Video views on YouTube have increased by 25 percent in the past eight months, to an astounding 4 billion per day. That's 4 billion times every single day that a video is watched on YouTube! The report goes on to state that 60 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, up from 48 hours back in May.
With jaw-dropping statistics like these, it would make sense for any business to hop on and ride the wave. Of course, not all of the videos viewed on YouTube are marketing a product or service, and according to Google, only 3 billion videos per week are monetized, but the shift to all things video is unmistakable. The way that Google has redesigned YouTube to showcase different channels that feature different content is another sign that videos are serious business and will continue to be into the foreseeable future.
Video Advantages
From a business perspective, there are several benefits to adding video to your website. Including video on your site allows you to provide more information in a shorter period of time, and increases the amount of time a visitor will spend on your website. Adding video to your page makes it 50 times more likely to rank in the search engines. When you add the sticky factor to Google's updated YouTube stats, including video as part of your marketing seems like the ultimate no-brainer.
The rapid increase in mobile devices is likely boosting the video view totals, as more and more people are online more of the time. In fact, Microsoft Tag estimates that by 2014, internet usage via mobile devices will overtake desktop internet usage.
That shift has already started, as in 2011 over half of all local searches were performed using a mobile device. The popularity of social media sites with their sharing capabilities also has a hand in increasing views of online video. When some videos go viral, the number of views can jump astronomically in a very short period of time.
Always Be Teaching
The marketer can cash in on the video revolution by posting professional-looking video to a website and to YouTube that contain all of the elements that are expected from written online copy. This means your videos should be engaging to your prospects and should contain content that is of high quality and relevant to your target market.
One way to do that is to follow the ABT method of marketing rather than the ABC method. Traditionally in sales, ABC stands for always be closing while the updated ABT method stands for always be teaching. You can accomplish this with how-to style videos that show your prospects how to use your product or service, what may happen if they don't, or some other useful piece of information that relates to your business.
The ABT method of video marketing ensures that your content will always be useful to the viewers, which will always keep Google happy and will keep the visitor on your site longer. This will increase the chances they'll share the video and increase the likelihood of a sale.
Adding video appears to be a win-win situation for most businesses. Has it helped your conversions? Have you discovered any tips or tweaks that can make online video even more powerful?
Video Optimization:
- SEO 101: How to Optimize On-Site Videos (Stephanie Woods)
- Optimising Video For Search Engines (Alex Harvey)
- Video SEO in 4 Simple Steps (John-Henry Scherck)