Film and video are an important aspect of any organisation’s successful digital marketing plan. If your marketing strategy includes film, then it will work so much harder and better for you.

And thanks to recent advancements in technology, video production is an accessible marketing tactic for companies of all sizes and budgets.

Senshi Digital’s, Chris Torres tells us why video is the best digital marketing practice for tourism companies – but as you’ll see, this is true of all e-commerce companies:

It’s an accessible marketing tactic open to marketers from all sizes of budget.

The first thing to acknowledge is that times have changed and thanks to advancement in technology and the accessibility of cameras and apps, video production an accessible marketing tactic for companies of ALL sizes.

Video and film is something consumers expect. Please don’t get left behind.

According to Cisco, by 2017, video will account for all consumer Internet traffic. Growth in video and film generally and for marketing is and will continue to be rapid.

Video has a huge reach, that’s why it’s such a powerful aspect of marketing. Just consider these statistics:

• After Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.
• YouTube has over one billion users. That is one third of all the people who use the internet.
• And, every day those people watch hundreds of millions hours of YouTube videos. You can access this massive audience if your marketing strategy includes video.

Video is impactful.

One minute of video has the same value and impact as 1.8 million words, according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research.

Video is good for your website

And the average Internet user will spend 88% more time on a website with video. You are also fifty times more likely to appear in Google’s first page if you use YouTube and films on your site.

Video will help you sell more and faster.

Customers use film to research their purchases. 64% more people buy from websites that have film explaining their products (comScore). According to Forbes, 65% of execs visited a seller’s site after watching their film. AndMarketingProfs tell us that 70% of marketing professionals report that video converts better than any other medium.

And for tourism specifically, video is critical as these video marketing statistics show:

• YouTube is the most used site for travel videos. A whopping 79% of users are looking at personal travel options.
• Overall, the survey showed 66% of all travellers watch online films when they are thinking of taking a trip.
• 65% of travellers watch films when they are choosing a destination to visit.
• 54% of travellers watch video when choosing accommodation
• 63% of travellers watch videos when looking for activities to do at their destination. (Google’s 2014 traveler study).

In travel, you are selling an experience, an emotion and a feeling.

Video is the best medium to convey this. It creates a faster emotional connection than any other channel.

Film and video marketing in tourism has never been more important. Finally, here’s a quick list of how to make your tourism marketing videos work:

1. Make your films short. 59% of viewers will watch the whole film if it’s less than one minute long. Films of 15 seconds or shorter are shared 37% more often than those >30 seconds. (Wistia.com)

2. You have 10 seconds to grab a viewer’s attentionbefore 20% of viewers begin to move away.

3. Make it mobile friendly as viewers on these platforms will give you more time. I-phone users will give a film 2.4 minutes, android users will give 3 minutes and I-pad users will watch a film for 5 minutes.

4. Make it shareable and visible on social media. 92% of mobile viewers share videos (Invodo.com) and mobile makes up almost 40% of global watch time on YouTube.

5. Get ready for Super Tuesday. 16% of YouTube videos are embedded, linked or shared between 11am-1pm on Tuesdays (Sysomos.com).

6. Think about the audience for the film. What will they want to know from a film? Is a film/ this content relevant to them?

7. Plan your content and be clear about what part of the buyer process your videos are aiming at and stick with it. Don’t try and cover everything in one film.

8. Get creative. Show behind the scenes and your staff too. Customers love seeing a behind the scenes tour of a process – like wine making or the kitchen, and the faces behind the brand.

9. Don’t be a one hit wonder. Publish and share more than one film.

10. Make your films indexible – so they can be found and returned by search engines.