2023 Video Marketing Trends and How to Leverage Them in Your Business

Video marketing has become an essential component of any digital marketing strategy. With the rise of online platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and others, video marketing has become more accessible and effective than ever before.
According to Cisco, 82% of global internet traffic in 2022 came from video and the growth seems unrelenting with many companies that are yet to use this format to its full potential.
Video marketing keeps evolving and 2023 is expected to be another exciting year for this powerful and highly engaging medium.
In this article, I have compiled for you the latest video marketing trends and described how businesses can take advantage of them, here we go:

Trend #1, Live Streaming: Did you know that - according to the IAB - 44% of viewers say they watch less TV nowadays because of live streaming? Also were you aware that - according to Buzzsumo - live streams get over 10% more interactions than pre-recorded videos?
Live streaming allows businesses to interact with their audiences in real-time and provide valuable information or behind-the-scenes footage. Social media and video platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube all have live streaming options, and your business can use them to boost engagement and brand awareness. Let’s have a closer look at some practical examples of live streaming in action:

• Live Q&A sessions allow businesses to answer customer questions and provide valuable information about their products or services. This can help build trust and establish the business as a thought leader in its industry.
• Live product demonstrations are a great way to showcase a product's features and benefits. This can be particularly useful for businesses selling physical goods, as it allows customers to see the product in action before actually making a purchase.
• Live streaming can also be used to provide behind-the-scenes footage of a business's operations. This can give customers a glimpse into the inner workings of the business, which can help to build trust and transparency.
• Your business can also use live streaming to broadcast events such as new releases, conferences and other company or industry events. This can help you reach a wider audience and increase engagement with your brand.
• Collaborations with other businesses or influencers can be a great way to reach new audiences and increase brand awareness using live videos. For example, a live stream of a product or service demonstration done by an influencer in the industry can be a very effective way to reach new customers.

Trend #2, Short-form videos: Short-form videos such as those on TikTok and Instagram Reels have become increasingly popular in recent years. According to Woosuite, they get the highest ROI compared to other social media posts (around 30%). These videos are usually 15 to 60 seconds long (up to 2 minutes) and are perfect for showcasing products or services in a fun and engaging way. Businesses can use short form videos to create viral campaigns that build massive engagement. The following are a few examples where you can leverage the power of short-form videos and reels:

• Influencer marketing: You can collaborate with influencers to create engaging short-form videos. Influencers can provide valuable insights, testimonials and demonstrate products in a relatable way to their followers. Just make sure to partner with a relevant influencer specialized in your niche.
• Challenges, contests & Hashtags: You can also create cool challenges or contests that encourage your followers to produce user generated content around a certain hashtag. This can be a great way to increase brand awareness and build engagement. For example, one of the easiest ways to tap into the power of reels is to launch a contest where you ask customers to create a short video using your product and share it with a specific hashtag, with the best video winning a prize.

Trend #3, Personalized videos: Personalized videos are another trend that businesses can use to promote their products or services in 2023 and beyond.
Personalized videos work by using data from a customer's interactions with a business, such as browsing history, past purchases, or other data, to create a video that is tailored to their interests and needs. For example, if a customer has shown interest in a particular product, you can create a personalized video that showcases that product and its features. If a customer has recently made a purchase, a personalized video could be created to thank them for their business and provide them with additional information about the product they purchased.
One brilliant example that stands out is Cadbury’s use of personalized videos in their Glow campaign. The famous British confectionary company asked its followers on Facebook to create personalized videos dedicated to their friends, family or significant others by simply writing their names and uploading pictures of their loved ones. The result is a gorgeous personalized video that you can check here.
And for those who want to start right now, here are a few software programs that can help you create cool personalized videos: Sendspark, Hyperise and Idomoo.

Trend #4, Interactive videos: Interactive videos allow the viewer to interact with the video in some way, such as by choosing different paths for the video to take or by providing input that affects the outcome of the story. This can be achieved by using a software that tracks the viewer's choices and controls the playback of the video accordingly. Interactive videos can be a useful tool for marketing, as they can help to engage viewers and increase their interest in a product or service.
By allowing viewers to interact with the video and make choices, interactive videos can create a more personalized and memorable experience, which can lead to increased brand awareness and positive associations with the product or service being marketed. Additionally, interactive videos can be used to gather valuable data on viewer preferences and behaviors, which can inform future marketing strategies.
Here are a few types of interactive videos you might want to start exploring this year:

• Branched stories: These give viewers the ability to choose their own path while watching the video.
• Hotspots: These are clickable areas within the video that reveal additional information or content.
• Polls and quizzes, which engage the audience by asking questions related to the video content.
• 360-degree view, which allows for an immersive experience and augmented reality-like effect for the viewer.

In conclusion, video is an essential format and should be part of any digital marketing strategy in 2023. From live streaming to personalized and interactive videos, there are many innovative techniques that businesses can now explore for the next level of user engagement, so what are you waiting for?