With the rise of social media and video-sharing platforms, video content continues to increase in popularity. Today even small businesses and individuals can create and share high-quality videos. According to a study, 91% of marketers are using video content in 2023. Video has an immersive quality that engages viewers on a deeper level. It is universally popular with marketers and audiences, helping to achieve a number of important goals.
Video marketing takes center stage: Trends and insights for 2023
Marketers are more optimistic about the ROI of videos than ever before. Video marketing helps them to succeed when it comes to KPIs, such as gaining traffic, leads, and sales.
A video-first approach: Businesses are increasingly adopting a video-first approach. Video is a central element of their marketing campaigns. TikTok is a video-first platform and its success has resulted in other platforms putting more focus on short-form videos. Instagram Reels and Facebook Reels are also short-form videos.
Top trending videos: Top trending videos include explainer videos, social media videos, and video testimonials. Many consumers watch explainer videos to learn more about a product and these can sway them into making a purchase.
Screencast tutorials, FAQ videos, customer story videos, educational video blogs and product videos are some other popular video types. Video uploads surge as users share creative content daily.
Short-form video content: TikTok was the fastest-growing social media platform (until Threads came in) with over a billion average monthly users. Gen Z adopted TikTok and form a large percentage of users on the platform. They value authenticity and are likely to support small businesses that talk their language and promote community. TikTok is beginning to gain traction across other age groups. There are many success stories about how businesses that use TikTok experience growth. Notable names such as Pepsi, DoorDash, Chipotle and Apple market on TikTok because they can market to a young demographic
Many small businesses are successful on the platform. California-based candy business Ya Boy Chamoy started as a hobby but took off after their videos started going viral on TikTok. The business has over a million followers. It makes and sells candy soaked in a secret Mexican chamoy sauce.
Gymshark is another company that adapts what’s trending on TikTok to their campaigns. They involve content creators and use popular hashtags and challenges.
By exploring TikTok, identifying popular trends, and finding ways to align with relatable videos, brands can create relevant and authentic content. The viral video nature of TikTok sets it apart. Even accounts with small followings can generate millions of views with a great video.
Live streaming: Streaming is likely to be one of the most popular video marketing trends in 2023. Most consumers have several live streaming apps installed on their mobile phones. Shoppable videos give buyers an interactive experience. They can purchase a product directly by simply pressing a button to ‘buy now’ when watching influencers live stream product reviews.
Video advertising: Businesses use video advertising to boost engagement on websites and in email campaigns. Advertisements appear pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll within the video player. TikTok has an advertising platform that enables brands to create branded hashtags, develop video effects, and run in-feed ads.
Engaging an audience through video: Power of visual storytelling
The art of storytelling plays a large role in brand recognition. Brand storytelling is creating a series of plot points to drive emotional connection between a brand and a target audience. According to Harvard Business Review, emotional connections help to drive brand loyalty.
Brand storytelling summarizes the history, mission, purpose, and values of a brand within a narrative structure. This helps to bring them to life. Studies find that consumers are much more likely to remember video details when they come in story form rather than facts and figures.
Company story videos and customer testimonials: Businesses can create company story videos to evoke emotion, create trust and introduce human interest. Social proof is a powerful way of attracting new customers. Inviting satisfied customers to give brief video testimonials makes them more personal. Squarespace uses Create your Own Space customer video stories with great success.
Video roadmap: It is not enough to create a few videos and expect success. Creating a video roadmap is essential. A video roadmap is basically a visual representation of a comprehensive video marketing strategy. Without a video roadmap of dates, priorities, what types of videos to use on which platform, etc. it is easy to lose momentum.
The right visual elements: A story makes a brand relatable but brands must .choose the right visual elements to make it work. Beautiful imagery, animation, graphics, overlays, sound effects, etc. can draw in viewers. The branding of videos is also important to give viewers a consistent, lasting impression.
Using Cincopa private video hosting platform can help brands to personalize their videos and make them more interactive with the video features they use. For example, they can brand the video player with their logo and brand colors. They can include interactive elements such as annotations, video chapters, and subtitles.
