Video is the muscle car of the marketing world. It’s hot. It’s flashy. It goes from 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds.

Maybe one of those is off, but there’s one more comparison that’s spot on. It can quickly lose its value if it’s not well maintained. To get the most out of it, you have to keep putting in work. While video is the latest must-have marketing medium, it brings ever-evolving challenges that you’ll need to keep up with and overcome.

In their rush to test drive this latest, greatest marketing medium, some people get caught off-guard by these challenges. You don’t have to be one of them.

Whether you already have a robust video marketing strategy, or you’re just thinking about making your first videos, you need a roadmap to help you navigate the changing video marketing landscape.

Like this one!

Why is video so popular?

The internet has infiltrated almost every part of our lives. We carry it in our pockets. We put it in our televisions, refrigerators, and cars. We even talk to it and call it by some big corporation’s name.

With more accessibility (and faster speeds) comes the opportunity for more dynamic marketing options. Rather than simple blog posts, companies can now reach their target audiences in the medium consumers love: video.

People love video because it’s easier for them to consume. The average human brain processes videos 60,000 times faster than text. Since visual learners make up about 65% of the population, marketers can connect and communicate more quickly through video.

You may have heard the conventional wisdom that attention spans are getting shorter. That’s a pretty good argument for why you need more videos in your marketing mix. Even if most viewers watch only the first three seconds of your video, they’re getting a lot more information than they would by spending the same amount of time reading text.

And even if people do have an attention span longer than the average goldfish, video is still a good bet. The average human is exposed to 50,000 marketing messages each and every day. That’s a lot of competition. Packaging your message in an easy to consume format increases your odds of cutting through the clutter.

What are video’s challenges?

That all sounds great, right? So what are these challenges? There are three: greater saturation, fragmented audiences, and time consuming processes. Each one can be overcome with some planning and the right tools.

Challenge 1: Greater Saturation

In the early days of video marketing, you could stand out just by making a video. It was an instant attention grabber because so few businesses had the resources available to create quality videos. But no longer.

As technology becomes less expensive and more accessible, almost everyone has access to the basic tools to create high quality video. Marketers have also noticed how effective video marketing can be and are willing to put in the resources to get the result they want.

According to the Wyzowl State of Video Marketing Survey, 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. 82% of those plan to spend more on video marketing this year than they did last year.

Results from the same survey prove that video is more than just an attention grabber. It brings benefit throughout the marketing funnel. 97% of marketers say video helped them increase user understanding. 76% say it increased traffic. 76% say it increased sales. 47% say it reduced support queries.

Internet users (and these days that’s almost everyone) watch an average of 1.5 hours of online video per day. As of 2017, about 221.8 million people have watched online videos. By 2021, that number is expected to rise to 239.2 million.

Saturation sounds like a benefit, not a challenge. After all, if more people are watching video, and consumers are asking for more video from marketers, that means there’s a ready audience for your video.

And for everyone else’s videos. There’s more competition than ever for the time and attention of your audience. If your video fails to hold their attention, there are plenty of others they can watch.

Address this challenge with entertaining videos. To stand out from the crowd, your videos need to do more than inform. They need to entertain.

How do you create an entertaining video? Think of your favorite movies. What makes them great? Do they have engaging characters? Interesting story lines? A problem that needs to be solved? Almost every marketing video you make should have at least one of these elements. In a perfect world, every video would have all three.

In fact, Hubspot research on Twitter found that videos that set up a problem in the beginning and solve it by the end are more likely to be watched to completion. This structure, called sequential resolution, accounts for 48% of videos that viewers watch all the way through.

Challenge 2: Fragmented Audiences

With greater saturation comes a more fragmented audience. No longer can you create a video on YouTube and only on YouTube and expect your audience to see it.

Social media sites, eager to capitalize on the growing audience, are adding more options for marketers who want to use video. In addition to paid ad strategies, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat have all added live video options. And all platforms allow you to post and share videos with your followers.

According to a study by SocialBakers, video is the top performing post type on Facebook. It offers a 135% organic reach over photos. On Twitter, videos are six times more likely to be retweeted than photos according to Hubspot.

If you want to get the most out of your video, you have to distribute it properly. That means putting it on your website, sending it out in your newsletter, and posting it to the social media platforms where your audience spends the bulk of their time.

While publicizing your video on all channels, you can funnel viewers back to a single host site, like your website, to defragment the audience. Basically, you’re narrowing the road from a multi-lane highway of social, YouTube, and email to the single lane of your website.

Challenge 3: The Time Factor

Video itself is more time consuming to create than, say, a blog post. For a blog post, all you need is a sufficiently caffeinated writer and an internet connection. Mix them together and, in a few hours, you have a professional blog post worthy of your website.

Meanwhile, a video requires some sort of recording equipment or animating software, a script, actors or voice actors (also caffeinated), props or animators (even more coffee), music, sound effects, editing—all of that takes time. Not to mention that you need to know all the steps and how to go about completing them.

Creating a high-quality video will take you lots of time and effort. You ready for coffee now?

Despite the extra elements in play, video doesn’t have to be difficult. Although it will most likely always take a little longer to produce than your average blog post, a solid video strategy and a well-thought out plan can help you churn out video after video.

Is video worth it?

With all of those challenges, is video worth it? You might as well ask if a Corvette is worth it. Is the feel of wind in your hair and the thump of the bass as you coast down that mountain road worth it? Are the admiring looks you get from pedestrians who wish they had a tenth of your charisma worth it?  

Yeah, it’s totally worth it. Video delivers high engagement throughout your sales funnel to grow your business. The little bit of extra work to make it happen is well worth the improved return you’ll get out.  

Especially since you’re not alone. Let Epipheo be your mechanic and chauffeur. We’ll help you create videos that get you where you want to go and you can be proud to be seen in. Contact us today to get started.