5 Video marketing trends you need to know

To ensure success in marketing, it's crucial to understand how your audiences, their tastes, and the technology at your disposal is changing. Without an insight into the opportunities and threats that are approaching, it's difficult to plan and deliver an effective strategy that meets your organization's objectives. 

In today's blog we're sharing five key video marketing trends along with our tips and tricks for capitalizing on the opportunities they offer.

1. Time spent watching video will only increase

This first trend sets the scene for the rest of the year. It shows that however much video content we’re already watching, most of us have an appetite for more!

In 2019 average time spent watching digital video each day rose to just under 100 minutes. That’s a whole hour and 40 minutes each day, dedicated to watching videos on social media platforms like YouTube as well as videos on company websites, in emails and adverts. eMarketer data predicts that this will rise to over 108 minutes each day during 2020 and continue to increase into 2021. So what does this trend mean for you?

Video beginner: if you’re not already creating video content, don’t keep missing out! We know that video is a popular medium to learn new things and be entertained so if you’re new to creating video, start by converting your most successful blogs or articles into videos. This is a quick and easy way to drive more value from existing content while experimenting with video. To get a head start, try one of our video templates.

Video improver: you might be used to creating video for some channels, but make 2020 the year you expand your horizons. If you’re seeing results from your YouTube videos then why not try the same principle with your marketing emails. Research has proven that including the word ‘video’ in email subject lines increases open rate. Just adapt your YouTube videos to suit your email and get ready to measure your results.

Video expert: if you’re already creating regular new video content, this trend is all about ensuring that instead of spending those additional minutes watching someone else’s video, they’re watching 9 more minutes of yours! To do that you have to consider the journey your audience takes when they watch your content. Will they see a prompt to watch another related video? Do you create playlists of related videos to keep viewers engaged?

2. Marketers will spend even more on social media video adverts

As we’re all watching more video content, marketers like you are realising the potential of video ads, particularly on social media.

Nothing stops our thumbs scrolling through our social feeds like a well placed video, especially those that surprise or shock us. Take this advert from biscuit brand, McVitie's that tells the story of a lonely crane driver who isn’t able to enjoy break time with his colleagues. We’re drawn in by the high quality animation and seemingly mundane setting that leads to a surprisingly emotional story.

With these kinds of ads delivering great results, it’s no wonder research shows that in 2020 marketers will increase spending on social media video ads by over 23%. That will take overall US video ad spending on social media to a massive $13.44 billion. 

Facebook will still be the king of social video, but other companies like Snapchat and Twitter are growing their video ad businesses more quickly. With this in mind, it’s worth experimenting with video ads on Twitter and Snapchat as although they may be more expensive to run, there’s still less competition for viewers than on Facebook.

3. Personalized videos are key to standing out from the crowd

You might be thinking that personalization is a marketing trend that's well established. And for direct mail, emails and landing pages it is - but what's new is personalizing video. 

If you saw a video in an email that addressed you by name and highlighted the key challenges you're trying to solve, chances are you'd read on to find out more. Data from the CMO Council supports this theory. When asking consumers from the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand what qualities in videos would help with their decision-making process, personalization ranked high on the list. 

It's not surprising when personalization makes us feel more considered and understood, therefore starting to develop a relationship with the brand and remember them. This part is particularly important when research shows 90% of consumers are more likely to shop brands they recognize who provide relevant offers and recommendations.

So how can you tailor your videos to your audience's needs? It starts with understanding what really matters to them. Without this information you won't be able to hone your message. We recommend using the '5 Whys Technique' to get to the bottom of what your target audience really want.

After that it's a case of testing what level of personalization works for you and tweaking your videos accordingly. We've just been through this process with our VideoScribe emails and have shared the results of three different tests in one of our latest blogs - find out what we learnt here. 

4. Boost website traffic with video SEO

The popularity of videos has caused search engines like Google to keep inching videos closer to the top of organic search results both on desktop and mobile. 

Now, Google have announced that they'll use AI to identify snippets of video related to specific search queries and trial autoplaying these results. This makes your video content even more valuable as it can help your brand to be discovered and creates new opportunities to boost your website traffic. 

It also means that optimizing your videos for SEO in 2020 should be a priority, whether that's on YouTube or videos hosted on your website or other platforms. You can find our 6 top tips for optimizing your video content for SEO here.

5. YouTube is increasingly the channel of choice for kids

Kids love to be told stories, whether by a parent at bedtime or by a video channel at any time of day. The biggest change in young people’s media habits isn’t something brand new like virtual reality; it’s the amount of time they spend watching videos on YouTube.

Studies by eMarketer have shown that the average time per day that 8-12 year olds watch digital video has doubled since 2015 to 56 minutes in 2019. This is thought to be fuelled by an increase in younger YouTube creators, in other words, content created by kids for kids. This is much more appealing to children of similar ages and they’re likely to trust the information more.

This is shown by the fact that YouTube was rated as the most popular brand by children aged 6-12 in the United States. Beating brands traditionally favored by kids like Crayola and Skittles.

So what does this mean for organizations whose target audience is kids? It means that investment in video and influencer marketing could be a winning combination. Upping the amount of video you're creating and correctly using the new YouTube tagging to highlight that it is made for kids is a great starting point. Beyond that, it may be worth considering partnering with younger influencers to create collaborative video content as they're more relatable to your target audience.

Those were the five key video trends you need to know for success in 2020 - which of them will you be exploring and adopting? Comment and let us know.  

VideoScribe is a global leader in whiteboard animation and a tool used by marketing professionals around the world. Get the most out of your video marketing by using VideoScribe to attract, engage and convert your 2020 prospects. Try VideoScribe for free: click here to start your 7 day no-obligation trial!