Video is one of the most dominant forms of content marketing in the world. On average, more than one billion hours of video are watched on YouTube each day (Engadget); more than 82% of Twitter users watch video content on Twitter (HubSpot); and almost half of the population (45%) watch more than an hour of Facebook or YouTube videos a week (WordStream).
It’s also growing rapidly. Cisco, the worldwide leader in IT and networking, estimates that by 2020, video will make up more than 80% of all consumer internet traffic – and according to Alexa (not the Amazon voice assistant but Amazon’s analytics platform which ranks the top 500 websites) YouTube is the second most trafficked site after Google.
Video also plays an important role in B2C and B2B purchase decisions. According to HubSpot’s State of Video Marketing in 2018 report, of those HubSpot reviewed (marketers and consumers), 97% of marketers say that video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service; 81% of consumers have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video, and 76% of marketers say that it has helped them to increase sales.
But why are we telling you all of this?
Clearly, video is here to stay – and it’s about time your business leveraged it as a means to generate more website traffic and sales enquiries. The problem, however, is acquiring the right video hosting solution, and incorporating video (seamlessly) into your marketing mix, your website and using it as a means to drive conversions.
If you’re using HubSpot, however, you’re in luck – and there’s no better time than now to make the switch to video! HubSpot has just recently announced three tools to facilitate the hosting and delivery of video.
Firstly, introducing HubSpot's new video hosting platform
Exclusive to Pro and Enterprise HubSpot packages, the HubSpot video hosting platform includes a number of tools to help you integrate video into your marketing mix. First up, the ‘Video Marketing’ tool.
So why is it so cool?
1. You can easily embed videos into website pages, blogs and social media posts
Using the tool, you can embed your videos into your website pages, blogs and social media posts with just one click. This means no more messing around trying to upload videos and use the right embed codes - simply select the video(s) you want to add and click!
2. CTAs and forms can be added to any of your videos
You can also add calls-to-action (CTAs) into videos to make them more interactive. For example, if you wanted to increase conversions on a specific video and determine just how interested your viewers are, you could include a pop-up form that displays after a certain amount of time has elapsed – say 30-45 seconds. The pop-up form would essentially pause the video, and for viewers to continue watching, they would have to fill in the form. In addition, you could include CTAs throughout the video (and at the end of the video) to push viewers towards more relevant content, such as webinars, or to subscribe to your videos.
Utilising the video marketing tool, you can quickly qualify website visitors who watch your videos, as well as determine just how effective they are at generating leads. If, for example, a video has a high number of clicks and average session length, it might be worth looking at revising your CTAs and including more effective and relevant ones in your videos!
3. Video analytics to monitor performance
As well as being able to include CTAs and forms in your video to increase engagement, HubSpot’s Video Marketing tool also includes analytics and reporting functionality to help you measure the efficacy of your video marketing campaigns and identify areas for improvement. Who watched your video? How many clicks did it receive? How many times did a viewer watch your video? How long did a viewer watch your video? Which sections were watched by your viewers? What devices are they using to view your videos? All of this information – and more – can be captured through HubSpot’s Video Marketing tool.
4. Workflows can work in conjunction with your videos
Finally, the video marketing tool allows you to create workflows that activate based on whether a website visitor has watched a specific video or engaged with a specific video in a certain way. This way you can use video to further nurture existing contacts, along with your other forms of content.
If all of this wasn’t enough, you can also send video via the HubSpot CRM!
But that's not all, HubSpot has also announced another tool - HubSpot Video Selling!
Secondly, introducing HubSpot's new video selling tool
Introducing a new way for salespeople to engage with contacts: ‘HubSpot Video Selling’. Rather than simply sending a prospect a piece of written content – you can instead create and share personalised videos right from the CRM. For example, say your prospect is interested in finding out more about one of your HubSpot training sessions. You could easily record one of your training sessions, upload the video to your HubSpot portal and share that video with your prospect directly through HubSpot.
Alternatively, you could record a product demonstration and send it to your contact. The Video Selling feature comes with analytics and notifications so you will know exactly when that person watches the video. The possibilities are endless!
Using this feature, your salespeople can easily build stronger relationships and share more personalised content with contacts. No longer will your sales team have to trawl through content assets or the business’ blog to find relevant, high-quality and engaging content.
HubSpot have also announced a new way for services teams to send video via the Service Hub, it’s called the ‘Video Service’.
Lastly, introducing HubSpot's new video service tool
Last but not least, the HubSpot Video Service.
This feature is particularly useful when customers have problems or need help troubleshooting a HubSpot issue, and a service representative wants to respond as quickly as possible.
Using the video service, service teams can streamline and improve the engagement process significantly.
For example, if a customer is struggling with building a blog in HubSpot and needs a simple how-to guide pronto, a service representative can check the ticket, record their own screen as they go through the blog creation process, and then reply to that ticket with a ‘How to build a blog in HubSpot’ video.
Similarly, if a customer can’t locate a particular feature in HubSpot but knows of it – the service representative can create and share a video directing them through HubSpot to where that feature is.
Using this approach, service teams can minimise the time they they spend trying to troubleshoot themselves and instead empower customers with the information for them to do it themselves, ultimately solving those issues faster – no more trying to describe what to do over the phone! Using video, salespeople can provide detailed instructions on how to solve issues whilst visually indicating where everything is in HubSpot. These videos can then be embedded into the business’ website and knowledge base. The tool also comes with analytics to help keep track of video performance – clicks, views, average time spent watching, etc. – all of which is displayed in a new video analytics dashboard.
As video continues to grow and be adopted by more and more marketers, it’s important that your business has the tools and the strategy in place to leverage and capitalise upon video marketing. Without the right tools or strategy, your business will be left behind as video becomes more popular.
