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15 Essentials To Consider When Employing Video Marketing

Forbes Agency Council
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Forbes Agency Council

More and more businesses are turning to video to promote their brands, as well as their products and services. Companies are becoming more business savvy about the value of video, with 85% of them employing staff and resources to produce their own video content internally, according to a report by Hubspot.

Whether you use video to showcase your product in use or to provide education on your services, a business can benefit greatly from the use of video content internally, as well as externally. The ROI from video is immense, as users are continually asking for more video content from businesses.

Below, 15 Forbes Agency Council members weigh in on whether all brands should be using video to promote their offerings and what they should consider when deciding whether to include visual content in their marketing strategies.

All photos courtesy of individual Forbes Agency Council members

1. Video Content Needs To Be Done Well To Work

Video is a great way to show your product's features, tell a story and get people engaged, but not all video is good video. If you have the resources to create a video that represents your brand in a beautiful and succinct way, then I'd say definitely make video a part of your mix, but if you're not able to produce a great video product, focus on creative that is simpler to execute. - Kate Aurell, Hawke Media

2. Curated Video Should Represent The Brand

Creating strictly video content may not fit every brand; however, considering we are in a digital era that continues to grow and demand creative and engaging content, many brands should follow suit. Producing videos should represent the brand and what it stands for, as well as attract and connect the audience to the brand. A video without a purpose or storyline should not be published. - Alex Quin, UADV

3. Video Helps Adapt To Customer Preferences

Companies are pivoting to videos for a reason, and their analytics are telling them that they are on point. People are consuming more video content, and they're getting used to it. I understand that different markets have different preferences, but if I were an investor, I'd look at the significant infrastructure investments that are spent to facilitate smoother streaming as a healthy sign. - Ahmad Kareh, Twistlab Marketing

4. Designing Video Is Expensive

It’s expensive to design videos and there’s only a 5% chance that any video will achieve a positive return on ad spend. In-house design teams frequently get trapped producing derivative ads based on top concepts, and as ad fatigue sets in, performance drops. We encourage brands to test many videos and bring in external creative partners to share heavy lift in creative development. - Brian Bowman, ConsumerAcquisition.com

5. Video Is A Commitment

Creating quality video content requires far more significant commitment than traditional content. You also need the audience to actually decide to watch your content -- not always an easy task. The more video content of poor quality there is out there, the harder it becomes to convince audiences to gamble on watching yours. - Gil Eyal, HYPR!

6. Interactive Video Is Tomorrow

It's not just about seeing, it's about doing. New video technology allows companies to not just show their wares or services, but allows immediate engagement, with fast purchases, downloads, or even instant calls with your sales team members. Now a campaign is not measured in "views," it's measured in engagement. - Jaymie Scotto Cutaia, Jaymie Scotto & Associates

7. Video Needs To Tackle Trending Topics

Not every business model will necessarily benefit from video content, and not all content should be in a video format. I do believe that investing in video is important and in high demand, but you should really see what video topics are trending in your industry and working for your competitors. Video production is a larger financial loss than a written post if it receives no engagement. - Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com

8. Visual Content Is Critical To Overall Strategy

Visual content is critical in an overall content strategy. However, sometimes prospects need information quickly and don't have the time or the right internet connection to watch a video so it needs to be augmented by other forms of communication. Because good video is relatively expensive to produce, pick a pillar piece of content and create an awesome video, then surround it with supporting content. - Lisa Allocca, Red Javelin Communications

9. Video Educates And Influences Your Customers

Although getting millions of views on your latest video might seem appealing, it likely isn't the best way to grow your business. Tailor your videos for each of the customer journey stages: awareness, consideration and decision. At each stage, video can be an amazing way to further educate and influence your target customers. Your story told through video at the right time beats YouTube fame. - Todd Earwood, MoneyPath Marketing

10. Video Can Humanize Your Brand

In today's age of rapid technology and device adoption, we have to connect on a human level. Now more than ever, many companies and publishers are moving to video as an engagement platform through web, mobile and other outlets. It's the perfect way for a brand to talk to users and begin building a more humanized connection point. If we can't be there next to you, video is the next best thing. - Michael Gaizutis, RNO1

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11. Video Increases Brand Authority

Since people have short attention spans in today's digital world, creating quality video content that agrees with your marketing objectives, products and services, industry trends, and more can be an effective way to bring in new business. It's pretty simple to get started, and as you create more content, you’ll see an increase in searches, views, customers and revenue. - Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS

12. Strategic Video Is Key To Brand Storytelling

Yes, customers crave concise videos that move them, but videos should not be produced just for the sake of it. Authentic brand storytelling achieved through video is essential, emotional and effective. If a picture is worth one thousand words, then video equates to hundreds of thousands of words. When done right, powerful, professional video brand storytelling is worth millions of dollars, too. - Stephen Rosa, (add)ventures

13. Video Can Benefit Almost Every Business

I believe that almost every business can benefit from some type of video. The key is finding the type that is right for your business and budget. Not everyone needs a slick corporate video to help people understand their products and services. There are affordable and user-generated videos that can help build customer engagement. - Laura Cole, Vivial

14. Video Allows Your Voice To Go Global

I always encourage my clients to have a strong online video presence. Content is still the driving factor of the search algorithms, but video has a higher convincing factor, videos get much more engagement than blogs, and the probability of a user to watch a short video is higher than a user reading an entire article. Videos make information sharing easier and more accessible. - Raffi Keuhnelian, INexxus

15. Video Is The Future

The effectiveness of video advertising has been evident for 50+ years on TV but is just now becoming cost-effective and accessible to the average advertiser. With the ability to buy video media on YouTube and Facebook and to shoot high-quality video on your cell phone, the barrier to entry for video has never been lower. - Steve Dinelli, Blackbird Garage