There’s a lot of pressure on marketing decision-makers to jump on the latest innovations and video marketing trends. And sometimes that pays off.
But sometimes new tech is like a square peg in a round hole for your business – and once the novelty has worn off, you realize that you’ve blown your budget on something that didn’t bring a return on your investment and that’s awkward.
Video remains a medium that refuses to sit still. And with the continued growth of social media platforms, video marketing tips are more important than ever.
In this article, we’re going to explore the most important video marketing trends that CMOs need to know about – putting them in real-world situations so that you can determine whether that trend is a fit for your next big strategic decision.
We’re going to explore how video is set to replace other mediums of marketing communications, specifically exploring:
Video testimonials
Short and vertical video
The ease of video creation
Platform optimization
Personalized video
Influencer collaboration
New media
Video is set to replace other customer contact approaches
Producing video can be time-consuming and expensive. But it doesn’t have to be.
When compared with email marketing and the potential returns, the costs of creating video might seem a risk too far.
But don’t write it off, just yet.
Video testimonials
The Co-Founder and CMO of Chicago-based Orbit Media, Andy Crestodina, thinks that people will soon be sending video testimonials (VTs) rather than commendations in writing.
Think about it: In a world of information overload, customers are more likely to watch a video than plow through a large block of text.
Video testimonials are becoming the go-to technique for customers to share their thoughts and appraisals of your service.
VTs are considered more reliable than written recommendations. Anyone can write a testimonial, after all – you don’t know for sure that the client has written those words or whether a skillful copywriter has crafted them. Hearing the words from people’s mouths is a much more convincing means of delivering and refining a message.
VTs are cheap to produce, a smartphone video feels more authentic than a clip produced in perfect lighting and sound conditions.
Replacing text
Crestodina goes on to assert that video will replace text for high-stakes marketing communications across customer services, marketing, and sales.
He believes that customer service responses are more personal if delivered by a human, and with the ease of video creation by webcam, video can be more effective than email, phone conversation, and chatbot.
Video responses sent by email add a personalized touch that helps the customer feel more valued.
Short-form video on social media platforms
Social media is about immediacy and short-form is trumping long-form for video marketing campaigns.
Ian Cleary of Razorsocial claims that long-form video is a barrier to engagement – he believes that people just don’t watch them.
Cleary claims that the companies who are using short-form, teaser-style videos on social platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, are seeing higher engagement and conversion rates than businesses investing in long-form on the same social channels.
YouTube continues to maintain its popularity for long-form – but the Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Snapchat audience is more suited to short-form.
Instagram’s IGTV is setting itself to rival YouTube for long-form video supremacy, while YouTube continues to make colossal profits for top creators.
So, what does this tell us, exactly?
It’s a question of platform and demographic.
According to a 2016 Nielson report, more adults engage with YouTube (on mobile devices) than watch prime-time TV on any cable network in the US, indicating that traditional media advertising is losing its grip on the audience.
The report predicts that businesses will switch from TV advertising to YouTube advertising to reach their audiences.
Cisco predicts that 80% of all internet content will be video by 2021, suggesting that video as a marketing medium is set to continue its prevalence.
However, the Cisco report suggests that the significant successes are not necessarily the domain of the big players with the largest budgets, it’s the innovators and the disrupters who are set to benefit the most.
Affordable
Video creation has become cheaper and more accessible to everyone. It’s the original thinkers who produce the most persuasive stories and the emotional triggers that keep audiences engaged, even if that video relates to a business.
In 2019, more video is being created than ever but BuzzSumo confirms that short-form (30-90 seconds) is dominating social platforms.
Virtual Reality (VR)
Virtual Reality has long felt like an inaccessible gimmick that has little application other than in the amusement arcade or in three-dimensional design.
But social media platforms have consistently embraced innovation such as live video streaming (more about that later), 3D photo publishing, AR, and soon to come – virtual reality experiences.
Along with the roll-out of 5G, portable virtual reality is coming to social media platforms. The first roll-out of VR content is through Facebook, allowing users to create 3D avatars controlled by Oculus headsets.
But, as technology develops, the VR possibilities for video marketing are significant. And getting there first is the new big race for CMOs.
VR offers a photo-realistic user-universe allowing your potential customer to try your product in “real world” situations.
And while we’re talking considerable budget to be the first, like all new tech, the costs rapidly fall.
