Video marketing is becoming increasingly popular with companies, and there’s good reason why. It’s no secret that videos can positively impact your company’s website and online marketing campaigns. But what is the true value of a video?

We decided to separate the fact and fiction on the impact videos can have on websites. The results are in...

Videos boost engagement: Fact
According to YouBrand, on Facebook, videos are clicked on and interacted with more often than pictures or text. And the engagement doesn’t stop there: videos are shared through social media channels 267% more than other posts (via SourcePEP).

Videos are naturally interactive mediums, well suited to customer interaction. Take advantage of their engagement power by maximizing social sharing. Make sure your social media channels are up to date, and if you don’t have a YouTube channel yet, start building one now. Because videos are relatively new in online marketing, breaking in early can give you maximum benefit.

Company websites impact brand credibility: Fact
Do not underestimate the power of your company website. When consumers turn to company websites for information, the subconscious association with a company brand is inevitable. Companies with inadequate websites risk losing consumer trust, so it’s important to build a site that reflects your brand accurately. This means ensuring every type of media -- video, photo or text -- on your site is consistent with your brand’s image.

Videos always boost brand credibility: Fiction
Videos can hurt brand credibility as much as they help it. It’s important to be strategic when integrating videos on your online website. Videos increase brand association by up to 139 percent, according to Unruly. That association is huge when impacting your brand’s image. A great video can go viral as easily as a bad one, so use videos with care.

Videos instantly increase SEO: Fiction
It is now standard practice for many search engines to display multiple types of content, such as images, news, maps and video, with general search results. Blended search results can help you increase your SEO if your site aggregates multiple mediums of data; however, simply posting content does not instantly equal SEO.

According to Forrester, while videos are 50 times more likely of being shown on first page results than text, few marketers optimize their video content for SEO. In order to take advantage of video for SEO purposes, you have to help search engines help you by:

    • Creating a sitemap and semantically marking up video pages so search engines can easily find and index your content
    • Using the video’s URL as an SEO tool by integrating relevant keywords
    • Adding text content with relevant links and SEO keywords

When it comes to SEO, search engines are important, but don’t forget about the power of the people. Make it easy for viewers to bookmark, link, and share your video content across social media channels to maximize SEO.

Videos should be your primary focus in online marketing: Fiction
Videos should be a part of your online marketing, but not the only part. Forgetting about other mediums and focusing on only one type of online marketing hurts you, no matter which media you are using. Videos have the most power when they are integrated with other media. Media ads with video generate six times as many post-ad site visits as standard ads (via MediaMind), and combining video with full-page ads boosts engagement by 22 percent (via Rhythm Insights).

So, while it’s important to understand the impact videos can have on websites, don’t forget about other techniques such as blogging and email marketing. Given the same content, 20% of people will choose to read text, while 80% will watch a video with the same content, SourcePEP reports. While that 80% is a huge chunk of your customer base, you don’t want to forget about the other 20%. When it comes to online marketing, a comprehensive approach is key.

~ article credited to exacttarget.com