In the fast paced age of social media, it’s no surprise that 87% of consumers would rather watch a video over reading written text when learning about a new product. There are many reasons for this, and perhaps most notably is efficiency.
Nowadays, people are pressed for time, and from the perspective of the consumer, a short video pertaining to a product will be preferable to a large wall of text, which can be time consuming to read, and potentially put them off the product.
Saying this, however, it is important to leverage both to ensure effective marketing strategies.
A digital revolution
It goes without saying that digital media has revolutionized the way we consume information and has added an unprecedented layer of efficiency to it. ‘How to’ videos, for example, can often succinctly summarize how to resolve a problem, and can potentially cut out hours upon hours of reading information which will achieve the same result. This same logic can be applied to product marketing strategies.
Selective consumers
With increasingly more companies offering the same products or services, there is more competition, and consumers are more selective in whose services they are going to utilise. It is therefore crucial that any business marketing strategy is engaging and isn’t going to feel like a chore for the consumer to consume. Indeed, it’s no surprise that succinct and to-the-point videos are preferable over reading.
Why is video preferable?
Videos and webinars are effective ways to engage the consumer, and with many enterprises asking “What is a webinar, and how can we use them to engage our demographic?”, it’s never been a more important time to utilize them in business marketing strategies.
Reading involves actively processing the information in front of us, whereas a video can be immersive and create an empathetic connection between consumer and product. In other words, visual stimulation is more likely to get the potential customer to connect with your product or services.
Not always the best option
Video, whilst demonstrably preferable for the consumer, is not always necessarily the best option. When consumers receive their content, there are two notable factors at play in the preferred medium of doing so:
- Habit
- Unconscious action
Consumers are often influenced by previous habits, meaning that if they have previously consistently received content through text, they are more likely to choose this option over video, and vice versa. In other words, consumers tend to only choose one medium over the other, and typically never utilise both.
Striking a balance
As a result, it’s important for businesses to understand the mind of the consumer. As creatures of habit, they are not necessarily going to prefer to watch a video over reading a wall of text, despite the statistics showing that video is the preferred method of engaging with a product.
Therefore, businesses must not abandon text-based modes of marketing entirely, and still implement them in their strategy (even just on a supplementary basis) to ensure they are reaching all corners of their target demographic.
In other words, in the age of digital media, leveraging both text-based and video-based content is essential to ensure a successful enterprise.
