Boring 2017 Video Marketing Statistics AND How to Make Them Awesome

Yeah, we said it. Stats are boring (in and of themselves).

These factoids look great on a slideshare and can be dressed up to make people think you know what you’re talking about, but unless you can harvest the data and gain insights into your business—you’ve got nothing.

Our post is not a (boring) list of dozens of stats that you can regurgitate to your content team.

Everyone does that. We’ve decided to decipher the code.

In reality, stats are like little codes. If you can crack them open, you’ll reap the benefits they speak to. If you can’t translate the data into action, you’ll have a nifty trinket and no treasure.

So, finish your Cracker Jacks and break out your decoder rings.

We’re about to take an adventure that will reveal the secrets that all of those facts and figures are trying to tell you.

Intro “Sample” Stat: In 2017, it’s estimated that video will make up 74% of web traffic.

Related: 3 Reasons Your Customers Demand Video Marketing

Stat Translation: Yes, your story needs to be told with video, but in a way that draws the right traffic in ways that traditional copy no longer does as effectively.

Necessary Standards to Keep You Focused

Before anyone starts out on an adventure to decipher a hidden message you have to be properly motivated.

Think incomplete treasure map or ancient untranslated hieroglyphics.

People have always searched for hidden treasure, even today. And there are still so many texts and pictures that are being researched to understand the past of humanity better.

So, what’s the motivation in using these stats?

Welp, you are trying to translate the trends into insights that help you tell your brand’s story better (e.g. hieroglyphics). Once you do that, you’ll end up with better conversions (e.g. treasure).

See what we did there?

Bottom Line: Understand that every fact, stat, and number should help you better convey the story of your product(s) to your audience—ending up in a higher conversion rate.

Let’s Get to The Stats

Bonus Decoding Tip: While you’re looking through the jungle of endless stats that are bullet-pointed out, it’s important to think about how you advertise. Maybe you’ll find a stat that will help you to that end, or maybe you’ll find new ways to do your marketing.

Stat One: A staggering 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound.

This one sounds crazy, but makes sense with a little translation.

First, most videos shared on FB are cute, funny, and/or quick. Add the fact that you have to click on the video in order to hear the sound, it adds a level of commitment that most users aren’t going to do as they’re scrolling through their feed.

Don’t take this as a downer though, you have to take the translation and apply it to your marketing. Why not try to:

Make a cute or funny video that tells the story you’re trying to get across.
Keep your videos short enough and impactful enough to keep them from scrolling by on their feed.
Create a version of your video with subtitles specifically for the person who doesn’t want sound.

Stat Two: Almost half of marketers plan on adding a YouTube content strategy this year.

With a billion users worldwide, YouTube marketing isn’t optional for many businesses, it’s mandatory.

If you’re not uploading and advertising via this platform, the stat could be a simple warning to get it in gear.

However, if you are already implementing these things, it’s time to increase your efforts. Your competitors that aren’t on YT are likely thinking about it. How can you reimagine, or bulk up, your efforts to keep ahead of the game?

Competition is good, especially when you see them coming and can translate the stats better. But alas! Just because you host videos on YouTube doesn’t mean that it’s perfect for every instance where you use a video. When implement a landing page video or embedding an email thumbnail, Wistia is pretty rad and is our go-to at Explainify.

Related: 10 Reasons Why You Should Host Your Videos On Wistia

YouTube, on the other hand, is most appropriate when you want to share something that is fun, engaging, or content you want easily shared. Like this:

Stat Three: 80% of consumers feel that demo videos are helpful.

Marketing used to be all about coming up with a great slogan for “men” or “women” or “teens”. Very general, very vague stuff and it worked.

It’s why we had the show Mad Men.

Now, it’s much harder to gauge what a person wants based on simple demographic data. Luckily, it’s also a time when the consumer is telling you exactly what they want to hear (and how).

People who are at a certain stage of your sales funnel just want to know how your gizmo works, and they want a short video that tells them straight up.

Bonus Decoding Tip: When you find stats that have similar data, you can combine them to make an even more informed marketing decision. For instance, shoppers who view demo videos are much more likely (1.81X more) to purchase than those who don’t view those videos. Not only does your audience want a demo vid, but it helps you find your treasure (conversions).

Stat Four: People watch 10 million videos every day on SnapChat.

This stat is to demonstrate (to some of you) the ease of scrolling past gold on some of these lists of numbers.

A lot of execs don’t have an active Snap profile, if they have one at all.

If we give it a second, the excuses for staying off the platform start rolling in. “That’s not for companies, but for teens and close friends.” Similar things were said about Facebook and Instagram and now you can’t stop big companies from spending millions to advertise.

SnapChat can be helpful in a lot of businesses (not all, obviously) in the cause of humanizing your brand.

People want to feel a connection to whom they buy from and it starts with you speaking their language in places where they are talking.

Stats can help you figure both of those things out.

Stat Five: Over half of all online video watchers consume videos thoroughly.

We do short form explainer video content here at Explainify, but that doesn’t mean that we are opposed to the very idea of longish videos.

Even if we were, the facts point to many users seemingly wishing there was more.

Not that this stat has an average length, but with some serious decoding you can decipher a few points that this could be speaking about.

It’s about 55% of video watchers, not all. This means that these could be people who are researching for school/work, interests/hobbies, or products. Not casual watchers, but those who are bought in to a certain degree.
Length isn’t that important to these people, content is. Whether it’s those “Tasty” recipe videos that are only a minute long (but you can’t stop watching and will never make whatever it is) or an hour tutorial video that really shows how your product works. Either way, leave them with everything they need (including a hunger for more).
Quality plays a huge role. For every video these hardcore watchers play, there is at least one that they can’t back out of fast enough. One is a professionally produced video and another is a blurry Windows ‘98 MovieMaker special.

Ready for Adventure?

Stop looking for stat posts only to forward them to your marketing team. Stop reading them and saying, “Hmm. Interesting.” And then forward it to your colleagues.

It’s time to take your brand’s story and your conversion rate to a higher level, and that can only come when you use the intel you have and translate it to best suit your company’s image and customers.