Video in email
Personalized video delivered via email has become an excellent medium for sending marketing and customer retention messages, making your content stand out from the other text-based competitors.
For example, Volkswagen sends its customers a personalized video after each car service. The clip recorded on a smartphone confirms the outcome of the inspection, showing the customer what work needs to be done (if any).
The video acts as a permanent record of work to be done so that the customer can refer back to it at a later date, empowering the marketer when it comes to renewal and upsells and reinforcing the quality of service the customer has received.
Embedded in an email (or even a text message), this is a strong trend in demonstrating customer service excellence and value for the client.
This particular trend marks a wider application for martech, representing a cost-effective way of delivering a message.
Video marketing is growing
One of the most significant trends in video marketing in 2019 is the continued growth of services such as Facebook Watch: the platform’s own Video On Demand (VOD) service. It offers curated and original content with a high potential for advertising revenue.
But Facebook currently retains 45% of all Watch revenue, the remaining 55% goes to the content creator. And while that’s a pretty hefty cut, Live Video is the low-cost alternative, pathing the way for new, personalized video marketing – without that considerable cut in profits.
Live video
Live Video is democratizing the marketing landscape, giving anyone with a social account and a significant number of followers the opportunity to broadcast directly across nations, even across the globe.
Live video provides a deep connection between creator and audience, providing a multitude of ways to interact on the fly.
Audiences send live text reactions which the creator can immediately respond to, and those live videos can be shared after the broadcast has completed.
The death of corporate?
Large organizations who strive to project a considered, professional, corporate image often alienate the people they’re trying to connect with by presenting too starchy a presentation coming across as inaccessible.
Ivory towers and all that.
Live video breaks down the barrier of the constructed corporate patina and gets directly to the point.
There are almost endless possibilities for live video’s application in marketing and client relationship building. You can offer live video customer service, speak directly to potential customers, broaden the potential reach of your audience by expanding beyond geographic limitations.
Joe Williams of Tribe SEO considers that going forward, Facebook Live and Facebook Messenger interactions are set to challenge email marketing as a principal lead generator.
Scripted vs unscripted
Is the era of the polished, professional presentation over? Have consumers become savvy to scripted responses? Do we distrust the protective performances of career politicians? Perhaps we just want some answers?
Live Video brings this dilemma to the fore.
Scripted presentation ensures that the presenter of your Live Video stays on track, maintains their confidence, and delivers precisely the right message.
But it really depends upon your target demographic.
If you’re looking to engage with a younger audience, watch the influencer videos that they engage with.
Influencers
Influencer videos span from perfectly lit, pristinely scripted, beautifully shot videos to the semi-professional and the downright amateurish output of others.
And this isn’t a film-school assessment.
What we should be looking at is the number of followers they have: this is a direct reflection of the type of influence they hold.
And you’ll find that many of the more “DIY” vloggers are popular because they speak from the heart rather than from the script.
Live video is always a risk – something can go wrong, someone might say the wrong thing, and the audience could turn against you.
Being specific
But if you’re looking to engage with specific demographics, then Live video presents the low-cost, high-return way of reaching audiences and developing a marketing strategy.
According to HubSpot, over 80% of the people they surveyed claimed to have purchased a product or a service after watching a video.
Vertical video
Over 75% of the video viewed around the world is seen on a mobile phone, threatening redundancy with the traditional landscape aspect ratio of broadcast media.
Video filmed in portrait (or vertically) feels natural and more akin to Facetime/video calling when viewed on mobile screens. Video for Instagram is confined to the “Insta Square”.
Video recorded vertically goes against the norms of video production. But the viewing medium is changing, and that suggests that the way we produce video should change, and vertical video is the latest trend that CMOs should really consider. It’s the ratio of Live Video, after all.
In sum
It seems that video marketing trends in 2019 are suggesting a revolution: a challenge to the traditional marketing platforms, a significant turn to short-form, and democratization of video creation.
Speaking from the heart and offering personalized experiences seem to be the future – that seems to be the direction that the 2019 trends are suggesting.
Maybe the world isn’t quite ready for the honesty of the world of Reginald Perrin quite yet. But, perhaps, unscripted, live, and interactive is the way that martech shouldn’t ignore.
Eoin Dowdall is an award-winning Film Maker and Creative Director of Kartoffel Films, a video production agency based in London.
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