Video marketing may have once played a small role on the digital marketing stage, but the ROI it delivers to marketers has moved it closer to the spotlight. Research shows that 88% of video marketers report that video gives them a positive ROI — a 5% increase from 2019, and a 33% increase from the poll in 2015.
While these results can be attributed in part to the growing consumption of video content, it’s also a matter of how businesses are using video to drive demand around their products/services. Gone are the days where videos were simply uploaded to a company’s website or YouTube channel. Now, businesses are embracing the value of leveraging video content across multiple platforms while optimizing their presence on traditional mediums to boost demand generation.
Consider these three ways to give video a leading role in your demand generation strategy.
Scrolling through your Facebook feed for a few minutes, chances are you’ll come across a few ads — some of which include static images and others that include videos. Which ones tend to engage you more? If you said the video ads, you’re with the majority of consumers. In a HubSpot test, video ads earned 20% more clicks than their static counterparts.
Beyond the movement of video ads that naturally appeals to the eye, their dynamic format also provides more opportunities to educate your audience. Whereas a single static image can leave little room to explain the benefits of your product/service, a video offers additional real estate to expand upon these elements. The more informed individuals are, the more likely they are to act.
While we’ve used the example of Facebook in this case, video ads can also be run across other social media networks as well. Take Instagram, for instance, where video ads make up more than half of all ads run on the platform. As shown in the example below for Lemonade — a provider of renter’s insurance — subtle movements and the right framework can help amplify the message of the ad in a creative and effective manner.
Of the estimated 2 trillion search queries performed on Google every year, half are four words or longer. This shift toward long-tail keyword searches reflects the need to think about your audience not just in terms of keywords, but also the specific questions they have. In the case of a landscape design firm, to name an example, potential customers are less likely to search for “outdoor kitchen” and instead search for phrases like “outdoor kitchen ideas for small spaces” or “does an outdoor kitchen add value to a home.”
While blog posts are the perfect forum for delivering answers to these types of questions, the integration of video maximizes your ROI. For one, Google favors website pages that include video. Along with boosting organic traffic from SERPs by an estimated 157%, adding videos to blog posts increases the likelihood of earning quality backlinks that improve your SEO rankings.
Another consideration is how video helps readers digest blog content. Statistics show that people tend to retain more of a message when they watch a video versus read an article. Combining these two elements in a single blog post increases the odds that your message will stick with the reader and by extension, that they’ll also remember your brand.
When Google crawls a video uploaded to YouTube, it’s extracting information from the video and the framework that surrounds it. In this sense, YouTube functions much like a blog does. Just as you would write a blog to rank for long-tail keywords, your video scripts should include targeted keywords that relate to your products/services. When transcribed, these scripts can help Google better understand the meaning of your video and with that, give it more relevant exposure in search results.
To illustrate this, we’ll use an example of a video recently added to the Kuno YouTube channel. As part of a series of videos designed to answer questions we often hear from clients, the focus here was “How to Save Time and Money Generating Leads.” The closed captions reiterate the keywords heard in the audio — target leads, demand generation strategies, paid ad dollars. While Google can crawl this text to help understand and properly index the video content, having captions also increases the accessibility of your content, naturally expanding its reach.
The description for your YouTube video is also an important part of this conversation. Like closed captions, descriptions can be optimized to rank for relevant keywords while providing room to expand on messaging from the video and point to relevant links on your website. Tip: YouTube algorithms put more weight on keywords that are included in the first 2-3 sentences of your video description, so try to lead with those that are most relevant.
While on the topic of optimized YouTube descriptions, it’s worth mentioning the key moments feature. With this feature, content creators can add timestamps to videos and link to them from the YouTube description, making it easier for viewers to scan videos and find information. As the SEO value of the video improves, so do the chances of it being found in relevant search results.
The most effective demand generation programs are the ones that span across multiple marketing departments. Amid the consumers’ requests for more video content and the value that search engines place on this type of content, the video marketing department should have an integral role in planning and executing demand generation initiatives. Together, the video team can collaborate with other marketing departments within your business or at an agency to develop a demand generation program that helps your brand get found and earn qualified leads.
