67% of statistics are made up on the spot (including that one)…so I won’t busy this post with any more than this… by 2017, video will account for around 69% of all consumer internet traffic and according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index video-on-demand traffic will have far exceeded twice what it is today.

Whether statistics mean anything to you or everything you cannot deny that with YouTube being the second most popular search engine, a lot can be said for the necessity and usefulness of video in getting your brand recognised. Google (which owns YouTube) is the most popular search engine and when it comes to SEO this is a big deal.

Video content can play an important role in SEO strategies if it is hosted on YouTube as these video can all be easily indexed by Google’s search engine. Having said that, YouTube is not the only video content hosting and sharing site and you should definitely take a look at some others which may suit the needs of your business better. While YouTube is free it may not necessarily be the best option for your business.  Always shop around for what can best represent your brand image and fit to your specific needs.

Hosting your video content on multiple sites will also help to increase traffic to your website and increase sales by offering it to a wider range of consumers. Due to the large number of sites available this advertising platform is available to companies of all shapes and sizes with varying budgets from the very very free to the more expensive.

As one of the most common arguments against video content is price. Some companies believe that the payoff isn’t worth the cost of producing a video which has long since been considered an expensive practice. Yes some ads have the budget of a hollywood blockbuster but bigger is not always better, there are so many forms of video which varying in price from whiteboard animation and simple testimonials to scenes that wouldn’t look out of place in a Die Hard film.

And speaking of price, any good marketing strategy has a social media strategy and any good social media strategy features video content. Facebook for instance can play video content as you scroll through your newsfeed offering the opportunity to capture audience attention more effectively than any other medium. Rolling out your content across social media is free so although you may wish to incorporate some paid for advertising, a good video should do most of the work for you.

The most important feature of video however lies in customer relationships, it helps consumers to better relate to your brand. It is a better way of getting people to know about your brand, service or product and how it works in a more engaging way.

The value comes from what video brings to your business, customers are more likely to trust your brand if they can relate it to a friendly face and a human, personal touch.

By producing something as simple as an explainer video using an affordable format such as animation you can engage and inform customers quickly about your product or service showing them how it can be applied to their lives and enabling them to envisage themselves using or availing of it.