. Social networks such as YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat are increasingly video driven to reach out to the new-age-digital-savvy consumers. Additional to these social media platforms are other on demand video services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hot Star providing reach to a larger and valuable target audience for marketers and advertisers alike. In India, given the young demographic base, content shared through social media accounts will be a trend that will stay for a long time. Audience is now global and consuming videos in new ways – on-demand, socially, on multi-screen, multiple formats resulting in massive audience fragmentation and emergence of content niches.

Digital marketers across have increasingly started using video for demonstration of products, services, conducting interviews, launching a new product line, idea or service and for making comprehensive presentations for training. Another compelling reason for Marketers to consider video content at the masthead of the content churned out by their companies is that with an overload of information circulating, the need for easy to digest content increases with every passing moment. If the content is cumbersome and time-consuming, it will be omitted or ignored by the consumer who is already spoilt for choice, confused and impatient.

Here are the four reasons for how video is dominating marketing content

Snackable Fact I:

The Forrester’s research conveys that if a picture speaks a 1000 words a minute of a video is worth 1.8 million words:

Video is a sure-shot way of capturing the attention of anyone looking for content or even browsing the internet. The engagement through visuals is more captivating for the viewer. They get addictive of such forms of content and are eager to share it with others. Instant sharing of video content ensures increased footfall on the website and thus augment interaction with your brand. They are the most consumed form of content on Social Media.

Like every other format of content, video content comes with its own instructions’ manual. Here certain parameters like the 4 P’s of marketing should be taken care of. The Product that has been advertised is the central message of the video. In short it is the main purpose of the video to increase or initiate a purchase after it is shared with the audience. Also, with the ease of availability of smartphones that offer high quality recording, shooting a video and uploading it on platforms like Facebook and YouTube is now a cake walk. Moreover, when it comes to creativity, cost takes the back seat.

Snackable Fact II:

According to a research carried out by Axonn Research, 7 out of 10 people improve their perception of a brand based on good video content:

One of the best features of video content is that even if it is technically heavy, it is generally perceived as a form of entertainment, thanks to our conditioned mindsets. Perhaps this is the reason why video content is very effective when it comes to B2B Marketing too. Here’ very effective product demonstrations can be carried out across geographical barriers and beyond physical limitations. Similarly the marketers are also concerned about the B2C approach as it is evident through many ad campaigns run by leading e-commerce segments that have used social messages to create a unique rapport with the consumers. Personalized video brings the viewer into the story. This is a new concept that enables marketers to customize the actual video content with information unique to each individual viewer for a truly tailored content experience.

Snackable Fact III:

Orion 21 conducted a survey which inferred that video shares are 12 times more than links and text combined.

If businesses are not promoting their offerings via videos, they are missing out on 100 million internet users who watch videos online, every day, according to Video Brewery. So Marketers need to wake up to the fact that video content has arrived with a bang and is here to stay for a long time – perhaps even forever. In fact, perpetuity is usually guaranteed as the content that is posted online is generally etched forever in someone’s machine or mobile or somewhere in the internet space. Videos can accommodate text, audio and images, completing the gamut of content and catering to the palette of content consumption, in style.

Snackable Fact IV:

According to Marketing Sherpa, videos drive 157% more organic search traffic and Forrestor Research concludes that it is 50 times easier to achieve page 1 ranking in Google with a video. Forbes’ research findings say that 59% of the executives would rather watch a video than read text.

To sum up, the age and era of reading long articles has passed away, giving way to the renewed way of consuming content. An article that exceeds three pages or even less seems like a tome to the current day content consumer. Video content is taking the online and mobile space by a storm. Since it satiates both the primary needs – information and entertainment, for which users browse the internet, video content is only likely to continue to augment. Marketers who haven’t caught onto this trend stand to lose. While the ideal strategy would be to present consumable content in all formats such as audio, video and in writing, today it is imperative to capitalize on the enhanced technology that caters to shortened attention spans. Every digital marketing strategy is directed towards achieving a goal and should echo the message that it wants to convey and promote. No promotional activity will be successful if the objective of the brand does not coincide with the message. Similarly channel of distribution should always be decided prior to deciding the cost of the marketing strategy.