The reality of the visual internet in 2018 is that it’s - in a word - crowded.

There are +1 billion mobile video plays on YouTube, +8 billion video views on Facebook, and 3 billion Snapchats created every day.

We live in a visual world and it’s getting more and more visual every day. We even found in our State of Video Marketing 2018 report that 82% of marketers planned to produce more video than the previous year. But are marketers properly running video? At TwentyThree, we’d answer that question as: “Sometimes. But mostly, no.”

In this blog post, we’ll break down the 7 aspects of video marketing that we’ve identified as falling behind the rest of other marketing strategies. We’ll cover why it’s so important to start measuring video engagement (play-time) and why you should have you video data integrated into your marketing automation or CRM. Plus a bunch of things in-between.

You can either watch the 15-minute webinar we put together on the 7 Keys to a Complete Video Marketing Strategy in 2019  or read the blog post below.

1. Start Using Video Across the Marketing Funnel and Buyers Journey

Typically, video is viewed as a top of the funnel, brand awareness marketing tactic. Whether it’s a short snippet on Facebook or a YouTube video that is meant to boost the SEO of a brand, video has lacked a full-funnel mindset from marketers.

But video is the best way to tell a story, even once someone is close to a conversion. It can be used at every stage. From a product video on an eCommerce checkout page feature video to a customer story for a B2B company, video is an essential medium for marketers to ultimately achieve their goals with video. In the State of Video Marketing 2018, we found that 79% of marketers use video for brand awareness, but only 24% attribute video to conversions.

That’s not to say that brand awareness isn’t important, but how can product videos, video case stories, webinars, and video email also play into your video strategy? Having a full funnel mindset when it comes to video can drastically improve both marketing data and results.

2. It’s All About Engagement

When it comes to measuring video there are metrics that matter and metrics that don’t. Engagement falls into the category that matters. When we say engagement, we mean the play-time that your audience actually watches your videos. This can tell marketers about two things:

• The video content they are producing is resonating with their audience
• Which length of videos are optimal for their viewers.

Only 38% of marketers are currently measuring the engagement of their videos, and even less measure the conversions that are attributed to video. Vanity metrics like view/plays/impressions can tell part of the story, but moving beyond those measurements can help paint a complete picture for marketers.

3. Are You Producing the Right Length of Video?

In our State of Online Video report, we break down the differences between the length of video and what engages an audience. We found that 54% of videos produced are under 2 minutes, yet only account for 10% of the overall engagement. On the other hand, 20% of the videos produced were 5+ minutes and accounted for 69% of total minutes watched.

Most importantly, brands need to measure their play-time to know which length of content is right for their audience. It may be that a 30-second clip works best or a 45-minute webinar sees the highest play-time, but it’s only a guessing game if the engagement is ignored.

4. Find Your Channel

Historically, video has been thought of as YouTube or Facebook. While these two channels remain some of the most important channels for marketers, they are not the only ones.

When it comes to finding the channel that works best for video, it’s all about testing, testing, testing. Measuring the engagement rate and optimizing for the audience. It’s one thing to have a hypothesis that video works for your audience on, say, LinkedIn, but it’s an entirely different matter to dive into the data and see if people are actually watching.

5. Running Video on Your Website is King

By getting someone to your website you’ve already won half the battle. They are now part of your funnel and not susceptible to third-parties like Facebook or YouTube that can easily distract. Using video across your entire website can help marketers engage their audience even more and push them towards a conversion.

Marketers can use video directly on their website through:

• Video Hubs
• Video Landing Pages
• Embeds
• Spots (Multiple videos embedded into a single container)

By hosting your videos on a video marketing platform on your website, you eliminate third-parties that typically own the user experience. Having a video hub can take that user off of YouTube (even though YouTube is still very important for the top of the funnel) and place them on your website where you maintain control over their journey.

6. Yes, Videos Work in Email

Adding a GIF or animated thumbnail directly into an email can improve click-through rates by as much as 62%. Whether it’s a personalized sales email or a nurture-flow, mixing video into your email strategy in 2019 could be a quick win for any marketer looking to improve their KPI’s.

7. Is Your Video Data Siloed?

Here’s the reality: only 33% of marketers have their video data integrated into their tech stack. With the majority of website data now coming from video, it’s essential for any marketer to find a way to get their video data integrated into HubSpot, Marketo, Google Analytics, or Salesforce (and many other tools).

What if a user was on a landing page for 3 minutes and 2 minutes was spent watching a video? Without an integration, the attribution and lead scoring would be drastically off for this specific individual. This data can also be used to set up specific email workflows that can move your prospects down the funnel even more.

Data is gold to organizations and video can raise its value exponentially.

Want to learn more about TwentyThree? Sign up for a free trial for our video marketing platform here.