Compelling Case for Marketing via Videos

Filed in Small Biz Marketing, Statistics by Matt McGee on August 3, 2009 14 Comments

Not yet using videos in your online marketing? Consider this: The Pew Research Center said last week that the number of adult Internet users watching videos online has nearly doubled since 2006, and is now almost two out of every three adults online.

video-stats

How’s video usage compare to other online activities? Check this out:

The use of video sharing sites currently outranks many other headline-snatching internet pastimes among American adults. Watching online videos on sites like YouTube is more prevalent than the use of social networking sites (46% of adult internet users are active on such sites), podcast downloading (19% of internet users do this) and the use of status updating sites like Twitter (11% of internet users do this).

If your small business targets a younger demographic, video is probably even more essential to your plans. Pew says 89% of Internet users between 18 and 29 years old watch videos online.

Comments (14)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. 89%… ??

    i knew video marketing was good.. but 89%.. it’s damn good!!

  2. Kevin Dervin says:

    Thanks for this post Matt. Sounds like something that small business marketers should definitely pay attention to.

    And the good news is that cranking video out has also gotten easier and easier in that same span of time. Small business owners and independent professionals that have been creating content for any length of time (i.e., blogging, writing articles, giving presentations, etc.) should really get busy.

    You already have content that can easily be repurposed to share for all those people searching and watching videos online.

    Thanks again for the informative post Matt.

    All my Best!
    Kevin

  3. Kim says:

    Wow… that really is an impressive statistic! My next question, though, is which social media site would be the most effective to market videos… Is YouTube the best option? Or are you better off posting videos on your company blog?

  4. Paul Flood says:

    I bought a video camera last year to add videos but have yet to make too many of them. This post gives me a sense of urgency. I’m teaching a marketing boot camp in September and putting together a site for it today. I’m definitely going to add a video.

    Kim,
    I think getting it on your site and YouTube is the best starting point. When putting it on YouTube, be sure to optimize it with keywords.

    Paul

  5. 89% between 18-29 is ridiculous. I am sure most people targeting that audience, already actively promote videos. If not, WOW! I will tell you one thing, with my love for After Effects and SEM- that would be a fun little project…try to capture an area via only video….wonder how that would turn out.

  6. Joel Gross says:

    Wow… 89% is high. How would you suggest integrating this into your business website? I would be suprised if 89% of this same group would read the text within a web site. Do you think it would be smart to have a majority of your context in video form to reach this group?

  7. I agree, online video is a large ingredient in marketing yourself or your business. It is a vital component because many people are visual learners and a video is just what they are looking for.

  8. James B says:

    The numbers are impressive, and I think that the search engines are ahead of the curve here – placing video results in amongst the usual SERPs along with the little thumbnails to draw your eye. That’s gotta be designed to tap into this kind of trend.

    Although.. that said.. What came first? The trend, or the SERPs highlighting of videos? Which one caused the other?

    Anyone got any data on that?

  9. Mark says:

    I think we’re all going to have to learn to use video as part of our marketing and selling strategies online here in the near future. It is going to require getting in front of the camera which is something most internet marketers I know aren’t comfortable with, but what can you do?

  10. Matt McGee says:

    Joel – I think it’s smart to cover all your bases and have content in text and video form, and whatever else makes sense for your audience. If I had time, for example, I could quite easily convert some of my posts to videos and upload them.

  11. That is incredible growth. It will only continue to increase as well. I need to get on to the video bandwagon.

  12. 89% is soooo high.. hmm what videos they usually watch? i mean the content. In my opinion, they only watch few categories of videos.

  13. shirley says:

    I think the statistic is very close to reality.
    The “issue” or good about the “new” generation is that they spend more time in front of computers than TVs, not that they watch less TV, just that they watch over internet.

    also, kids these days do not read, do not write, do not … many things, they just watch videos, tv, games psp etc.

    as such to market to them, really the best is using videos

  14. Teresa says:

    I’m not surprised that videos are so popular. You can find almost anything on YouTube. Granted most people are watching their favorite TV shows or music videos, but there is a huge opportunity for marketers to reach them. Not only are people watching these videos, they are making their own. UGC promotions are popping up more and more these days.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *