Weekly Furniture World Media Note #144 from Lance Hanish: Video Effectiveness Is Increasing. Which Content Types Are Working?

Furniture World News Desk on 9/22/2015

Almost 9 in 10 marketing, sales and business professionals surveyed around the world say that video marketing’s effectiveness is on the rise, according to the latest report from Ascend2 and its Research Partners. The survey, fielded predominantly among B2B respondents (78% of the sample), finds just 15% reporting a lack of success achieving their objectives through video marketing. 

The chief stumbling block to that success appears to be the lack of an effective strategy, per the study’s respondents. This is a fairly common complaint in these surveys, also noted as the top obstacle in lead generation success, although recent studies have found other top challenges confronting content marketing, SEO and marketing technology.

Notably, few respondents said that limited organizational buy-in is a top obstacle to video marketing success, per this latest study. This is likely the result of the success that marketers are finding with video, as detailed in numerous studies.

One of the chief elements of an effective strategy, of course, is setting appropriate objectives. For respondents to the Ascend2 survey, increases in brand awareness (47%) and online engagement (45%) rank as the most important objectives of an effective video strategy, followed by improved customer education (43%).

Customer education may not be the top objective, but respondents seem to feel that educational videos work. When asked to cite their most effective video types used, respondents grouped three at the top:

• Customer testimonials (51%);
• Explainer/tutorial videos (50%); and
• Demonstration videos (49%).

By comparison, respondents are less enthusiastic about vlogs/video blogs (15%) and event videos (13%), which could be a function of the B2B skew in the sample or low usage of these types.

As is sometimes the case in these surveys, what’s most effective is also most difficult. Indeed, for the marketers surveyed by Ascend2, customer testimonial rank as the most difficult type of video content to create, closely followed by project reviews and case studies. Still, other effective video content types such as explainers and demo videos aren’t perceived to be as difficult, so perhaps those are better areas to target.

Marketers are turning to outside help in their video marketing content creation, per the results, as just 8% feel that in-house resources are by themselves most effective.

Instead, 22% outsource to a specialist, while the majority (70%) feel that a combination of outsourced and in-house resources will produce the best quality work.

That’s not too surprising, considering that lack of production resources remains a relatively high constraint, as detailed in the survey results. Inadequate budgets are another obstacle, though that problem may soon ease: roughly 7 in 10 respondents said that their video marketing budget is increasing, either significantly (18%) or marginally (51%).

How much should your video marketing budget be? Of your total budget, video marketing should be 15%-20% of your overall marketing budget. It is the fuel for the fire. If you insist on going on the ‘cheap’, you may freeze this winter.

We live in a digital/mobile age. If you are not mobile ready yet, it is not too late. Your customers and potential customers are using their mobile devices to discover what you have. If you are not there in front of them, 24/7, they will go to your competitor… guaranteed! That is why we say, MOBILENow.

Are you ready?

Do you want to be ready? Be RetailPositive™.


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Lance Hanish is Co-Founding Partner in CNA | Sophis Integrated Marketing Communications. 

He can be reached at:
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