Video content in both marketing (and sales) is here, people. If you are eager for growth in your brand, keep reading.
Video is no longer the next big thing. That time, much like the great Fidget Spinner boom of 2017, has come and gone. If you’re in the waning percentage of industries or companies who still have not implemented video as a fundamental part of your content and brand strategy, you’re officially in catch-up mode.
Put simply, Video content is irresistible for two key reasons
There are two reasons we believe this monumental shift has taken place. Ironically, both of these are tied to the same concept: our evolution as a species.
One stems from our past and how we’re primitively programmed to connect with other humans. The other is directly correlated to our present and how our brains have been rewired over time regarding how we prefer to consume new information.
1: Human connection
Regardless of how advanced technology becomes and how that translates into our personal or professional lives, nothing will ever replace our innate desire to connect on a human-to-human level.
No email, texting/messaging or chatbot can possibly replicate the chemical reaction that happens when meeting another person face-to-face – or, at the very least, seeing who they are and actually conversing with them. Their tone of voice, demeanour, personality, sense of humour, warmth – all of that and more is powerfully tied to your first impression, trust, comfortability, and confidence gained in any new relationship.
Enter the magnetic appeal of video content and our intrinsic pursuit of what “used to be”.
Have you noticed the rampant outbreak of retro themes with entertainment and pop culture in recent years?
The countless live-action Disney film remakes, or the remakes that Hollywood is rattling off like Top Gun: Maverick, or the global obsession with Netflix’s golden child, Stranger Things? Large media companies have tapped into one of the strongest dopamine triggers humans have: nostalgia.
Anything that takes us back in time (almost always to a simpler and happier time) sparks immediate comfort and longing. It’s just how we’re wired. And while there’s abundant proof on the media side, this is also directly tied to why video has surged to the #1 form of in-demand content relating to branding and marketing.
It launches us back to an era where businesses and partnerships were built through handshakes and hellos.
Actually seeing the people you’d be working with. Watching them speak with emotion, personality and humour. You actually feel connected again. This biological yearning for that connection can never be replaced; at least not in our lifetime.
2: Our lack of patience
When was the last time you cursed out (in your head or under your breath) the WiFi or the rendering time of a website page you were looking at? Two hours ago? Two days, max?
When you share a Facebook post with your friends or family, how many of those posts include a video versus just written content? How much would you say that scale has tipped toward posts with videos in your last 1-2 years of sharing content?
Just look at meme accounts on Instagram, full of video content with millions of followers. Long are the days of photos being enough to engage.
We all want it now. Faster. Bigger. Better. Case and point in this stat:
→ “Pages that load within 2 seconds have an average bounce rate of 9%, while pages that take 5 seconds to load have a bounce rate of 38%.”
This is where the patience part of the engagement riddle gets solved. From your perspective as an active buyer, how would you prefer to learn about a company’s:
Products and services?
Value proposition?
Skills and expertise?
Team, history and culture?
Working process and support?
Success stories and testimonials?
Numerous pages of written website copy and downloadable content pieces you’ll most likely have to reread a few times — or — easy-to-digest videos where you can kick your feet up, listen, watch and learn all about a brand and the people you’re considering doing business with?