When you’re browsing your favourite sites and social media online, what kinds of content do you consume most?
Which do you find most engaging?
Articles and posts? Not likely.
Pictures? Sometimes, but generally we just skim them.
Videos? Yes!
Research recently published in HubSpot’s ‘State of Inbound 2016’ shows us that 45% of people watch more than an hour of Facebook or YouTube videos a week and 55% of people consume video content thoroughly.
This isn’t just limited to B2C demographics watching cats that look like Hitler videos on Youtube (see below), it also applies to B2B audiences who are consuming videos about complex products and services.
What does this mean for marketers?
It means that consumers want to see more social, news and general videos from marketers and generally will respond better to them.
However, we as marketers must be wary as the general consensus is that ads today are much more intrusive than two years ago – which has led to the 2016 consumer who is savvy, interested and engaged, but only if they want to be.
How do we target them?
Looking at the research provided in the State of Inbound 2016, we know that content consumption on social media (namely Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) has more than doubled and 79% of Facebook users alone use their feed daily for finding interesting content.
If we can successfully engage our prospective consumers through social media video and online video, we can have a much better chance of talking to a consumer that wants to listen.
Other takeaways?
From all the marketers surveyed in the State of Inbound 2016, most of them want to ‘de-centralise’ their content in 2017 and experiment with new channels. They’re not just resting on their laurels with many accounting for video content’s rising popularity amongst global consumers, with 48% planning on using YouTube and 39% looking to use Facebook video.
For all the latest statistics and research from the world of sales and marketing, make sure to download the FREE State of Inbound 2016 report.
