Online video now makes up an increasingly chunky slice of the overall brand marketing pie. Last year, Brafton reported that 64% of marketers said that video content would “dominate” their strategies moving forward.
It’s interesting, then, to focus now on how consumers react to video – and a new survey indicates that video has a significantly positive impact.
Video plays key role in online sales
The killer takeaway from a new piece of research is that 73% of people are more likely to buy a product or sign up for a service if they watch a branded video that explains the product. Note the importance here of video content that offers something useful around a product or service, as opposed to a hastily repurposed ad.
The impact of video beyond sales
But while the topline impact on sales is very striking, the findings of the report by online video creation site Animoto don’t end there. It would seem that video also plays a key role in consumers’ further research into the brand. Then, it also influences comparison shopping and post-purchase behaviour.
Of 1,000 respondents to the survey, almost all (96%) said that they find video content useful when making purchase decisions online. Striking metrics also surfaced regarding using video content for comparison shopping – with 93% of respondents confirming they use content in this way.
In terms of delving deeper into a brand’s product or service, some 87% find corporate video useful for this sort of research, while 93% cite video as key for post-purchase instructions and guidelines.
Overall, the findings suggest that video plays a crucial role throughout the customer lifecycle – and while the sample is relatively small, the results are striking enough to suggest the importance of branded video to guide and inform people.
What sort of corporate video works best?
Business shouldn’t necessarily be deterred from video marketing by resource concerns. Video needn’t be epic in length or production values to make an impact. In fact, 83% of respondents to this survey feel that five minutes or less is the idea length for corporate video production. It would be useful now to conduct further research into different video lengths to ascertain peak effectiveness.
In terms of sector, it seems that business video content is welcomed by consumers across the board, with a particular wish for electronics (57%), restaurant reviews (39%), travel (34%) and exercise/fitness content (33%).
In terms of type of online video, nearly half (42%) of people are keen for more descriptive or demonstrative content such as 360-views of a product. Having recently sought out information on a new housing development, I was struck by the lack of video used on an otherwise flashy site. A 360-degree view of the properties coming up for sale would surely have piqued buyer interest far more than a static artist’s impression.
What makes people share video?
With video now prevalent in the average consumer’s daily life, across desktop and smartphone users, brands have to work that bit harder to grab attention.
The good news is that people are actually willing to share good quality video. Adding a share button obviously facilitates this, but more important is the usefulness of the content. 89% of respondents to Animoto’s survey will share video if they consider it educational, while incentives such as a promotion or discount will entice 86% of viewers to share. And don’t dismiss the fact that consumers are, above all, human. Funny content encourages 94% of people to click share, while 91% feel compelled to share heartwarming content.
To find out more about the Animoto survey on consumer perceptions of video marketing, view the full infographic.
