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Different Ways Your Business Can Use Videos to its Advantage Videos as a communication format, offer a great way to nurture engagement, yield clicks and gather a high amplification rate

By Kinzal Jalan

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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Time and again, statistics have testified the high attention-grabbing and resonating ability of videos. Videos as a communication format, offer a great way to nurture engagement, yield clicks and gather a high amplification rate. It has been observed that companies using video attract 41 percent more traffic from search than non-users. Excluding videos that are exchanged from one peer to another, it is said that by 2019, about 80 percent of the global Internet traffic will accrue to the consumer video traffic.

In light of the facts stated above in addition to the abundance of evidence published across leading platforms in favor of videos, it makes limited sense to avoid them for your business. It's a good idea to understand what is it that makes them work before moving on to interesting emerging ways they can be used to leverage business growth.

Related : How Interactive Smart Videos are Providing Innovative Solutions to the Marketing and Advertising Ecosystem

What Makes Videos So Powerful?

Entrepreneur India spoke to Paritosh Sharma, CEO of 59Second.com. The Company specializes in producing bite-sized communication in video formats. Paritosh is of the opinion that the influx of social media into everyone's lives has made marketers realize the powerful role of human-to-human communication. He advocates that personal touch is far more relevant in influencing the sales cycle over any kind of copy. Sharma pinpoints that videos are the only mode of communication that lend a personal touch in terms of business interactions. He says, "In the world full of noise and extremely low attention spans, a video with a strongly designed narrative and a meaningful message always stands out." Consistent frequency, succinctness of expression and well-crafted narratives, in his view, are the mantra to succeed.

Besides commonly used product promotional, explainer and testimonial videos planted on websites and landing pages, videos can be used in some interesting ways to achieve business growth. Some of them are described below -

Live Videos

It can be confidently asserted that videos are more effective when they're not animated. Lending a real human face makes a more meaningful impact as compared to an animation. The view time for a live video has been noticed to be 3x higher than a prerecorded one. Sharma opines, "You can't fake it on a live video and that's the most powerful aspect. Your authenticity, passion and vision will always stand out." Live videos can be implemented via mediums such as Facebook Live, Periscope Live and YouTube Live. The key to succeed with them is to be consistent and create videos in a disciplined frequency throughout the year.

Related : Are Animated Videos the Perfect Mouthpiece for Start-ups?

Vlogging

Vlogging has become a buzzword today. It is fast replacing traditional textual blog content. Vlogs provide a sensory-rich experience and engage human emotions in a way static text can never replicate. It has been found that personalized videos have a 35 percent higher retention rate as compared to non-personalized ones. Vlogs are a great way to share perspectives, build a relationship with your audience and get them to invest in you and your business. Social media is powerful ground to aid in amplification of vlogs.

Entrepreneur India also spoke to Mr Kush Kalwani, Founder & CEO of CorpTeaser Animation and Films. Under the banner of CorpTeaser, his company provides one- stop professional solutions in the space of explainer videos, corporate films and video ads. He offers the following nuggets on leveraging videos for marketing & business benefits -

Social Media & Messaging Platforms

Social Media and messaging platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Whatsapp and their likes have opened doors to a wide range of audiences. It has been observed that presenting a business in multimedia format with animation, voiceover and background music reaps significantly higher levels of viewer engagement on social media. This is due to the ability of videos to capture attention for a longer time span as compared to traditional static content formats. Kush says "Videos are quick, easy and fun to watch. They trigger emotions, quickly raising conversions for marketers". He iterates that with mass dependence on smartphones and the availability of affordable high-speed data, video transmission has become really simplified. Kush suggests that in this environment, communication in motion helps in generating a great ROI on the investment made on social platforms.

Related: 360 Degree Videos Will Revolutionize Your Travelling Experience

Spice Up Email Marketing

Another great outlet to leverage the power of videos is through email marketing. Videos can be embedded in emails via the thumbnail feature of popular email clients such as Gmail and Yahoo. Data suggests that use of videos in emails can lead to 200-300% increase in click-through rates. According to Kalwani, using a video in the email signature helps in achieving passive marketing advantages. A surprising fact is that videos download faster than the heavy sized PDF files typically transmitted via email.

More Than a Marketing Tool

Videos can be much more than a mere marketing tool. A series of videos can be designed to emulate a virtual sales representative for the organization that works 24x7. Videos could also help to trim training costs by a sharp amount. This can be achieved by creating recordings on various topics. The practice can also help to ensure superior quality standardization with the added advantage of building a positive brand image of the company in front of its internal stakeholders.

Kinzal Jalan

Freelancer, Entrepreneur India

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