Video marketing in brand promotion: why video content keeps growing in popularity

In 2023 video content will account for 82% of all internet traffic. That is the forecast Cisco made in its Mobile Visual Networking Index (MVNI) study.

Video — is a simple format that is easy to take in, and it beats every other kind of content at getting information across. That is why video marketing is used more and more often to promote a brand. It lets users take a break from the excess of text online and learn about a company's product in an accessible, convenient form.

Table of contents:

• The role of video in content marketing
• Who needs video marketing
• Types of video marketing
• The advantages of using video in marketing
• Video marketing trends in 2023
• Short vertical videos
• Live streaming
• Creating content with AI
• Optimised and personalised videos
• Summary

The role of video in content marketing

Let us start straight away with a few statistics:

• a landing page with video gets 41% more traffic than one without (Animoto);
• most social media users would rather receive video from a brand than any other type of content (Animoto);
• 65% of users visit a company's website after watching a video about it (Forbes);
• 70% of marketers call video a more effective promotion format than any other (MarketingProfs);
• 96% of people watch a video about a product before buying it (Wyzowl).

Looking at the numbers, it is clear that video is a marketing tool in demand. It simplifies communication with customers and is a key element in many people's decision-making.

Who needs video marketing

Video can be used to promote a business in practically any field, because it lets you talk about anything. Selling a product or a service? Record a video about it. It shows that the company is open and helps the customer make up their mind. For a real estate agency, for example, it is an excellent way to show the properties from its catalogue in motion, which gives a far more accurate impression of them.

Video marketing is not only for promoting your business. It is an excellent tool for creating training videos for staff, demos to show clients and so on. It can also be used to improve your position in search results. As already mentioned, Google and other search engines favour pages with video over pages without.

Types of video marketing

Video marketing offers many formats, which makes it a universal solution for promoting a brand. All you have to do — is choose the one that suits your business goals and your target audience.

By content, video falls into the following types:

• Educational

The main goal of an educational video is not to advertise the product but to explain how to use it. It is often aimed at an audience that already owns the product and wants to learn more about the finer points of using it.

• Review

The task of this type of video — is to describe the advantages of the product and the benefit for the customer. It is often an advertising type of video content, but the user should also learn about the product's drawbacks, so that they can make a final decision and not regret the purchase later.

Here is an example of the review format in use. A real estate agency in Türkiye can show an apartment in a video and describe it in detail. It can also film a review of the district and the city where the apartment is located, showing the significant, important places.

• Demo

This format is ideal if you want to introduce your audience to your product and attract their attention. The introduction is the main goal here, not sales. The difference between a demo and a review is that in the first format we describe the product or service briefly, while in the second — we talk about it in detail.

• Testimonial

People trust other people more than they trust companies. That fact is easy to use in brand promotion. You can film a video with a selection of positive reviews of your product, or even ask a client to talk about it in more detail. A real estate agency in Türkiye, for example, can ask its clients about their experience of working together or their impressions of the home they bought.

• Interview

To increase the audience's trust in a product you can invite an expert to talk about it from a professional point of view. You can also invite any employee of the company or its founder for an interview. It is important to introduce the person briefly, so that the audience is convinced of their expertise and trusts their opinion.

• Advertising

The main rule of a selling video — is to hook the audience in the first seconds. This type of video content makes full use of sales frameworks and every kind of marketing device. It is created to attract new customers whose needs our product will meet.

• Brand (image)

Here it is the company rather than the product that comes to the fore. The task of an image video — is to talk about the brand's values, the benefit it brings customers and how it differs from competitors.

The advantages of using video in marketing

The average person spends 18 hours a week watching video. Video marketing therefore has plenty of advantages that make it worth adding to your business promotion toolkit. The main ones:

• presenting information visually increases the audience's trust;
• a video that «goes viral» can attract many new customers;
• most people are visual — they take in information through what they see;
• the chance to show your product from a new angle;
• video makes information easier to absorb, which speeds up the decision to buy.

There is no perfect promotion method, however, so let us note the drawbacks of video marketing for a business too. The main one is probably the cost of producing video. Very little content is shot on a smartphone camera. To create a video you need a scriptwriter, a camera operator, an editor and other specialists, all of whom increase the budget.

From that follows another drawback — producing video content is labour-intensive. Generating the idea, writing the script, shooting the video and editing it take far more time and effort than any other type of content.

Even so, video marketing has more advantages than drawbacks. They outweigh every shortcoming and make promoting a brand with this tool more than justified.

Video marketing trends in 2023

Short vertical videos

In 2014 Snapchat popularised the vertical video format, but it did not become a global trend at the time. In 2016 TikTok appeared, offering the same features, and within just a few years gathered an audience of billions. YouTube and Instagram actively promote vertical video in their own formats, Reels and Shorts. One reason for this is the leading share of mobile devices in global traffic.

Vertical video appearing on more and more platforms — is a clear signal to marketers that they need to use it when creating video.

The emphasis has also shifted from long videos to short ones. Winning a customer's attention keeps getting harder, so far fewer people are prepared to spend their time even on a 5-minute video. In that situation short videos — are the best way to promote your brand in 2023.

Live streaming

Live streams have existed for a long time, but the real boom came during the pandemic. Online broadcasts can gather more people than any offline event. They also cost less, require no venue rental and therefore save money on organisation.

You can run live streams to present your product. Thanks to the element of live communication, viewers feel part of it rather than mere outside observers. Interactivity also helps raise interest — polls that decide how the stream develops, for example.

Creating content with AI

Artificial intelligence became one of the main topics of late 2022 and early 2023. And the subject will certainly stay relevant. It can and should be used actively in creating video content. AI saves time on writing the script, preparing the preview image and many other technical details. It can also be used to personalise content, so passing by such a powerful tool when promoting video is simply not an option.

Optimised and personalised videos

Social media — are the main channel of communication with customers. In 2023 video marketing will therefore continue optimising video for the specifics of each platform: YouTube, Telegram, Instagram and so on.

To set themselves apart from competitors, brands will also personalise their videos, tailoring them to their core audience. That can show itself in the use of phrases typical of that audience, or in addressing certain customers directly.

Summary

Video marketing — is an indispensable tool for any modern brand. It should be used to increase the audience's trust, attract new customers and present your product to advantage. To use video effectively within a promotion strategy it is important to define its goal, analyse the target audience and shoot sincere, high-quality content.