In 2021, brands no longer coast along by only focusing on blog content and photos – video marketing is essential to any digital business. And recent reports and statistics back this up. Let’s take a look.

54% of consumers want to see more video content from the brands they support (HubSpot, 2018)

Video is the dominant form of entertainment, and this goes beyond watching content purely for fun. People want to see video content from the brands they support.

87% of professional marketers use video as a marketing tool (Wyzowl, 2019)

The use of video in marketing has been growing rapidly in recent years, and today it’s considered a vital part of any excellent marketing strategy. Companies that choose not to engage with video marketing risk being left behind as their competitors’ storm ahead.

6/10 people would rather watch videos online than watch TV (Google)

It should come as no surprise that online content is rapidly outpacing TV in engagement and viewership. Platforms like YouTube and TikTok and the growth of ‘going live’ on social media have led to a user-created content craze. People today are using their mobile devices more than ever, clocking up impressive (or alarming) screen time hours.

75% of all video plays are on mobile devices (eMarketer)

Leading on from the last point, video marketing is an excellent tool because it allows businesses to access users wherever they are and whatever they’re doing. Additionally, it’s much easier to convince someone to give up 1-5 minutes of their time for a video than to do the same for a blog post. Most of us don’t want to start reading a blog post unless we can be sure we have the time to finish it. Most blog posts don’t advertise how long it will take to read the content, and even if they do, users often don’t have a high degree of trust in the number. Reading times can differ dramatically between users. But with a video, you know exactly what you’re getting.           

5 Things You Can Do To Measure The Success Of Your Video Marketing Efforts

So, you understand the importance of video marketing, and you’re ready to push your video-marketing efforts to the next level. But how will you know if your strategy is a success? Here are our tips for 5 things you can do to measure your success.

1.  Play Rate

Put simply, the play rate is the number of times the video was played divided by the number of views generated. Most marketing videos have auto-play features, so the play rate will tell you how many users continued to watch the video after the first few seconds of autoplay. If your video doesn’t have auto-play features, you can still track the play rate. In this situation, the play rate would be how many page visitors actively click on the video to watch it.

Your play rate can tell you two things:

• How attractive or appealing your video is (do people want to click on it?).
• How relevant the video is. If the content surrounding your videos, like web elements or a blog post, is irrelevant, users won’t listen to the video for long. The goal of any marketing content is to create highly engaging and relevant content that resonates with users.

It’s a good idea to start tracking your play rate straight away. This way, you can compare the play rates for different videos on different pages and determine which ones have higher success (play-through) rates. Once you know what works, you can apply that to your future videos. If you’re looking for some tips to improve your play rate today, then we have you covered.

Easy Ways to Improve Your Play Rate

The Thumbnail is Everything

The thumbnail of the video will be the primary deciding factor in whether the user chooses to play the video or simply move on with their life. You have to get it right! Here’s what you should focus on for an attractive thumbnail:

• High resolution – It’s 2021, and there’s no excuse for grainy photography.
• Well-framed.
• High contrast and bright – users respond to vivid and distinct colors.
• Reminiscent of your brand – Don’t bait and switch. Your thumbnail should be cohesive with your brand.
• Accurate – Same as above. Don’t click-bait or misrepresent what the content inside the video is telling.

Excellent Copy Around the Video

Your video will need a title, description, tags, and sometimes, a short accompanying blog post. Ensure that all English is grammatically correct, and there are no misspellings. If you can, keep the title short and snappy. Remember, you’re also writing a video description, and this is where you can go into more detail and let your concept shine.

Size or Position on the Page

Where you place your video can be just as important as the content itself. If the video is placed awkwardly on the screen, it can throw off the site’s whole look and erode trust and authority in your brand. Ideally, your video should be placed on the most eye-catching part of the page, usually close to the top. It should be the main focal point.

2.  Likes, Shares, Comments, and Reactions

Engagement metrics like likes, shares, comments, and reactions (emojis) can tell you how emotionally engaging your video is. When a video says something that resonates with us for whatever reason, we feel compelled to react. We might leave a comment to add to the discussion or tag friends who will get something from viewing the content.

Here are some tips on boosting these social metrics:

Tell a Story With Your Video

People like following a narrative. If your video is full of stats, trends, and science-speak, users will only remember the content briefly and might not feel compelled to share it around. However, we see these facts shaped around a funny, inspiring, or even sad anecdote; it helps bring the content to life. Here are some ways to tell a story:

• Show your expertise and authority – You can share customer success stories to drive home how your product helps fix consumer problems. You can also create longer deep-dive videos on current and important topics shaping your industry.
• Show a process – For example, how to use your product. You can also do fun and creative how-tos where you do tutorials on how to use your product in ways it isn’t typically used. Your customers might feel inspired to try out something new!
• Be inspirational – Inspirational content performs very well online if you know how to do it right. The key is to be concise and specific in your wording and not get too sentimental and over-the-top. Sometimes an inspiring story can help humanize your brand and allow you to show off your core values. Core values can be a great marketing asset.
• Be personal – In 2021, consumers want to see the real faces behind the brand. They want to get to know you and get a feel for what your company is really about and what it stands for. Let them into your world by creating videos featuring your colleagues, employees, and the office environment.

Other Tips:

• Encourage users to share, comment, or like at the end of the video.
• To increase the number of comments, you can ask a question at the end of the video like “so, what time of day do you use X product the most?” or “what’s your favorite ice cream flavor?”. The question can be anything, as long as it’s relevant to the video.
• Write a good video description. Remember, if and when viewers share your video with their friends, these friends will likely read the description before playing the video to see if it’s worth their time.

3.  Click-Through Rate

The click-through rate for marketing videos is a measure of how many users complete the call to action communicated in the content. You can calculate the CTR by dividing the number of clicks (actions taken) by the number of views. 

All marketing videos should feature a Call to Action (CTA). You want your viewers to complete an action after watching the content to drive more leads and, eventually, sales. Here are some examples of CTAs you can use:

• Signing up for the newsletter.
• Clicking on another video.
• Asking a question (generating answers in the form of comments).
• Forms
• Votes and polls (drives engagement).
• Entering competitions and giveaways.
• Free trials – Encourage more users to see how your product or service can add value to their life or fix their problems.

If the user can complete the action within the video window, then this is the best option. However, if the user has to complete actions outside of the video element, the key is to make it easy to do and visually striking. A button is a good example of this.

It’s important to pay attention to where you video is being posted. If you only plan to host the video on your website, then you have much more freedom on how interactive your video is. However, if you also plan to share it on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, you won’t be able to incorporate some features, like forms. Make sure that you don’t say anything in the video that is confusing or misleading for viewers and adapt the content for different platforms.

4.  Watch Time

This is the total amount of time that viewers have spent watching your video content. Watch-time is a great metric because it can tell you at what point users dropped off and stopped watching. This can help you determine why you lost that viewer. Did it happen when the content transitioned into a new section? What about that section was different? It can also help you determine whether your content is the right length. Users often click off a video in the last quarter, believing they have gotten everything they can from the video. If your CTA is at the end of the video, this can harm your conversion rates.

5.  Audience Metrics

On some platforms, like Facebook and YouTube, you will be able to see a breakdown of audience statistics. This can tell you things like what age range most of your viewers are in, what countries they come from, their gender, the devices they use, and more. Armed with these stats, you can focus more deliberately on creating content that aligns with these buyer segments and drive even better levels of engagement.