How and Where Marketers Are Using Video in 2017

November 13, 2017

Marketers are brimming with enthusiasm about video, according to “The State of Video Marketing 2017” study [download page] from Demand Metric in partnership with Vidyard. More than 9 in 10 believe that video content is becoming more important, while 7 in 10 report that video converts better than other content formats and almost three-quarters feel that the ROI is steady or improving.

The following highlights some of the results from the report, which is based on a survey of 159 executives. The majority of these respondents work for organizations that are mostly or entirely B2B (57%) or are a blend of B2B and B2C (28%).

Previous research has heralded a growing role for video in B2B marketing, with many seeing video as being among the most effective content types.

Marketers Are Using Video to Educate

It’s clear from the types of videos that are being produced that education is a key component to business use of video this year.

In fact, the fastest-growing video type is the Demo, used by twice as many respondents this year (59%) as last (28%). Explainer videos (54%) are also used by a majority of marketers, with many also using How-to/Educational videos (42%). How-to videos have long held strong appeal with consumers – but appear to also have a foothold in the B2B space.

The most commonly-used video type, however, remains the Product video. This year almost two-thirds of marketers surveyed by Demand Metric report using Product videos as part of their mix, up from 51% last year and 59% the year prior.

Where is Video Being Used?

Marketers are deploying video content in several areas, led by their websites (86%) and on social media (77%).

While those are the most popular destinations for video content, a majority also post them on YouTube (64%) and use them in their landing pages (60%).

One area of growth is the use of video in emails (46%, up from 36% last year), which tends to be used more aggressively by small (52%) rather than large (24%) companies. Video is also being used as a tool for email capture, per a separate report from Wistia, which detailed a 27% year-over-year increase in email captures for its client base via its in-video email gate.

Returning to the Demand Metric and Vidyard study, another area of strong growth is the use of email in sales conversations (37%, up from 25%). This is an area where large companies see the most potential – as almost half (44%) are now using video to support their sales conversations.

The sales team is also relying on video in other ways: 44% use video viewing data to at least some extent to qualify, engage or influence deals – up from 27% last year.

The Most Popular Video Type Differs by Its Area of Use

While Product videos are the most broadly used video type, that’s not uniformly the case.

Landing pages, websites, social media, and YouTube are more likely to feature Product videos than other types, but marketers using video in emails and sales conversations are more likely to rely on Demo videos than Product videos.

Nonetheless, Product and Demo videos are the two most popular in almost all areas of business video use, with Explainer videos the third-most popular in each place of use.

Video Measurement Remains Basic

It’s true that marketers are confident about video’s performance and growing effectiveness. But that confidence might be based off incomplete data.

For the time being, the majority (51%) of respondents continue to use basic video effectiveness metrics, such as views or shares. Just 13% use advanced metrics that provide more insight into revenue impact, such as views by embed location, attribution to sales pipeline and viewing heat maps.

Although it’s encouraging that more marketers this year are using basic metrics rather than none at all, there’s been no movement over the years to suggest greater uptake of advanced metrics. As the report’s analysts point out, without the use of such metrics, “ROI determination is an estimate at best.”

Worth noting is that 71% of those using advanced metrics report that video converts much better than other forms of content. By contrast, fewer than 1 in 4 marketers using less advanced metrics have the same level of confidence in video’s relative performance.

Other Findings:

Other results from the report follow.

  • Few respondents currently use features and functions including custom calls-to-action at the end of their videos (42%), interactive video content with embedded forms or annotations (26%) and video content personalization (21%).
  • Just 16% are using video to support their account-based marketing strategies, though that’s double the share from last year.
  • The majority (56%) of respondents are increasing their video budgets, with another 38% keeping them steady.
  • Almost 6 in 10 are satisfied with the results of their video marketing efforts, versus just 10% who are dissatisfied.

The full report can be downloaded here.

About the Data: The results are based on a survey conducted in October 2017 among 159 executives, of whom three-quarters name Marketing their primary role. Respondents come from a mix of companies sizes, including more than one-third from companies with at least $100 million in annual sales.

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