CTAs: Calls-to-action increase conversions on video. Cincopa gives users the opportunity to create fully customizable video CTA’s. Creating pre-roll or post-roll CTAs with custom links only takes a few easy steps. A CTA can take multiple shapes and forms to increase signups, demos, and sales.
Optimizing video content for multiple platforms: Reaching wider audiences
Brands that don’t organize and optimize their video content for multiple platforms are missing out. They must create various video formats/specs to reach wider audiences on different platforms. The demographic makeup of users on every platform is different. Brands should ideally vary tone, messaging, and format for different demographics and platforms.
Optimal video length: Videos for use on social media are the most widely created type of video today. On YouTube, longer-form videos work better than short-form ones. As mentioned, short-form videos work very well on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Instagram Reels and Facebook Reels offer a new way to create short, entertaining videos. Users can record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos. They can add audio, special effects, and music and use various creative tools. These short video clips can help to showcase a brand’s personality.
Closed captions and subtitles: These video features enhance the accessibility of videos. They allow viewers to engage even when they can’t listen to audio.
Autoplay and vertical videos: Leveraging autoplay features and vertical videos can be effective on mobile platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Videos start playing automatically as users scroll through their feeds. Vertical videos provide a better experience for mobile viewing.
High-quality display: Poor video quality will undermine brand credibility and detract from the brand message. The use of a content delivery network (CDN) such as found on Cincopa ensures that all users receive high-quality video. A network of widely distributed servers will serve content from the nearest server to the viewer.
Consistent brand messaging: Cross-channel marketing may require adjusting videos to suit multiple channels and platforms but brands must make sure that viewers still have a consistent brand experience.
Using a video hosting service like Cincopa can help brands to optimize their videos for different platforms and increase engagement. Viewers will consistently receive high-quality videos that adjust seamlessly to the screen size of their devices. They can add their logo and brand colors to video players to personalize the viewing experience.
Being able to embed videos on different website pages allows businesses to guide visitors through the marketing funnel and drive conversions by using the right video at the right time and in the right place. Entertaining fun short videos on TikTok could attract new customers while tutorials on YouTube could persuade them to make a purchase.
Video SEO: Enhancing visibility and rankings in 2023
Brands must optimize their videos for SEO. Titles, descriptions, captions, keywords, and thumbnails should all work together to enhance page ranking in search engines.
- Keyword research can play a role in the organic success of videos. To optimize video SEO it’s important to include keywords in every part of the metadata.
- A video thumbnail must stand out and give a good idea of the video content.
- Since search engine bots can’t watch videos, transcripts can help them to understand video content.
- Using playlists allows brands to feature multiple videos together. This encourages viewers to watch more videos. The longer they stay on a website, the more benefit it has for video SEO. Users can easily create video playlists using the Cincopa platform.
- Promoting video content across different platforms ensures that they keep getting traction. Video sharing on social media reaches wide audiences and creates backlinks that can improve video SEO.
Cincopa video SEO optimizes videos for search engines. When users upload a video, SEO is automatically generated. JSON-LD metadata contains the video title, description, and captions. All users need to do is copy and paste the standard Cincopa embed code into the website. The embed codes help speed up the loading time of web pages, another important factor for video SEO.
Measuring video marketing success
It is important for brands to understand how videos perform on different platforms and websites. They need to pay attention to view count and watch time to see how many people engage with their videos and how long they watch. Engagement metrics such as comments and video sharing reflect how much content resonates with viewers. Conversion and click-through rates indicate the impact of videos on driving actions like signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.
Cincopa has advanced analytics to measure viewer demographics, behavior, and engagement. Heatmaps provide a second-by-second analysis of viewer behavior.
Users can view detailed statistics for every video asset. Marketing teams can use these metrics to make informed decisions and optimize their video marketing campaigns.
Conclusion
Video marketing is the smartest way to market digitally in 2023 and beyond. It’s accessible, has built-in value, and is shareable. Personalized video content can have a real impact on an audience. Cincopa is a great platform for marketing teams to use if they want to personalize video content and collaborate using a centralized space. Cincopa’s video tools, video SEO, and analytics help videos perform better and lead to more conversions and sales.
