The Future of Video Marketing: New Trends & Insights

Today’s consumer is more connected than every before. With the continuing innovations in mobile, social and marketing automation, customers continue to expect individualized attention and communication.

With this pivotal shift, it’s no surprise that video has become the medium of choice for this ultra connected consumer. Video is not only preferred for peer-to-peer broadcasts, but also brand-to-customer communications in both B2C and B2B markets. The real reason why you see many marketers incorporate video in to their strategy is because its memorable, persuasive, and search engines absolutely love it.

Just take Facebook’s word for it. The world’s most powerful social network introduced brand new features specifically to encourage users to share more video on news feeds recently at its F8 Conference this year. In the next several months, the value of branded video content will increase dramatically, and here are several ways video will change the future of marketing:

Video communicates all types of marketing messages.

Many marketers still believe that flashy video only accomplishes one thing: telling a brand’s story. However, in recent years, the most successful brands have expanded on that notion to include video throughout all stages of the customer journey, not just the beginning. Video can educate and convert customers, bring light to customer pain points with testimonial videos, and provide personalized product demos. No matter your marketing message, video can play a starring role in placing your brand in front of your target audience. We have found that the most effective video types are customer testimonials, product demonstrations, explainer or video tutorials, case studies and webinars. 

Video is the next best thing to in-person selling.

Successful salespeople persuade the customer to think differently and offer to educate them. While white papers, presentations, and guides can accomplish this, nothing quite beats video. In B2B markets, salespeople are already using video technology to record personalized greetings and messages on smartphones and webcams. Many salespeople are also utilize video testimonials to not tell but show other clients that their products and services are worth consideration.

A big trend we are seeing is the rise of “micro demo video” libraries to boost efficiency and effectiveness with product demos and product training. By creating a series a short videos on various topics, salespeople are more free to accomplish other tasks than spend a number of hours per week presenting live product demos to prospective customers.

Video becomes interactive, and therefore, more customizable.

This year, we expect to see not only more videos on social media, but videos that encourage interaction from users. With recent advancements, marketers can attach additional touch points while users are watching the video; this includes questionnaires, surveys, and forms to help generate leads. The same technology is expected to create a more individualized experience for the viewer. These “choose your own adventure” videos will lead customers to select their own content journey and address individual needs within one single video, greatly increase content relevance and engagement.

Video will be (really) personalized.

Currently, marketers have the opportunity to include personalization in a number of marketing mediums such as email, social media, content marketing, but in the near future, we will  see an increase in video personalization that allows marketers to customize a video to each individual viewer. Imagine seeing your name in a video or video advertisement. In 2015, personalized video campaigns generated 200% to 1500% increase in click-through conversion rates, and that will certainly continue into 2016.

Multi-channel video content distribution will be a critical.

With the rise of native video content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube will not be the sole source for video entertainment and playback. Likely, YouTube will only play one role for many brands, and that is to host their ever-expanding libraries of video content.

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn will be the important channels for video syndication for brands in all industries. This year, we will see a rise in video content syndication that goes beyond YouTube to other sources, allowing everyone from anywhere to search and watch videos.