Marketers Continue to See Benefits In Video Content Marketing [Interview]
The “Video Marketing Strategy” report released by Ascend2 showed that marketers are beginning to see an increase in the effectiveness in video content. To learn more about the report and its results, we spoke to Todd Lebo, Chief Marketing Officer of Ascend2.
WERE THERE ANY STATISTICS OR RESULTS THAT SURPRISED YOU?
I was very encouraged by the level of success that marketers are having with video. For example, 25 percent are ‘very successful’ – that’s a really good number. A lot of times we’ll see statistics where it’s only 10 or 15 percent and the fact that so many people are saying that video is so successful is a very encouraging number. We know the ‘train has left the station’ and people realize that there’s not a whole lot of doubt that video is very strategic.
ARE YOU ENCOURAGED BY THE 25 PERCENT WHO BELIEVE IN THEIR VIDEO CAPABILITIES?
“I see this as a positive. People are very hesitant to say they’re ‘very successful’ at something. That’s why on this type of question, we have four quadrants. It’s not unusual that the middle two quadrants are the highest percentages … people don’t like to say they’re ‘very successful’ or ‘very unsuccessful.’ People know there’s always room for improvement. When we see something at 25 percent for ‘very successful,’ that’s a very strong number.”
HOW COULD MARKETERS START BRINGING THE VIDEO CREATION PROCESS IN-HOUSE?
“One thing about video is that it can be very expensive in-house. It’s a pretty heavy investment to bring everything in-house so it doesn’t surprise me that a small percentage are going all in-house. A lot of video is economical to make with external specialists. For example, one of the most effective pieces of video in our report was ‘tutorial videos.’ The cost of using outside experts now makes creating these videos an affordable process. There’s a lot of arguments to make about not having everything in-house and use external experts.
‘Lack of an effective strategy’ and ‘lack of effective content’ go hand-in-hand. Video is just another distribution channel for your content. You really have to be very strategic about how you set up your ‘content machine’ and the video component of that.”
HOW IS VIDEO MARKETING EVOLVING?
“Video has taken some major steps over the past two years in terms of technology. For example, ‘distribution and hosting’ and ‘reporting and analytics’ are much more advanced than they were just two years ago. I would say that from these results, marketers should go back and look at technology solutions – there are just a lot more solutions available today. Many are tied into marketing automation that can help with video distribution, analytics and hosting. It’s also becoming much more affordable.”
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST TAKEAWAY FOR MARKETERS FROM THIS REPORT?
“Video has to be part of the content strategy. It’s just too valuable, and it’s clearly working for marketers. Now is the time – people have been dipping their toes in, but they need to go into 2016 and really look at their video strategy. My biggest takeaway is plan and prepare for 2016. Video has to be a part of it, but don’t underestimate the need to be very strategic about your plan.”
This survey includes responses from more than 50,000 U.S and international marketing, sales and business professionals. Click here to read the full “Video Marketing Strategy” report from Ascend2.