In 1941, the world watched the first TV commercial ever. More than 70 years later, with the booming of the internet and the social networks like Facebook, Youtube, Vine and others, the world witnessed a significant increase in video watching.

Due to this phenomenon, many businesses and web agencies in Lebanon and the world took advantage of this new opportunity by including online videos in their content marketing strategies. They were right to do so, and you should do the same.

Below are 5 reasons why online video marketing is the new to-do for any business willing to succeed online.

Youtube, a search engine not like any other

There’s no doubt that Google is the leading search engine in the world, without a serious contender. And in a totally different style, Youtube comes second. While Google has more than 100 billion searches per month worldwide, the video-based social network has more than a billion users who watch millions of hours of video. So with an optimized and interesting video, you can reach a huge number of viewers within days.

Another benefit of Youtube is the use of its online ads that can make any video be viewed by a specific target market. For example, if marketing for a music video, Youtube ads allow you to show it to users who are listening to the same style of music, and even songs for specific artists.

Finally, when a video is published on Youtube, it can be easily distributed on several other platforms in order to widen the reach.

Videos are also booming on Facebook

If Youtube is the second largest search engine, Facebook, with more than 1.65 billion users, is the biggest social network...ever! According to a study made in the end of 2015 by techcrunch, Facebook doubled its daily average video views from 4 billion to 8 billion in less than a year time. This enormous evolution created a rivalry between the social network and Youtube in video views.

In addition, according to Socialbakers, Facebook videos demonstrated to be the type of posts that is getting the most organic reach. Few years ago, due to an algorithm update, pages started depending on ads to reach more users, and without a media budget, it would become difficult for them to succeed. But here comes the videos.

Also, a media budget would be necessary to broaden the reach of your video campaign as Facebook ads proved to be an effective way to promote content in a targeted way.

Videos help people get connected and attached to a brand

It’s easier for humans to watch a video than read an article, as our brains process visuals faster than texts. In fact, a one-minute video is worth 1.8 million words. For this reason, memorizing a story told in a video is less complicated than one told in an article. This helps users remember the brand, the product or the service that is being marketed in a video, which keeps them connected.

Your competitors are doing it

The impact of videos is obviously known to everyone by now, as more and more businesses are trying to take the lead by producing such content. In fact, in the US, 87% of online marketers use video content, according to Hubspot. This shows that a big part of businesses started adding videos in their marketing strategy, and there’s is a high chance that your competitors are too, and are probably reaching and attracting your target audience.

Videos ROI

One of the most important points, and probably the biggest concern is the Return On Investment of videos. Many studies show that videos are the most effective type of content, and here are some stats from Hubspot to prove it:

Including a video on a landing page increases the conversion by 80%

According to Youtube, video consumption on mobile rises 100% every year

After watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to purchase a product

65% of decision-makers visit the marketer’s website and 39% call a vendor after viewing a video

In conclusion, using online video marketing to promote a brand, a product or a service is not a simple task to do, but is definitely worth doing. However, producing a video and paying to advertise it isn’t enough as the content is still king. Therefore, invest in coming up with a topic, developing and implementing it instead of wasting your time to create an unattractive video that won’t reach your objectives. So for a successful video campaign, collaborate with a web agency to plan and produce it.