Why Is Video Marketing So Effective?

If you work in marketing, you’ve probably heard the statistics about video by now – 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service through video, and 84% of customers have been convinced to invest in a product or service after watching the brand’s video.

Those are some pretty compelling facts. But why is it that video is so successful? What makes video so much more likely to cause customer conversion than any other medium? And how can we use these reasons in our marketing efforts? It turns out there are some pretty fascinating answers.

One of the biggest reasons video is so successful is because they can tell an emotional story.

Stories are a powerful way for humans to connect. When we are being told a story, there are certain biological reactions that make us feel emotionally invested in the content, such as activity in the hippocampus area of the brain and the release of serotonin. Humans thrive off this emotional connection and it makes us more likely to remember the story.

In terms of marketing, this puts the viewer in peak susceptibility mode. Add to that the concept of suspended disbelief – the fact that the rules of our world don’t apply in stories – and video becomes the perfect way to sell your viewer a story of what your product or service can do for them.

What’s more, if a customer feels emotionally invested in their purchase decision, they are more likely to defend or recommend their decision to other people – ideal for word of mouth marketing!

Another great benefit of video is that it can be watched on our phones. This is great for marketing for a number of reasons.

We have access to our phones all the time, and use them constantly – research shows that most adults check their phones every 7 and a half minutes. That’s a lot of opportunity to get new consumer attention!

Because we use our phones so much for so many personal activities – sending meaningful messages to friends and family for example – we also place a huge amount of value in these devices. We see our mobile phones as being a part of who we are and a part of our personality.

This means that anything we see on our phone, we are more likely to value – and therefore more likely to pay a higher price for. If you see an video advert for a product on your phone, you’re much more likely to pay more for it than if you saw it on a billboard. In fact, some companies have successfully run campaigns in which they have charged more for the same item on mobile devices than on desktop!

The fact that we hold these mobile devices in our hands adds a tactile element to the viewing experience – consumers might feel like they can actually touch the product they can see on their screens. This can also been used by marketers – when creating video ads for mobile it’s beneficial to add product shots that have textured features, such as a fluffy cushion or a smooth desk surface.

Finally, and this might seem obvious to say, but one of the great pros of video is that it moves. Our eyes are naturally trained to pay attention to movement more than static imagery – a trait that probably dates back to being aware of threats or opportunities in our surrounding environment. This means video is much more likely to catch someone’s attention when they’re scrolling through their feed than static image content.

So it turns out there’s lots of innate reasons why video is so successful in the marketing industry. If you’ve found this interesting, most of the information for today’s post has come from the amazing knowledge of Jon Mowat’s book on video marketing, so be sure to check it out!