There is an increas­ing amount of evi­dence that con­sumers expect and look to videos as a source of ful­fill­ing infor­ma­tion­al needs as they are con­sid­er­ing their pur­chas­es. Are brands meet­ing the con­sumer demands for the medi­um?

A Lev­els Beyond report high­lights a sig­nif­i­cant gap between con­sumer desire and will­ing­ness to con­sume brand video con­tent, and the abil­i­ty for a large pro­por­tion of brands to meet that need.

The report, which sur­veyed more than 1,000 peo­ple in the Unit­ed States and more than 500 brand mar­keters, dis­cov­ered that while 59 per­cent of con­sumers would watch video con­tent on a brand’s web­site, 75 per­cent of brands rarely or nev­er pro­duce videos for social media fol­low­ers.

Video leads to high engage­ment with audi­ences. Many stud­ies have shown how it ulti­mate­ly leads to greater brand loy­al­ty.

Today’s con­sumers think of brands more as media com­pa­nies and want high­ly engag­ing, infor­ma­tive, and enter­tain­ing video con­tent from the com­pa­nies where they plan to spend their dis­cre­tionary income. Videos can change opin­ions and can dri­ve pur­chas­ing deci­sions.

The research fol­lows an unde­ni­able shift in the way peo­ple con­sume media today. Smart­phones, tablets, and social media now are a key part of con­sumer con­tent con­sump­tion.

The study focused on three areas:

• The chang­ing way con­sumers are inter­act­ing with video.
• The evolv­ing role of brand video.
• The role of video in dri­ving brand loy­al­ty.

You can down­load the entire report on the Lev­els Beyond web­site, but in the mean­time, here are three key take­aways from the report.

1. Consumers Look for Videos to Fulfill Informational Needs

When vis­it­ing brand web­sites, con­sumers are increas­ing­ly look­ing for video con­tent, with 59 per­cent say­ing they’re like­ly to watch videos when they vis­it a web­site that has video con­tent, and 40 per­cent say­ing that they would rather watch a video than read infor­ma­tion from a brand con­tain­ing the same infor­ma­tion.

By far the most sought after kind of videos are how-to, instruc­tion, or tuto­r­i­al videos, with 67 per­cent of con­sumers say­ing that they would want to watch such videos.

2. Shares and Recommendations are More Important Than Views

The major­i­ty, 73 per­cent to be exact, of brand mar­keters report­ed that they mea­sure the suc­cess of a video based on the num­ber of views it receives, but evi­dence sug­gests they may be miss­ing the con­nec­tion between views and deep­er, more effec­tive engage­ment.

When asked what draws them to watch a video, con­sumers con­tin­u­al­ly point­ed to the fact that they’re influ­enced by per­son­al and social net­works.

3. Brands are Failing to Reach Consumers Via Video

A mas­sive 75 per­cent of mar­keters say they rarely or nev­er pro­duce videos for their social media fol­low­ers. Social chan­nels hold one of the biggest oppor­tu­ni­ties for brands to dis­trib­ute videos and reach a larg­er audi­ence through trend­ing and social shar­ing. Con­sumers want more than just text updates – video offers brands an easy oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage more effec­tive­ly with con­sumers across social chan­nels.

Conclusion

Video is emerg­ing as the medi­um of choice for a new gen­er­a­tion of con­sumers who are engaged and active on social media. While mar­keters do rec­og­nize this chang­ing land­scape and its impact, they haven’t entire­ly evolved their mar­ket­ing strate­gies to cap­i­tal­ize on the oppor­tu­ni­ty.

By mak­ing sup­ple­men­tal video a high­er pri­or­i­ty, brands can increase the chances to reach and influ­ence a larg­er audi­ence in a high­ly engaged envi­ron­ment. The pow­er of social shar­ing and its impact on con­sumer behav­ior means that brands that focus on social chan­nels will see a greater return on the time, effort, and bud­get invest­ed in social video.

This arti­cle first appeared on the Linkdex blog.

Is your brand using video to reach and engage con­sumers? Let us know your insights on mar­ket­ing to con­sumers via video in the com­ments below.