Forbes.com – When It Comes To Content Marketing, Seeing Is Believing

By Matter

By Steve Olenski

I have to admit that when I first read the results of a survey of marketers done by PR firm Matter Communications, I was tempted to write this article in a very satirical voice – even more satirical then I normally do. Essentially the survey revealed that when it comes to getting the most bang for your content marketing buck the use of video and visuals has a direct impact on engagement and effectiveness.

My satire was going to speak to the fact that was this survey about content marketing and the use of video and visuals really necessary?

Don’t all marketers know that the use of video/visuals greatly enhance and positively benefit their content marketing?

I was going to write this piece in the same vein I did my recent Hey Marketers, Did You Know Men And Women Are Different? In that article I made reference to a quote from Joan Hogan Gillman, Executive Vice President of Time Warner Cable and President of Time Warner Cable Media who said “ a majority of clients (advertisers) still create television and online advertisements that are not targeted specifically to women.”

But then I realized something. I realized that maybe, just maybe, there are still some content marketers, brand marketers and brand managers and so on who still, despite being almost 2013, do not fully grasp and appreciate the power of video.

So I decided to leave the sarcasm in check (well I can’t promise I won’t be sarcastic for the entire article) and share the findings with all of you in a more straightforward manner.

The infographic below will speak directly to the following findings:

  • 95 percent (of marketers) believe visual content is very important for online marketing
  • 89 percent are already using or plan to use visual content in social media
  • 87 percent believe visual content is critical for traditional marketing
  • 80 percent plan to budget for production of visual content in 2013
  • 96.7 percent believe that visual content engages best on social media

In discussing the findings Scott Signore, CEO of Matter Communications said that “Brands of all flavors see higher engagement with their customers when they deploy visual content across their marketing disciplines – from social and public relations, to web site content and even static marketing materials like annual reports.”

Personally I like his use of the word “flavors” as it paints a sort of Baskin Robbins feel to it. But pop culture references aside, Signore’s comment is insightful in that it speaks to the need to integrate – one of my favorite words – video/visual content across all marketing channels and mediums.

The Eyes Have It

In his recent piece for Forbes – 5 Big Brands Confirm That Content Marketing Is The Key To Your Consumer – Brandon Gutman references VirginMobile‘s Virgin Mobile Live and American Express Unstaged, two examples of brands using video and visual content to engage their fans, consumers, prospects and so on.

Here’s how I look at the use of video online and why it’s important and why consumers like it: Look at your monitor as a TV screen. You don’t read TV do you? Of course not. You watch it. Very basic and simplistic for sure but also very true. People want to see things online, not just read. And more and more want to do more of the former and less of the latter.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2012/12/06/when-it-comes-to-content-marketing-seeing-is-believing/