Video Marketing Trends to Follow in 2018

Featured article by Angela Kurst

No doubt video content is one of the most popular on the Web and it’s been gaining, even more, popularity day by day. YouTube mobile app is the 2^nd to have the most unique visitors going after Facebook. Over half a billion people are watching videos on Facebook every day. So it’s not a surprise that marketers and business owners are trying hard to use video content for promotion.  According to Wyzowl statistics, 63% of businesses have started using video and treat it as an important part of their marketing strategy.

Here are the main reasons for that:

1. Video Increases Conversions and Sales. Adding a video to the description of your products might increase the conversion by almost 70-80%. The video is a multilingual thing. While a written description can be difficult for non-English-speaking visitors, a video is what they can easily understand.  Researches show that a consumer who has watched a video will likely buy the product.

2. Video Increases Google Ranking. A person who watches a video spends more time on your web-page than the one who reads an article. As you might know, this parameter is among the main ones Google take into consideration when ranking a particular website. Thus, the longer customers stay on your site, the higher your website position might be in search results.

3. Video Gives Good Return on Investment.  Of course, it takes time and funds to make a great video. Luckily, the quality of your video is not the main factor visitors pay attention to. So you may use a couple of affordable online or desktop tools to produce an awesome video. The main thing is whether it explains well how to use your product or service.

4. Video Brings Mobile Users. YouTube reports that a number of mobile video views grow by 100% every year.  Your potential customers enjoy videos on the go, in a queue, in a café. So if you make a responsive webpage with your video, it’ll definitely bring you more traffic.

5. Video Explains Everything. Instead of writing a huge how-to guide to explain to people how they should use your product, you can simply make a short animated video to show how it works. Besides that, a video is a must-have content for lazy users who don’t want to spend time on reading a product description or figuring out the way it should be used. People prefer to see a product in action. It’s an effective way to turn visitors into customers.

These are the main advantages of using a video in your marketing strategy. As you can see it brings a lot of positive aspects to almost any type of business whether it’s a flower shop or a housing agency.

Now let’s check what video trends can help you promote your business in 2018.

Trend  1. Video fitting any screen

As it has been already stated above, it’s important to make a webpage and a video that can be viewed on any device. You never know beforehand whether a customer will use Chrome, Firefox or IE or if a visitor will come from PC, tablet or smartphone to check your products. Thus, you should be prepared for everything. If you google for software that can help you do, you’ll find some great products to make your video content available to everyone.

Trend 2. Square videos

The square video has been rapidly growing in popularity. Facebook rates square videos better than horizontal ones, and they have more chances to appear in your followers’ News Feed.

Trend 3. Live videos

Facebook, Instagram, and other social networks now offer an option to create a live video. The Readers’ Digest Association, reported that 7% of agency and 19% of in-house marketers are planning to use live streaming video in their ad campaigns. According to the experts, people spend 3x more time watching live videos. You can stream an ongoing presentation of your new product or just show the situation where your potential customers might need it.

Trend 4. 30-seconds videos

According to the data collected by Kinetic Social, almost half of 30- to 60-second video ads on Facebook were viewed up to the end comparing to a short video (less than 30 sec) that were viewed to completion by only 26% of visitors.

Trend 5. Social posting

It’s not a completely new trend, but it will keep going in 2018. Your potential customers definitely spend a lot of time on social networks. Use hashtags to make them find your video and a call to action to make them share it. It’s not enough to simply upload a video to YouTube. Don’t forget about other options such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, video sharing web platforms, and so on.

Trend 6. Animated videos

Animated heroes are easy to understand and remember. Visitors might forget faces they have just seen in a video, but they’ll remember an animated character. Besides that, such video will require less effort and budget than a usual professional promo clip. Find here the best tools which will help create animated clips.

Trend 7. Amateur videos

Apart from the videos showing all the benefits of your products, it would be great to post background videos about your company. Tell a story about your colleagues; show your working process or team member birthday celebration. Such stories give you more trust since customers like to see the real people behind the product.

Trend 8. 360 videos

There are not too many 360 degree videos out there, but they have been gaining popularity. That’s still pretty unusual and thus gains traction. Besides that, a customer can take part in your video ad and get an unforgettable experience. Of course, there is a couple of drawbacks. First of all, it’s difficult to produce such a video. Secondly, nowadays only Facebook supports this video type. However, it seems to be a short issue. 2018 promises to bring more platforms with 360-degree videos support.

Trend 9. VR videos

VR is even rarer than 360-degree videos, especially VR clips with a customer as a character who can perform some simple tasks. You may add a VR video to a product page or your mobile app if you have one. In case you have a physical shop, you can create a video tour and let your customers see your goods. For clothes, you can make a virtual fitting room where the customers can upload a photo with their faces “try on” what they would like to buy.

If possible, let customers create their personal VR videos and share them with you either right on a website or via social channels. Of course, you should not turn your whole website into a virtual reality field, yet consider adding a few VR videos to make visitors remember you.

These are the main video trends you should follow in 2018 to bring your products to the world. Hope they will help you get the most out of your promotional campaigns. Share your experience and ideas about future video trends in comments below.

Angela Kurst is a marketer and media buyer at Musbyte Ads Ltd. She loves everything new and geeky. You may contact Angela via email.