By Ayush Dev Pant

In the 21st century, stars are born through videos.

Today, people on the internet intensively communicate through moving visual images, whether it is sharing it with a friend or companies using it as a marketing tool. Videos are being shared at a rapid rate every single minute. Video does what text doesn’t. It creates an immediate, real and authentic route of interaction and connectivity with audience members, who can often provide reactions and comments in real time. That is one of the main reasons companies are shifting towards video marketing.

Whether it’s a startup or a business pioneer, video marketing has the power to influence the possible clients and retain the ones who know the brand already. By the end of 2019, online content will consist of 80 percent video marketing, and mobile consumption of video content continually rises by 100 percent annually. The average user spends 88% more time on a website with video. The conversion gap between a text and video is significantly large. People would rather watch a video than a text explaining the values of a company. Videos have the power to emotionally influence the audience and content alone has the potential to do that.

Video production can be expensive, especially when the priorities are inclined towards the video quality. Not everyone can afford it and that is where ‘content’ comes to the rescue. Impactful film makers believe and have proved that content is much more important than the technical quality of video and films. Storytelling is underrated yet an elite element of effective videos, especially for products and services. Storytelling has the power to influence and have an emotional alignment with the probable customers which ultimately aligns their priorities with yours in the world full of competition. 

Startups can use the combination of video marketing and social medias, as an effective tool to reach out to target audiences. Instagram, a leading photo sharing app introduced IGTV to add one hour “long form” video options to its platform in 2017. Social Medias are enhancing their video interface/features in order to create more video sharing and marketing avenues. It’s a no brainer that social media is the most effective and feasible platform to market products and services. Startups can capitalize their brand in this situation. Videos are generally judged according to their quality and content. If the startup has a social element to it’s product/company, the impact of the video is even better. Startups could follow a four-step model for effective video marketing. A Concrete Content, Feasible Resource Hunting (technical, human), Acquaintance/Stranger Reviews and Upload/Share Strategy! 

The first step is creating a concrete content. It is very important to keep the content simple. Content can be developed through research, brainstorming with colleagues/friends, video structure map and most importantly deep understanding of your own product and audiences. This will help in developing a storytelling model. The next step is to analyze the resources required to turn the plan into action. Not everyone have the finances to buy the tools for video production and this is where the people around us come to the rescue. They can lend us cameras, help to edit videos, be a part of the videos and provide technical help. Once the video is shot and edited it should go through a review process. The producers should be open to feedbacks and flexible towards the alteration of video elements. The video should be reviewed by acquaintance as well as strangers. This model will give diverse reviews of the video which can be used to enhance the video experience. Finally a flexible upload/sharing strategy. There are various platforms to upload videos. Instagram is on the rise and a lot of people are entering the app. However, consumers still rate Facebook and YouTube as the first and second best platforms for watching socials videos from brands. It is important to understand your target audience. If it’s a product for older generations (50+ Age), marketing a video on Instagram might not get you the desired conversion. A lot of people from that generation are on Facebook. This aspect should be addressed in the ‘concrete content’ itself. After the video is shared on the platforms, it could be boosted through minimal payment which can reach out to a lot of audiences. Also, 92 percent of videos viewed via mobile are shared compared to other modes of access. Companies can create more value out of their video content if it’s mobile friendly, especially websites as people land up on websites for proper engagement and purchases. 

According to a research, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text. The ultimate marketing strategy for a company or a game-changing solution to climate change is one video away. It’s all about the right content aimed towards the right people and that is the most challenging part. Video marketing is the present and the future, which will continue to rise despite the arrival of new generation in the market.