It’s that special time of year again where you get to indulge in cozy nights, presents, and the most fun of all: your 2018 budget! It's time to take inventory of where money was spent these last 12 months, and plan on how to spend it in the new year.
While buried in long reports of ad per click costs, ROIs, and every other detail that plays into the value of money already spent; YOU are ultimately responsible for tracking the efforts of your competition as well as staying on top of ever-changing trends in digital media.
This is where the practical must meet the creative. You need to see where your company wants to be, and look logistically at how you are going to get there. But you don't have to go it alone. All reports indicate that in 2018, every successful business will include the use of video marketing.
MessageHub commercial by Lure Films
People Are Spending Online
If Black Friday & Cyber Monday were any indicator, people who are spending money are spending it online. Any person looking for a good or service, including your competition's unhappy customer, is tapped into their device at every turn of their professional and personal lives.
So shake the notion that video ads are only reaching demographics like millennials. Google and other online advertising distributors are serving your potential clients advertisements from your competition. In 2018, it's time for you to get competitive online.
Be Proactive
Don’t panic! You're already being proactive by reading this blog. You're clearly paying attention to the shifting trends in advertising. But having never dived into video marketing before makes it a daunting task. Let us give you an idea of what to expect.
To begin, not every ad is a Super Bowl commercial. All you really need is thoughtful video, in any capacity, to rank among your peers on search engines. If you use video in your email campaigns, your click through rates can increase as much as 200 - 300%.
You can even start smile, taking this opportunity to liven up your testimonials page or feature a product demonstration for your landing page to increase conversation rates up to 80%. With numbers like that you get the picture. There is nothing but opportunity for growth with the integration of video.
Invest Properly
Video production is an investment - and you should hire a production company to help you invest properly. Hiring the right people to conceptualize creative content that can work across multiple channels will not only tell your story, but give you the greatest return on your investment. They'll take the headache out of script writing, location scouting, hiring a film crew, finding an editor and delivering your final product.
As video takes over 80% of all consumer internet traffic next year, you should be focused on the quality of your product or service - not on a crash course in film school. Don't be fooled by deals that seem too good. Videos typically start at a few thousand dollars, not hundreds.
With commercial quality video you'll be able to utilize that content in so many different ways that it will be worth the upfront cost of doing it properly. We promise!
Target The Right Audience
In addition to campaign strategy, some agencies now offer delivery services. This way the final product, on any budget, is reaching the right audience. Reaching customers who are interested in your product and are closest to your target audience allow targeted advertising to reach the proper person. We're now able to re-target prospective customers that abandon their shopping carts in the last minute.
These agencies can make sure that exactly the right people are seeing your videos, in exactly the right places, at exactly the right times. Be certain you are thoughtfully and economically serving videos to the right customer, every time, with online video advertising.
Start Now
If we can be so bold, you should plan on spending money early in the year. By creating strong content now, you can adjust the budget and placement of the video ads all year long. Then you can sit back and watch your sales take off. By recognizing people are spending money online, being proactive, working with the right people, and targeting the right audience, your return on investment will be apparent.