Online visual content marketing is here to stay and not only that, its value for company brands and the interest it draws from consumers only continues to grow. People want to be stimulated visually when they open their favorite app on their smartphone or open a browser on their computer. The numbers don’t lie.
- The amount of people watching YouTube each day has increased by 40 percent year over year since March 2014 and growth in watch time on YouTube is up 50 percent year over year for three years straight, according to YouTube. Not to mention that YouTube now has more than a billion users, which represents nearly a third of all the people on the internet.
- According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, an ongoing initiative to track and forecast the impact of visual networking applications, by 2020, it will take someone more than 5 million years to watch the amount of video that moves over global IP networks each month. Further, the index predicted that IP video traffic will account for 82 percent of all the commercial traffic on the internet by 2020.
It comes down to the concept that most of us prefer to learn through visuals – research by the Social Science Research Network says that 65 percent of people learn visually. So as a business, how can you get your potential customers to learn about you online? Here are two visual ways to educate internet users about your brand.
Google Business View
Choosing the right restaurant, cafe or hotel can sometimes be a tough decision for consumers. When a potential customer is making a decision on which business to go with through research on Google, you want your business to leave a lasting first impression. That is where Google Business View comes in. These premium, 360-degree interactive virtual tours give a potential customer the opportunity to experience what you have to offer before they get there. Adding business view to your existing profile on Google yields a far greater chance of success than businesses that feature little visual content. In fact, 46 percent of senior marketing executives say that the use of photography is critical for a brand to properly tell its story. Google Business Views are created with visually stunning photography.
Notice in the photo above that you have the option to click forward to the door and enter the tasting room of this winery. When a customer clicks forward and “walks inside,” they will feel as though they are standing right in the middle of the tasting room.
Google Business Views have proven to be a major benefit to business owners. According to Google, those who view a listing with a virtual tour are twice as likely to be interested in booking a reservation there. Among 18-34 year-olds in particular, prospects are 130 percent more likely to book based on a virtual tour. (These numbers are based on market research conducted in 2015 for restaurants and hotels. A total of 1,201 respondents were collected.) The bottom line is having a virtual tour helps improve your Google presence, which is the No. 1 source for local searches on the internet, and gives a good first impression on Google Maps with premium-quality photography. Here’s how it works: Your online business profile is captured by Google Maps, Google Search and Google+.
Your business profile is hosted free of charge by Google. Business View will be integrated into your current online profile and hosted by Google for free. To participate in Business View, however, Google requires the photography and virtual tour to be completed by a Google Trusted Photographer who has been specially trained by Google. That is where we come in. We have a Google Street View Trusted Photographer partner that can make it happen for your business at a reasonable price.
Drone video
In today’s online world where you must be concise and different in your marketing efforts in order to capture the attention of your potential customers, it is important to think outside the box. Incorporating a drone video into your marketing efforts helps you stand out.
Shoppers who are exposed to video are 1.81 times more likely to buy a product over those who are non-viewers and retailers say they see a 40 percent increase in purchases as a result of video, according to Adobe. While using a drone video to promote a product or service may not work for every business, it can come in handy when a real estate agent wants to promote a new listing, a hotel/resort wants to promote its amenities or a construction company wants to highlight a construction project. It may also come in handy to help make the interior of a specialty office, such as medical or sports complex, shine. Internet users are moving beyond the typical talking-head video format. They want to be wowed with the visually appealing aspects of your business. Make them want to be at your place of business.
A stunning bird’s-eye view of everything your company is about is a great video option for an embedded branding video on your homepage or for sharing on your social media platforms. Once you have these visual tools at your disposal you can begin to incorporate them into your overall marketing strategy. If you and your business is interested in either of these options, reach out to us. We’ll walk you through it all and let you know how it fits with your business.