Top Video Marketing Trends to Watch Out For in 2021
2020 has been a huge year for video marketing. With people spending more time than ever at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, the public has been consuming video content on an unprecedented scale. This growth in consumption means more opportunities for video marketers.
These YouTube statistics act as a case study, illustrating just how powerful the video marketing segment has become. In 2020, the sharing platform reached an incredible 2 billion logged-in monthly users.
With each visit to YouTube, a user looks at 6.5 pages on average. Based on these incredible engagement stats, YouTube stands to make 5.5 billion dollars in advertising revenue in 2020 alone.
However, it’s not just YouTube where video marketing has expanded. The same trend is seen across social media platforms, from Facebook to TikTok, as well as in conventional TV and gaming platforms.
With the demand for video content on an ever-increasing trajectory, marketers cannot ignore its relevance heading into 2021.
Explained below are some of the top video marketing trends to look out for when considering new marketing campaigns in the coming year.
Vertical Video
With more video content than ever being viewed on mobile devices, one of the fastest-growing trends is the demand for vertically orientated content. One of the driving forces for the establishment of this trend is the popular ‘stories’ concept.
Almost all social media platforms now offer this in one form or another. For example, out of over 1 billion active monthly Instagram users, more than 500 million use stories daily.
These stories are a rolling collection of videos from the people users follow, they often cover their day-to-day lives using images, videos and Gifs. The stories are normally viewed on a mobile phone in a vertical format. Reaching people through these story-sharing videos is a huge opportunity for marketers.
Just as landlines have been superseded by the versatility of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, so has the versatility of mobile come to dominate the way we view video content. This is why VoIP for business is now the default method of communication and mobile is the first channel video marketers optimize for.
Google Search Video
Source: @solenfeyissa, Unsplash
Recently, Google search has started to put out a few relevant videos (if applicable) at the top of their page listings when a user searches for something using their service. This is to provide the user with the result that Google thinks they want in the quickest possible fashion, based on reliable data analyzed by their data quality software.
It’s also in part because Google owns YouTube and has favored an integrated search to assist both companies’ engagement statistics. The takeaway for marketers here is that your content is more likely to appear at the top of the page if you can create video content with the right keywords.
You can do this by adapting your existing content, such as blogs and webinars, into video or by creating fresh content specially designed to garner exposure in this way.
Live Video Streaming
Source: @nate_dumlao, Unsplash
Once the go-to choice for gamers on YouTube and hard-line global news broadcasters, live streaming has now expanded into all corners of online video creation. Creatives and marketers use live streaming on a huge variety of platforms, from Instagram to Twitch. It’s utilized to present everything from yoga tutorials to fashion events.
There are several advantages for marketers when using live video streaming. These include a live chat function that allows your audience to directly interact with both your content and each other in real-time. Another advantage is that live video lends a greater sense of urgency that recorded content cannot match.
Live streaming, however, is not without its vulnerabilities and is perhaps one of the riskiest marketing strategies given the number of uncontrolled variables inherent in live delivery.
These include legal liabilities that can be a concern when filming in a public area. Like making sure you have a TCPA compliant dialer when marketing through your telemarketing arm, you must make sure when creating live video content that you don’t leave yourself open to legal threats such as libel or infringing on anyone’s right to publicity.
Video Content with ‘Hotspots’
Hotspot videos are a clever way of increasing customer engagement with your content. They work by creating clickable hotspots on your videos that contain supplementary content.
For example, if you have an advertisement for a running shoe which is a video of a person talking about the advantages of that shoe, you can add a hotspot that takes them directly to the eCommerce site where they can be purchased.
Social media is also a brilliant element to tie in with the use of a hotspot, especially if you’re looking to direct potential consumers to a certain social media page with a much wider collection of content designed at selling your product or service.
In summary, hotspots are a more efficient way of sending your customers straight from your content to a place of conversion. It’s similar to how a call center might use inbound contact center software to direct calls to the right service without going through an intermediary.
Less Production
Source: @aaronweiss, Unsplash
Video production these days is not the preserve of video techs and producers. Instead, it has been delivered into everyone’s control via the ubiquitous ownership of the mobile smartphone. Because of this, a great deal of the current video content online is shot in an amateurish style with little production polish put in post.
The current trend (and one set to continue into next year) are videos that are short, entertaining, and not overly edited or stylized. This, as already mentioned, stems from the prevalence of mobile video captures but also from the rise of videos on social media, which focus on simple messages delivered in entertaining ways.
To make your video marketing (especially your mobile marketing strategy) seem more relevant to the zeitgeist and more appealing to a growing online audience, marketers should look to emulate this style of video.
These shorter videos are also easier to produce and in these times of relentlessly refreshed news feeds, more adapted to the fast pace of social media content delivery.
Short and Hybrid Video Ads
Marketers and consumers alike are familiar with YouTube’s skip feature on the advertisements that interrupt videos on its platform. For marketers, this is a pain, as they may have worked very hard on creating an amazing 2-minute advert, only for it to be dismissed after the first five seconds.
Marketers have now started to get wise to this format, however, and have created a few strategies to combat its disrupting influence. One of these is to pay YouTube to have non-skippable adverts. However, this can prove a weighty cost, which smaller businesses will not be able to justify.
Alternatively, marketers have created hybrid video ads. These are videos that condense the main message they wish to convey into those first five seconds, but also (if left playing) provide more depth. Short five-second videos are also a good strategy to get around this and require less effort to load even during high traffic times.
From the point of view of various marketing agencies, using these videos means they have got their core message across whether users choose to skip the advert or not. Creating five-second adverts, however, is not an easy feat and requires videos to be impactful, memorable, and informative, as well as incredibly brief.
Video Optimization
Source: @devano23, Unsplash
The diverse number of ways that people can now view video content means that marketers must put much more effort into understanding how their content performs on different channels. It’s no longer possible to make one clip and expect it to do well everywhere.
Marketers in 2021 will need to think about how their content looks on a tablet, iPhone, Android, and TV, as well as laptops and desktops. Then there are all the different social media platforms, video-sharing platforms, and websites.
Each channel has its own screen optimization, volume control, available links, and level of interactivity. What works for a desktop may look crowded and unclear on a mobile device.
Finally, like picking the right cloud-based call center software when setting up your telecoms marketing, you must make sure that the software you choose to create your video content for these channels is suitable for your multifaceted needs.
Final Thoughts
Source: @wbayreuther, Unsplash
Video content in 2021 will play a vital role in a businesses’ marketing strategy, and one that is only likely to increase in significance. Employing a few of these methods should help your business to stay ahead of this marketing trend and make sure that you reap the richest of rewards from your video content. Using an intuitive video maker can also help spend less time creating professional-level videos that’s also more cost-effective.
Tracking the effectiveness of your campaign will involve the ability to measure the success of your display ad campaign as well as monitor several KPIs that show the progression of your campaigns. Understanding the effectiveness of each should inform how you can improve on them in the future.
