Video Marketing for SMEs
The most challenging obstacle to success, even for companies who today have successful video marketing programmes, was the lack of an effective strategy when they first started.
Video Marketing Strategy: Most Important Objectives
The most important objectives for companies with successful video marketing strategies, up until recently, were to improve customer education, increase their brand awareness and increase online engagement. Video can now increase traffic to a website, generated leads, & sales revenue; but fewer marketers are focusing on these objectives for their videos. Marketers are provided with a strong opportunity to use the video consumption data to help qualify & nurture leads with content based on the received data.
What are the MOST CHALLENGING OBSTACLES to video marketing success?
Reason % of respondents to question:
Lack of an effective strategy 44%
Inadequate video budget 41%
Lack of compelling content 40%
Lack of production resources 39%
Lack performance metrics 30%
Inadequate video distribution 25%
Limited organisational buy-in 17%
Inadequate video SEO 14%
Video Marketing: Most Challenging Obstacles
The most challenging obstacles to video marketing success were the lack of an effective strategy and an inadequate video budget. But without the organisational buy-in and commitment from leaders which is required to provide the sufficient funding, even the most effective strategy will still fail. It is essential to have the buy in from the whole team and this is an area that we at Take One are experienced in negotiating with clients. Creating a good video is often a great catalyst to improving staff morale and building better teams within a business as they learn more about each other.
A common hurdle for marketers is video strategy. This is because video is most often kept in its own component in the marketing department. The real value of video can be demonstrated when it is used together with other marketing activities and is integrated with the marketers’ overall strategies, this is now beginning to be discovered by marketers and they are also feeling less threatened by what is consider a ‘new’ media.
The other major hurdle is the lack of budget, which may be false or a misinterpreted obstacle. A lot of great videos have been made with little or no budget using a consumer-grade camera, actors from in-house and editing programs already installed on the computer. If the customer education, brand awareness and online engagement objectives can be moved to website traffic, lead generation and sales revenue objectives, a bigger slice of the marketing budget can be gained. On the other hand, there is always budget, it’s simply being spent elsewhere; so the key question is what isn’t working well at the moment that could be put towards something, such as video, that will work more effectively?
Video Marketing Budget: What is Changing?
According to a Video Marketing Strategy survey, 71% of companies who have a successful video marketing strategy are planning to increase the budget for their video marketing. 5% are planning to decrease the budgets and 24% believe their budget is sufficient enough to be able to achieve their budgets and have no plans to change it. if such a large percentage of companies are increasing their budgets, the budget hurdle mentioned above may be decreasing.
How is Video Marketing Effectiveness Changing?
Video marketing effectiveness is increasing for 91% of companies according to the same survey mentioned above, more than half of companies are saying that he increase will be significant. The change in effectiveness is more significant compared to other marketing tactics and can reflect the growing rate of video marketing adoption.
Marketers see video effectiveness climb as they learn more about a video being able to generate more traffic, leads and sales. Advertisers, in contrast to marketers, are focused on a video’s ability to get Target Rating Points (TRPs) and are measuring outputs not outcomes.
What is the Most Effective Type of Video Content?
More than half of the companies that have a successful video marketing strategy opt for customer testimonials, demonstration videos, explainer or tutorial videos and FAQs.
Customer testimonials being seen as the most effective is not surprising, as it was the most savvy way to provide the social proof that drives results outside of the video marketing. Customer testimonials are twice as effective as case studies, this displays the difference between a company telling their own story & the customers telling the story for the company - although we have done some very successful case studies for clients where we've allowed the customer to still tell the story.
What are the MOST EFFECTIVE types of video content used?
Video Content % of companies who use them
Customer testimonials 52%
Demonstration videos 51%
Explainer/tutorial videos 51%
Thought leader interviews 36%
Project reviews/case studies 26%
Webinar videos 20%
Vlogs/video blogs 15%
Event videos 13%
What are the Most Difficult Types of Video Content to Create?
Due to the degree of difficulty that comes with creating video content, it is challenging for many companies. Customer testimonials, followed by project reviews and case studies are the most difficult in terms of content for companies with successful video marketing strategies to create.
Although customer Testimonials are the most difficult to create they are also the most effective, so are worth creating. The actual difficulty lies in getting customers to agree to talk on camera, giving them the right of review and then getting a big customer’s legal department to approve what one of their executives has already said. It is important to allow the customer opportunity to review material but do make it clear that it for technical accuracy rather than for creative comment; the creator of the programme should always remain in charge of what goes in or out on the final cut, and how it is displayed. So long as the customer isn’t being mispresented technically nor made to look inappropriate the rest is for the creator to decide!
Demonstration videos seem to be considered the easiest to create, but are ranked as the second most effective. Demo videos can be a great opportunity for marketers while waiting for the customer’s legal department to review a video that is a couple of minutes long.
What are the MOST DIFFICULT types of video content to create?
Video Content Percentage of companies who find it difficult
Customer Testimonials 43%
Project reviews/case studies 40%
Explainer/tutorial videos 31%
Though leader interviews 30%
Demonstration videos 26%
Event videos 21%
Webinar videos 18%
Vlogs/Video blogs 14%
What are the Most Effective Resources for Video Content Creation?
93% of companies outsource all or part of their video content creation so they can access specialised expertise and technology. 21% outsource all of their video content creation while only 7% create their content entirely in-house.
If a company uses a combination of in-house and outsourced talent, it means they can get the best possible content. Quick, low budget videos can be created on their own and on tight timelines. A creative team can also be used to take a fresh perspective on their brand and complete a video without using any of their own employees’ time.
If you'd like to know more about how working with video could help your business, do get in touch and we'll arrange a discovery session to explores the opportunities for your business with video,