3 reasons to embrace video

We all know that online video is engaging.  And we’re learning that video ads can be highly engaging as well. A study by MediaMind found that rich media and video ads make a significantly stronger impression than standard banners.  Another recent study shows that video boosts the engagement of mobile ads as well.

With smartphones now in the hands of more than half of US mobile subscribers, it’s easier than ever to capture, share and consume rich media content.  Yet advertising effectiveness and consumer demand are just a starting point when it comes to examining why brands – and digital publishers – need to embrace video content. 

Looking across some recent studies and our experience creating rich media campaigns and Social TV programming, we’ve come up with three reasons why video should be part of any publisher’s content strategy:

1. Audience development. With more distractions and media choices than ever before, many marketers and publishers are focusing their digital media efforts on the best ways to cut through the clutter to reach buyers, influencers and readers.  Rich media, including online video, is part of the solution.  Researcher Aberdeen Group found that competitive noise in their target market was the top reason successful marketers are adopting rich media.  In this video, Aberdeen’s Trip Kucera offers five tips for using rich media in sales and marketing.

Tip for publishers: Delivering regular, multipart features with branded, embedded video content can boost engagement and increase social sharing.  Even better, partnering with an industry personality as a co-host or commentator will enable you to tap their expertise and social graph.

2. SEO.  Search engine optimization remains a key foundation for effective content delivery and inbound marketing.  Authentic, frequent, engaging content means more visits, shares and links, regardless of how Google evolves its search algorithms.  In addition, YouTube claims that video ads drive a 20% increase in traffic to advertiser’s websites, and a 5% increase in searches. 

Tip for publishers: When you create your video script/rundown, build in keywords with the subject matter expert or host so you’ll have original content that is more relevant to your overall theme and message – and subsequent transcripts and other derivative content will already be keyword optimized.

3. Social engagement.  As many organizations struggle to feed their social channels with enough fresh, engaging content, a growing number are discovering that building a scalable ‘content factory’ is easier if you start with video. 

For example, at the Pulse Network we’ve built a process with our production team where a single shoot is divided into a number of distinct segments, and then each segment is produced into a (SEO-rich) video blog, YouTube clip, Facebook post, and podcast.  So from one 20-minute interview in our studio, we can turn out 5 segments and 20 pieces (5 segments times 4 formats) of unique social media content. 

Tip for publishers: Using an experienced on-air host and interview-style production in your videos makes it easy to structure and pace segments – and also results in video content well suited for repurposing as high-quality audio podcasts or question-and-answer articles.

Need more convincing about the importance of video to brands and publishers? Check out this video infograph that our team recently produced.

Allen Bonde is CMO at The Pulse Network, a co-founderat Offerpop, and chair and co-host of the upcoming Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston in October.