Did you know that video makes up 53 percent of all internet traffic? That’s a big number, and since *we don’t process big numbers all that well let us break that down a little. Netflix, that entertainment behemoth, accounts for 34.2 percent of that total.
That Netflix takes the crown is not that surprising, considering the content type. In second place, though, is YouTube with 13.2 percent. The world’s second largest search engine is the world’s second largest source of internet video traffic. In case you don’t yet see it, that’s a huge deal.
YouTube is second only to a major entertainment streaming service, which has a much more focused output targeting very specific demographics. Google’s offering, however, is very much a mixed bag with some of the most outlandish user created video seen anywhere in the world. And that’s a good thing.
This is all very interesting, but how does this help my business?
We all know by now that video attracts customers and helps website ranking, this information reinforces the fact that video is big business. Not only that, but it can be good for your business.
Try using video to promote your business, explain concepts or to introduce your business to the outside world. You will be communicating on a level that everyone understands. It is very difficult to ‘connect’ with piece of text, and if you are explaining something you are effectively alienating a portion of your audience.
You see, we all learn in different way. The majority, over 65%, of us are visual learners. By using video, accompanied with a regular article or transcript, we ensure that we reach the watchers and the readers.
The great thing about this kind of marketing is that we can either handle it ourselves if we feel confident enough, or hire a video production company to handle it for us. There is no hard and fast rule. There are lots of video editing software packages out there to help us and YouTube itself has some great little tools too.
A quick top 5
Why video marketing is a good idea:
1 Communication: We can’t always be face to face with a customer or prospect, but video is the next best thing to connect on a more personal level.
2 SEO: A Forrester report suggests that it is around 50 times easier to get a video on ‘page one’ of Google, than it is for a regular web page.
3 Attention: Video is an undeniable attention grabber, and once it has you it won’t let go.
4 Emotions are emotive: Well, yeah. But the point is that the emotion in a person’s voice has the ability to trigger that same emotion in the viewer – which is why excitable, happy ‘bubbly’ salespeople sell more.
5 Authority: If he said it, then it must be true! We immediately set ourselves apart as experts when we are explaining or introducing things via video on a professional website.
Video is the undeniable king of marketing, how you leverage that information is your choice but you would do well to keep marketing this way in mind.
Image: Flickr
