The Rise of Video Marketing Post-COVID-19 (and Why It’s Here to Stay)

• In 2022, 86% of businesses use video marketing – and you could fall behind if you aren’t.
• COVID-19 orchestrated the rise of video marketing, and neither of them are going anywhere anytime soon
• Storytelling is the common thread in video marketing

Over two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, some parts of work and life have gone back to normal and some – like a new focus on video marketing – remain forever changed.

Think of your average day as it has been impacted by the ongoing pandemic. In the earlier days of the pandemic, we spent more time than ever in front of screens as a way to virtually gather with friends and coworkers. But Zoom wasn’t the only big change that COVID-19 brought on.

Video marketing stepped into the spotlight as a way to capture attention as our screen time inevitably skyrocketed. In fact, 18% of video marketers in 2021 – the second year of the pandemic – used video for the first time that year, and 43% said video marketing was a necessary change due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For marketers, video has emerged as one of the most effective and powerful tools to engage prospects or deepen relationships with existing customers. And we’re not likely to see that change anytime soon. Most of our adopted behaviors and preferences will remain firmly implanted in our lives, and so will video marketing.

By the numbers

A study by ClickZ shows that 80% of consumers have increased how much digital content they consume since the COVID-19 outbreak. People started consuming more digital content when social distancing and quarantines were at their height, and now, that trend continues. . The digital marketing community facilitator also reports that:

• 72% of consumers say they prefer learning about a product or service by watching videos
• 55% of consumers watch videos every day
• 78% of consumers watch videos every week

ClickZ concludes that video – the most watched format in 2020 – will continue to drive marketing best practices, especially when combined with automation for placement on social media platforms. 

In 2022, Wyzowl released their State of Video Marketing report, stating that:

• 92% of marketers call video important to their marketing strategy
• 86% of businesses use video marketing
• "75% of marketers said the pandemic made it more likely that they’d use video"
• 64% of marketers changed their video marketing strategy due to the pandemic

Why do some marketers still skip out on video marketing, even in this day and age where everything’s about video? Wyzowl had some insights on that, too: 

• 23% of marketers who don’t use video lack time to implement it
• 16% of marketers who opt out don’t know where to start with creating video assets
• 7% of marketers who skip video say they don’t know the ROI of video marketing 

Luckily, there are easy solutions to those particular problems. If you don’t have time to implement video, or don’t know where to start, then outsourcing your video marketing strategy is the best course of action. If you simply don’t know the ROI, then keep reading.

The ROI of video marketing in a post-pandemic world

Wyzowl’s study shows that "a whopping 87% of marketers have used video to increase their ROI in 2022." That’s nothing to sneeze at! According to the report: 

• 94% of marketers say they’ve increased product understanding with video marketing
• 87% of marketers have boosted traffic with video marketing 
• 86% of marketers have used video successfully to generate leads
• 82% of marketers have used video to increase dwell time
• 81% of marketers have directly increased sales with video 

Did COVID-19 cause the demise of blogs and text-based articles?

This is not your cue to consider killing your blog – or cutting back, for that matter. Nearly 409 million of us consume more than 20 billion pages of blog content monthly. The internet didn’t destroy books. The written word in long-form text is still how many people like to consume complex information.

Even when your long-form blogs are doing the heavy lifting, surveys show that people appreciate a video complement. "Video distills complex ideas and helps create emotional reactions."

Seeing is believing

Video had already cemented its top position, thanks to the adoption of broadband and Wi-Fi, and the push to 5G is keeping it there.

YouTube has been transformed from mostly entertainment to a powerful platform for how-to education and explainers. According to HubSpot, 66% of consumers watched video content to learn about a brand or a product in 2022. 

"Videos are critical tools that allow people to see your product or service for what it is – they’re more authentic than edited product images and more educational than a landing page."

Learn how to use content to generate traffic and leads.

Social media threw gasoline on the video consumption fire. Over half of marketers say video is the most critical piece to social media marketing across all platforms, and for good reason.

There are 2.6 billion people who use YouTube each month in 2022. Every single day, people watch over 1 billion hours of video on the platform. By virtue of its searches, YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine by volume. When people search there, will they find you?

It’s not just YouTube, either. See for yourself: 

• 91% of Instagram users watch videos on the platform each week
• 50% of Instagram users say they’ve bought a product or service after seeing a video featured on Instagram Stories
• Users will watch over 8 billion videos on Facebook today
• Over 1.2 billion people use Facebook Watch to consume videos each day 
• Video tweets on Twitter get 2.5 times the replies, 2.8 times the retweets, and 1.9 times the likes compared to text-only tweets 
• Tweets that use video get 10 times the engagement on Twitter

Advertisers discovered video was the way to capture attention during the pandemic, and it stuck. The power of video and social media is that people are more likely to share a video than a blog post or even a photograph, and people they know are more likely to watch it because of the recommendation.

Video is a must

Nothing works better at helping place a brand into the customer’s worldview, and video is an excellent way to create a direct engagement with prospects as they search for ways to educate themselves about products or services via video, the way they’ve come to expect.

Relevance is the key.

Has COVID-19 changed the way that prospects view the value proposition of your product or service? Many organizations have discovered they can tell this story in transparent and affordable ways using video. 

HubSpot reports that product videos increase purchases up to 144%. This marketing platform also points out that you can produce these videos even if you have limited resources.

One aspect HubSpot stresses is that consumers are hungry for content that lets them relax and feel entertained. According to a 2022 survey, 32% of users seek out videos to help them unwind. Other reasons include:

• To laugh or be entertained (26%)
• To explore interests and passions (13%)
• To learn something new (11%) 
• To escape from daily life (6%) 

Successful marketers must use video to communicate how life will be years into the pandemic. COVID-19 definitely forced an acceleration of how we consume digital content and its impact on the buyer’s journey.

Bottom line: don’t let a constrained budget hold you back from video marketing during a pandemic. "Real and transparent messaging doesn’t need massively expensive production budgets. It needs kick-ass storytelling."

How video amplifies SEO

Video to complement your blog has the added value of entertaining, as well as showing customers how your product or service can solve their problems. This packs a potent punch for driving SEO, giving your videos big boosts in search ranking.

We already know that Google gives preference to video in searches, but now there’s E-A-T, where the search engine giant wants to reward consumers with Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. 

Unfortunately, COVID-19 has exacerbated the volume of misinformation shared online, and E-A-T is one of the ways Google wants to fight it. Use your storytelling ability as a subject matter expert, added to video, to push a signal through the noise. Google is looking for your content.

Short and sweet

Thanks to the rise of bite-sized video on TikTok, "today’s consumers look for videos that are three minutes or less.' Just 2% of viewers prefer longer videos at 12 minutes or more, and 16% of viewers want to see videos that are 60 seconds or less!

Video length has a role, but what wins is more about your respect for the time – sometimes measured in seconds – you’re asking prospects to invest in your message. Videos aren’t the place for messages that need explanations. You’ve only got a couple seconds to resonate, or the viewer is on to the next message.

Storytelling is the common thread in video marketing. It transcends length and demographics. Whether you’re Gen Z or a Boomer, you’ve come to have common expectations about what resonates with you – especially since your video consumption has been amped up during the pandemic. These demographics:

• don’t mind branded content, as long as it’s valuable.
• want to know how it will help them make a difference.
• crave trustworthy, authentic content as a way to make discovery about new products or services (Google likes that, too!).
• prefer personal branding and storytelling because it connects with their need to feel connected with peers.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. But, it has to be a story. Visual storytelling with video marketing is the most effective way to communicate the value proposition, during and after a pandemic. 

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