With most of the country locked indoors during the pandemic, we were deprived of our usual forms of entertainment. As we had nothing but screens and the odd walk to turn to, we began consuming media more rapidly than before, and found ourselves deriving relief, amusement and connection online via platforms like Zoom, Netflix, Youtube, Instagram and TikTok.
While it was always going to continue growing at the speed of light, there’s no doubt about the fact that the pandemic has led to an uptick in online video consumption over the past year. Therefore, it’s a must that you pay attention and include high quality video content as part of your hotel’s overall digital marketing strategy.
Here are five fascinating facts about video
- Video traffic will make up 82% of all consumer traffic by the year 2022
- Viewers claim they retain 95% of a message when obtained via video
- 90% of people watch videos on YouTube, 51% watch videos on Facebook, 38% on Instagram
- 78% of people report watching videos online each week while 55% of those watch on a daily basis
- 63% of guests will use video to decide where to visit and stay, so without video, you risk losing them to your competitors
Here are top five tips to help you bring your video content to the next level
1. Capture people and captivate them
Make sure you make an effort to engage your viewer in the first few seconds.
If you don’t manage to capture the interest of your viewers right away, their automatic response will be to skip to the next available video (they won’t even think about it) and you may have just lost a potential guest.
2. Make it mobile friendly
We don’t need to tell you twice… mobile traffic and revenue is growing at an unstoppable pace and everything you do must be considered for a mobile audience as well as desktop.
You need to keep in mind: how do we consume content? In this mobile-first world, always make sure your video content is mobile friendly or, again, you’ll be at high risk of losing out on a large portion of potential viewers.
3. Inform people
To stand out among your competitors, be informative and make sure your message is clear, concise and appeals to the needs of your custumer. An example of this? You could potentially run a video series explaining the advantages of booking direct on your hotel’s website.
4. Encourage action
Over half of shoppers say that online video has helped them decide which specific brand or product to buy. Strong creative with an enticing call to action will encourage customers to take that crucial next step in the purchasing funnel.
5. Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3…
A final important point for you to consider is tailoring your video for every media platform. Once you do this, you need to test each video format to see which have captured the most attention and results. This will assist you in building a comprehensive online video strategy.
Youtube Bumper Ads are a great solution for hotels. Bumper Ads are short six second ads that appear before other video content which can’t be skipped. They can also be used across your Facebook & Instagram ads. As well as being a brilliant way to showcase your brand with a brief, yet captivating message, they’re also very cost-effective to run – we are currently seeing costs per view of 0.2-0.3 cents.
