6 Video Marketing Trends You Need to Know

2017 video marketing trends are shaping up to make for a fantastic year of video marketing. Facebook is pushing millions and millions of dollars into growing their video channels; Snapchat is raising billions of dollars to, in part, fight off Instagram and Facebook; and VR is increasingly making its way into the mainstream.

So if you want your video marketing strategy to keep up, you need to stay on top of these trends. To help, we put together a list of some of the video marketing trends you can expect to see.

1. 360-degree Videos Boost Video Engagement

Thanks to HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and others, virtual reality is skyrocketing in popularity. But even for users without high-priced VR gear, you can still provide an immersive experience in the form of 360-degree videos.

360-degree videos aren’t just trendy – they get real results. Magnifyre ran a split test comparing a regular video with a 360-degree video. To test the two, they posted each video on Facebook and promoted it with the same ad.

The results? The 360-degree video received 28.81% more views. Better yet, twice as many viewers watched the 360-degree video all the way through compared to the regular video.

That to say, 360-degree videos get real results. They’re not a meaningless trend.

But how can you create a 360-degree video without breaking the bank? That’s the big question. Are 360-degree videos so expensive that they’re exclusively the realm of big brands?

Not really! The technology is surprisingly cheap. For example, The Ricoh Theta S offers a good entry level option at just $299. You can see an example of a 360-degree video created by the Theta S below:

$299 is still a decent chunk of change, but it’s well within reach of the average website owner.

So if you want to boost the engagement of your videos and Facebook ads even further, consider investing in a 360-degree camera and playing around with 360-degree videos this year.

2. Videos on Sales Pages

This is a tactic I’ve been increasingly seeing across sales pages. It’s not new per se, but it is popping up more and more nowadays. And for good reason. Several years ago, VWO posted a case study in which including a video on a client’s sales page boosted conversions by 46%.

And with services like Wistia, it’s becoming easier and easier to include videos on your sales pages and get detailed analytics on how your prospective customers actually interact with those videos. That combination is what’s essential.

So now, you can prove the ROI of your sales page videos. Not everyone will watch them, but the people who do will experience higher engagement. Just don’t try to completely replace your text with videos! The name of the game is “supplement.”

3. Explore Live Video Streaming on Facebook Or Other Apps

There’s something addicting about watching a live stream. That’s just my opinion. But this is a fact:

People spend 3x more time watching a Facebook video that’s live compared to one that’s no longer live.

That’s a tough number to argue with. So if you want to engage in video marketing on Facebook, you shouldn’t ignore live video streaming.

The great thing about live video streaming is that it doesn’t require a huge budget, either. You can run a simple webinar or Q&A through Facebook live video streaming and still see a boost in engagement.

And guess what? Trends point to further growth in live video streaming. 81% of internet users watched more live video in 2016 than they did in 2015. And with numbers like that, I doubt that trend will decrease.

Additionally, 80% of people prefer to watch live video from a brand rather than reading a blog, and 82% would take live video over social posts. Again, those are powerful numbers.

Best of all, Facebook sends a notification to your followers when you go live. So you get a massive engagement bump right off the bat as soon as you go live!

4. Automated Video Ads Have Made Landfall

In November 2016, Google added a new automated video add tool for app marketers. It automatically pulls data to create a short promotional video. No human input required! Google’s automatic video technology is getting surprisingly good, according to my Google Photos account, at least! So expect this one to only grow in popularity.

Plenty of other services are also striving to create platforms that make it easy for marketers to automatically generate hundreds of video ads. Expect this type of trend to continue as people try to remove the “time” barrier from video marketing.

5. Don’t Forget About Snapchat…

If you pay attention to the news, you probably heard about Snapchat’s recent IPO. You know, where the little chat app went public for a cool $29 billion. Yes, billion with a B.

So why is Snapchat valued so highly? Maybe because, as of mid-2016, its users were consuming a massive 10 billion videos per day. Yes, again, that’s billion with a B. And not only is that number impressive in its own right, it also beats out Facebook video in terms of raw views.

So if you’re planning to engage in video marketing, don’t ignore one of the most popular video channels out there. Snapchat has a newly acquired war chest in the form of $3.4 billion raised during their IPO, so you can bet they’re only going to keep expanding their user base.

Make sure to keep your ads short on Snapchat, though. The average ad view on Snapchat lasts fewer than 3 seconds.

But speaking of war chests, Snapchat isn’t the only one involved in video messages and stories…

6. …But Do Pay Attention to the Story Wars

Snapchat’s story feature was cruising in early 2016. It was averaging well over 10% quarter on quarter growth. Compounded, that’s a pretty massive jump every 3 months.

But then something happened…

That something was Instagram dropping a near identical feature, down to the name. Only a few quarters after Instagram launched the feature, Instagram’s Stories usage was already rivaling Snapchat. And Instagram’s success meant a significant slowdown in the growth of Snapchat Stories.

Snapchat Stories was still growing as of the last published metrics, but not nearly as quickly.

So if you’re planning to take advantage of the massive popularity of stories, you’ll want to consider using both apps…or waiting it out for a winner.

Wrapping Up

Surveys consistently say that marketers are planning to increase their video marketing budgets. Does that apply to you?

Personally, I find live video streaming to be the most attainable goal for a regular WordPress user. With 360-degree videos are an intriguing, and increasingly affordable, option. See our recommendations for the best live streaming platforms and plugins.

But what types of video marketing trends are you most looking forward to taking advantage of?

Article thumbnail image by Amid Guliyev / shutterstock.com