The ROI of Video Marketing: Why and how videos boost your business success

Press play - it's well known that video has been a major trend in marketing for the past decade. And it is here to stay. So how exactly is using videos impacting today’s marketing? What insights should you consider to measure its ROI and which kind of solution can support you in managing, distributing and analyzing your video content?

In 2021, videos already make up 81% of all consumer internet traffic. This comes as no surprise: video is a powerful medium since it allows you to connect with your target audience on an emotional level which leads to more engagement and ultimately more sales. And contrary to common belief, video marketing does not have to be super expensive nor does managing, distributing and sharing videos have to be difficult. Additionally, the ROI of video marketing is actually really impressive, with 89% of marketers stating that using video gives them a great ROI. So when it comes to choosing your marketing activities, you cannot skip videos. Still not convinced? We got you covered! We have prepared some interesting facts, figures, examples and ideas around video marketing. Find out now how video can boost your business success and why it provides an excellent ROI with some concrete examples. 

GET THE RIGHT DATA FOR MEASURING YOUR VIDEO MARKETING ROI

Given the fact that video marketing is the future and should play a crucial part in your marketing strategy in order to be ahead of your competitors and reach your clients where they are, you certainly want to know how to measure its impact and how to improve your ROI.

You probably know the basic ROI calculation: the benefit (or return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment. As content marketer you would more likely refer to this as your content ROI by analyzing your return on all investments that have been made in this area. To improve your (content) ROI you either have to reduce your costs or increase your gains.

Examples of gains would be the number of subscribers, leads, customers and revenue. The production costs, time spent internally and the cost of producing video etc. content represent your costs.

And all of this revolves around stats. Without metrics, it's just simple guesswork which won’t bring your business very far. Common video platforms like Youtube, Vimeo, Instagram, TikTok etc. do not gather all important consumption data and especially not all important data around one single content. The Wedia DAM solution allows you to collect precise data from all videos distributed on your websites, blogs, social media channels and e-commerce sites. Valuable insights on use, shares, engagement and video completion rates will enable you to track the performance of your videos precisely and to identify correlations between your videos and sales, especially when your DAM also delivers all your video content and is connected to e-Commerce sites. 

Ideally, you ensure that the following two conditions are respected:

The tool that manages the content and distributes them is also the one that collects the data and transfers them to a third party (e.g. a CDP)

IMPROVED CONVERSATION & RETURN RATE ON YOUR WEBSITE

You might already be aware of the importance of using images for a product presentation. But did you also know that including videos on your product page can improve your conversation rate by nearly 300%? It has also been found that 80% of online visitors will see a video, but only 20% will read the description. Video brings your products to life and delivers your brand’s messages. Product demos or explicative videos are hugely on the rise and today 8 times more important than they were five years ago.

The french bag manufacturer Léo and Villette inserts videos on each product page which not only shows their product line in a real setting, but also how many items fit for example in a bag, since this will definitely speak louder than just providing simple measurements. Content like this will also have a huge impact on your return rate. Since up to 40% of items are returned in e-commerce, this is a subject you want to consider. 

Imagine you are selling 10,000 products per year. 30% of orders are returned. In other words, you have 3,000 product returns per year. If the average basket is 30 euros, product returns represent a loss of 90,000 euros (= 3000 x 30). If you lower the number of product returns by, let's say only 10%, which is realistic, you reduce the number of returns by 300. You save 300 x 30 = 9,000 euros. A significant ROI. So investing in powerful tools like a DAM solution will pay off quickly.

And you do not even have to rely on external professionals or engage a whole in-house creative team. This is where User Generated Content or Employer Generated Content comes into play. 

USING UGC AND EGC WILL BOOST YOUR VIDEO MARKETING ROI

If you want to improve your brand’s credibility and awareness, let your own clients or future customers work for you. Consumers are 2.4 times more likely to view user-generated content as authentic compared to content created by brands. And it is a real win-win situation, since customers love stories about them. And by using UGC you are in good company: To promote their new Samsung Galaxy A smartphone, the brand launched a cooperation with the Kpop band Blackpink under the hashtag #danceAwesome. But the K-pop band was only the middleman. Blackpink then asked their followers on TikTok to create videos containing the campaign’s “Awesome Phone Song,” which highlighted the smartphone’s features. The give away was a free phone. The successful campaign generated new followers, brand awareness, sales and 20.5 billion views.

Another example is the beauty brand Glossier: Clients are encouraged to share their personal experiences with Glossiers products on Instagram, which they then repost. Glossiers says that today 90% of its revenue comes from these campaigns. 

But maybe you don’t want to reach out this far. Then, you can incorporate your own employees in your video marketing strategy:

Under the hashtag “WeareCisco” Cisco Systems, an American multinational technology company, runs a campaign in which employees tell their story and why they like working for Cisco. This is a great example of branding and employer generated content since you let your employees communicate your brand values. 

When it comes to EGC, it's worth asking yourself upfront where you should manage, validate and later share the audiovisual communications of your company's employees. To be in full control of your branding and messaging, you probably do not want to go straight to social media, but start within your own video management platform first. 

WHERE SHOULD YOU MANAGE SUCH VIDEO CONTENT?

UGC and EGC can be used on a various number of channels, like social media, your own website, newsletters etc. Moderate your use of UGC and EGC with Wedia’s AI services which will help you by providing metadata, face recognition, speech-to-speech and more information for all your video content. Wedia’s video management functionalities (a combination of our DAM and Media Delivery and Digital Experience solutions) will also enable you to manage, diffuse and share video content on a large scale across all channels and devices, anywhere and at any time in one single and centralized source, ready to be used by your (international) marketing teams with full control over your brand’s messages and security rights. Wedia’s video management platform provides for example 9 advanced key functionalities such as adaptive streaming, secure publication, brand and ip protection, video chaptering, shoppable video functionalities, dynamic playlists, video previews, analytics and AI indexing. With Wedia, organizing, posting and retargeting your video content will become easy and efficient. And thanks to our advanced analytics, you can precisely measure your video ROI in Wedia’s DAM. 

And yes, unsurprisingly we at Wedia are using videos as well ;) In our video series “How to with Wedia’s DAM” you can learn everything about video management and how you can maximise your video usage.