Antiquated advertising methods such as TV and billboards are as outdated and ineffective to Gen Z as radio and print media is to millennials.  How can marketers reach this generation of consumers that now make up 40% of the marketplace? The answer is video content via social channels. 

With the average Gen Z consumer engaging in a staggering 3.4 hours of video content a day, as of 2019 (and this number is only rising). Surpassing all other audience engagement rates. Social media is not a way to pass the time but a place they actively pay attention to. 

For brands hoping to optimise marketing strategies there is no better way to seize the consumers of today and tomorrow.  

It isn’t hard to see now that every company seems to have taken a political or humanitarian stance, we have ‘Gillet’ focusing on the issues of toxic masculinity, ‘Ben and Jerry’s’ serving up campaign after campaign revolving around social justice, ‘Always’ pinpointing the female empowerment movement most popular among Gen Z, and so on and so on. But why? This is all an effort to present an image that they are with you. No different from one of your hundreds of other friends online that you have not met. This strategy is most prevalent in video marketing because it’s most effective here.

Video is the shortest, most to the point, ideal way of cultivating and managing a positive connection with consumers, earning their trust and customer loyalty. With 90% of users specifying that videos help educate and inform their decision process. 

This positive connection through video marketing can be the difference between a boost in sales resulting from a viral marketing campaign even outside of the video format. Or an indifferent response that have left so many traditional marketers mislabelling Gen Z as a tricky to reach audience. 

Most effectively, this is done through integrating both entertaining content with brand messages. In order to build an emotional connection that has a direct impact on customer retention figures.

Humans are hardwired to look for faces and pay attention when one is presented in front of you, no doubt this is why paying attention has been so hard so far! According to the ever-reliable HubSpot, allocating video content on a landing page can increase conversions by 80%. Especially when that video is paired with a compelling presenter or storytelling. Communicating the suitable emotion through video testimonials or tutorials can be as compelling as a good friend endorsing a product.

It’s easy to look at the facts and see the astonishing effects of video marketing; so that’s what we’ll do. Research compiled by HubSpot unveiled that 88% of video marketers reported a positive ROI from video marketing campaigns. A marked increase of 5% from the previous year.  This on its own being a far cry from research in 2015 pointing out that approximately only 33% of marketers gained a successful ROI from video marketing.  

The notion that video content is something for the future, is a notion one simply cannot afford to carry into the coming fiscal year. These levels of ROI will only rise as the number of companies venturing into video content to deliver them targeted audiences rises also. It is not often one can say that with each passing second video marketing content is made, the process becomes more fine-tuned and optimized. 

Using storytelling methods of emotional manipulation such as humour (‘Dollar Shave Club’ being a great example of implementing humour through a product) or gut-wrenching emotional tales (the viral videos of ‘Met Life’ insurance company for one) are a sure-fire way to ensure a video has the ‘shareability’ factor that is so vital in the creation of a viral moment in this viral economy. Exhibited through the fact that 92% of mobile video consumers share videos on a regular basis with friends and often thousands of followers in a chain reaction.

But this isn’t the moment to panic at the prospect of creating a capturing deep story within a short video. It is an exciting opportunity to display what sets your company apart. This isn’t a tactic only employable by big brands. Everyone has the opportunity to get across the personality of their business through video, from short attention grabbing Tik Tok dances to using livestreaming across, Instagram to provide testimonials, the avenues are endless. 

Reposting from:

https://www.dontpaniclondon.com/social-media-video-content-importance/

https://www.precisionmarketinggroup.com/blog/5-benefits-of-video-marketing