6 Video Marketing Trends for 2021

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Not so many years ago, video marketing was a rather expensive way of advertising. Fast forward to 2020 and you have 92% of marketers declaring that video is a significant part of their marketing activities. The question is – what kind of video marketing trends have evolved with this change?

🚀Read Customer Experience Guide: How to Put your Customers First? 

Many companies have started using videos immensely, which leads to consumers watching them more and more every year. Research shows that by next year the average person will be spending no less than 100 minutes per day watching videos.

However, these established changes don’t mean that things have stabilized. Video marketing continues to change, with constant shifts in viewer preferences, platform offerings, and advertising options. We are guiding you through the list of most popular video marketing trends, which brands should follow to stay in the loop.

Picture 1. Video Marketing Statistics

6 Video Marketing Trends for 2021

Story About a “Story”

After Snapchat first launched “story”, other social networks followed the FOMO hype instantly. It was not the form that changed (video, photo, GIF, all mixed together), but the users perspective. 24 hours to watch it or its gone forever sounds like an ultimate social media game that users like. And just like all good things, the hype shed to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube opening a range of new marketing opportunities.

Recent trends show that Stories have transformed into a type of vlogs and as such they will continue to take off. Such Stories are mostly done in the spur of the moment and in low quality so the overall expectations of viewers are much lower. This opens more space for advertising and research shows that it’s really effective.

Related: Importance of Social Media Monitoring

The Instagram Video

Instagram may not be the biggest social network, but it surely is among those that consumers love the most. According to Wyzowl, there are 800 million monthly active users, 500 million of them are active daily and 250 million users post Stories every day. Just think of the marketing potential in such a community! And marketers actually do – since 65% of them plan to post their videos on Instagram in 2021. 

Read Six Attention-Grabbing Tricks for Video Marketing

Apart from regular Stories and videos, Instagram has introduced its IGTV platform in 2018. The aim was to create an alternative to YouTube with its main feature – it supports videos up to 60 minutes. IGTV hasn’t started off well, but with recent updates and added features (horizontal videos, appearing on regular Instagram feed) many expect that its popularity will rise in 2021.

Picture 2. IGTV is becoming more popular

LinkedIn Video Marketing Trends

When it comes to presenting your business and brand to your professional network, LinkedIn is just the right place. The use of LinkedIn videos in marketing is on the rise. According to Wyzowl, 2 out of 3 marketers plan to use videos on this business platform in 2021. 

Although videos on LinkedIn can last from 3 seconds to 10 minutes and 30 minutes if it’s an ad video, short videos get more attention. Get to your point quickly at the beginning of your video. Jane Fleming, Digital Marcoms Manager at LinkedIn, recommends capturing attention with a hook in the first 0 to 3 seconds in a great article about LinkedIn best practices and the dos and don’ts of LinkedIn video.

LinkedIn videos can be used for many purposes. A network of professionals you’re gathering is a great place for presenting your products (e.g. through a how-to-video) or simply for telling a story, be it about your company or your new product/feature/business venture, etc.

Video Authenticity in B2B Markets

Video is no longer reserved for visual-businesses such as fashion and traveling, but it is adjustive to any kind. Although demonstrating ROI can be confusing, new video platforms make it easy to measure viewer engagement. You see which parts interested them enough to be worthy of a re-watch, and you can even link your marketing platform directing the viewers into your sales funnel.

B2B video marketing statistics heavily suggest that B2B video content campaigns have more impact than ever now. With millennials increasingly in charge of business decisions, a video marketing campaign can change the way your brand accesses market space. A Google research from a couple of years ago claimed that 72% of  B2B buyers and researchers were watching videos to help them make their buying decisions. Judging by the growing number of millennials making decisions in B2B, this number is even bigger today. Research says that they don’t watch clips of the video here and there. Nearly half of them watch at least 30 minutes of content.

That is why B2B videos need to be authentic. Instead of giving the customer a run of the mill demo featuring a dull product description, videos could have a specific case such as customer care. One good example is the video of Method CMR where enthusiastic host holds the attention to the product. Another example is Taulia’s funny videos that follow when a person doesn’t use their services. It uses well-liked pop-culture to massively increase the appeal of the video.

Picture 3. The vast majority of B2B buyers are millennials

Hello TikTok 

TikTok has already proudly won the title of the most downloaded non-gaming app on Apple Store in the last year. With 800 million users it has caught the eye of many marketers already and advertising on this social media network can only experience an increase.

As a primarily video-sharing platform, TikTok encourages its users to upload short videos, mostly up to 15 seconds. With the growth of its popularity, the variety of videos people upload changed, as well as the profile of its users. But most importantly it has forced marketers to look into a new group of users who are actively becoming consumers – Generation Z.

It is particularly interesting that users of TikTok show an extremely high rate of engagement. Research by CloutMeter shows that TikTok users have a 52.1% engagement rate. Be it because of the fact that 41% of its users are teenagers between 16 and 24 or something else, TikTok is definitely to stay on the marketing sky and to shape future video marketing trends.

Social Media Rivals the Homepage

According to Animoto’s recent consumer survey, 58% of consumers check out a brand’s presence on social media before their website. That is more than half of consumers who first use social to find out more information about your business. The question you should ask yourself is – What are they finding there?

Your social media presence is more important than ever. In 2021, it is going to be important to make sure that your platforms of choice – Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, or wherever your customers are – are up to date. And the video is the most engaging way to share.

Conclusion

Video is arguably the most entertaining and addicting form of content online, so no wonder that video marketing trends change from year to year. In fact, according to Google, half of 18-to-34-year-old YouTube subscribers would drop what they’re doing to watch a new video by their favorite creator.

Some 54% of consumers say they want to see more video content produced by a brand they support. Because of that, there is an increase in producing informative and educational pieces. As brands realize the effectiveness of videos like product showcases and customer testimonials, they are putting more time, effort, and creativity into these sorts of pieces. Originality is the key – so think how your business is different than others and show it in a video.