Over 500 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute. What’s more, the average person consumes around 17 hours of videos every week. All of this means one thing: video continues to reign supreme.
Yet, a lot of businesses still have some catching up to do, and refuse to embrace video-centric communication. While traditional formats like text emails and slide decks still hold value, they pale in comparison to the impact of video. Why? Because nothing cuts through the noise quite like video does.
Whether you're trying to market your company, attract job candidates, communicate effectively, or support your training efforts, you and your team need to become video-first. It means that video should be your go-to tool for how you communicate both internally and externally. Businesses that have made this leap are already thriving in this era of change. You can, too.
Not convinced? Let’s dive deeper into how becoming a video-first workplace doesn’t have to be out of reach and can set you up for ongoing, positive results.
Jump to a reason:
- People Are Overwhelmed by Information
- People Prefer Video
- Video is Great for Marketing
- Video Bolsters Communication
- Video is Now a Must-Have
- Video Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
- Video is the Future — and It’s Here
People Are Overwhelmed by Information
The average person consumes around 34 gigabytes of information every day. That’s roughly equal to 100,000 words.
Information overload is becoming a huge problem in not just our daily lives, but also at work. In fact, information overload can make 1/3rd of your employees lose up to an hour of productivity every day. It’s cited as one of the top three challenges hampering workforce productivity.
1/3rd of employees lose up to an hour of productivity because of information overload.
(Source: The American Institute of Stress)
With so much information flying around, an average person chooses to ignore most of it. Plus, what they do consume isn’t all necessarily retained.
That said, information presented in video format is more likely to cut through the noise. How many times have you scrolled through a wall of text-based LinkedIn posts on autopilot? And what made you finally stop? Odds are, it was a video that stood out in a text-heavy feed. Similarly, you’re more likely to stop and watch a video sent on your company’s Slack, than a text message.
Simply put: diversifying with video allows you to break through the noise and increases your chances of being seen, whether posting something on social or internally.
Your Audience and Employees Prefer Video
Every type of content has its place, whether it’s a blog, infographic, video, or other format.
But, in today’s environment, people are trending toward video. And this also includes your employees.
About 83% of employees say that having more videos at work would improve their overall employee experience. This means using videos at workplace can have a direct impact on employee engagement.
83% of employees say that having more videos would improve their overall employee experience.
(Source: Brightcove)
Video is also preferred within the consumer space. In fact, 73% of people prefer to learn about products and services via video. But the preferences for video don’t stop where products are concerned. About 85% of people want more video content from companies in general.
85% of people want more video content from companies in general.
(Source: Wyzowl)
In other words, video is largely preferred for both external and internal comms.
Keep in mind this doesn’t mean you should ignore other content formats. Providing a variety of content allows you to align with different learning preferences, lower barriers to accessibility, and reach a wider audience.
Video Can Increase Marketing ROI
Video is an effective marketing tool. In fact, 95% of marketers say video is an effective way to drive awareness. Without awareness, your brand is dead in the water.
What’s more, 88% of marketers say video improves product and service understanding. This is crucial to guiding your audience through the sales process. Similarly, improved understanding can also help internally when you’re training your teams.
Where return on investment (ROI) is concerned, 87% of marketers say video provides a positive ROI. This ROI can vary depending on the type of video and audience. Fortunately, video as a medium is industry-agnostic.
87% of marketers say video provides a positive ROI.
(Source: Wyzowl)
For example, cosmetic brand Ava Estell improved their conversion rate by 21% after adding product-oriented videos to their Shopify store pages. Gronda — an online community for chefs and foodies — doubled their amount of winning social ads by using videos.
Every industry and business is unique. Using video in your own organization can unearth surprising results, as you find ways video is uniquely effective with your own audience.
Video Bolsters Communication
A video-first approach in the workplace can help you establish a foundation of clear, effective communication across the board. Your team likely has an inbox full of emails and dozens of Slack notifications. A video can once again cut through the noise and stand out. Not only this, video communication helps you save time. For example, a quick video with meeting context can help people better prepare before a presentation.
About 80% of employees prefer video over other communication methods. So, instead of an email, consider having your CEO send out a weekly video update to your team. Similarly, instead of briefing your team members on a new project through a boring document, consider sending a video.
80% of employees prefer video over other communication methods.
(Source: Brightcove)
The best part? Including video into your comms isn’t nearly as time-consuming as it sounds. Even simple use cases like the following can benefit communication:
- Asynchronous training recordings
- Video messages from your leadership instead of cut-and-dry emails
- Zoom calls for employee support in lieu of Slack messages
- Video updates on products posted to your social accounts
- Fun, holiday-themed videos from your team on your site and social
Notice none of the above items are particularly resource-heavy. There aren’t costly sets or editing required for most of the above videos, yet each one of them has the potential to improve the workplace experience and help your brand resonate with your audience.
Video is Now a Must-Have
Video-first workplaces are likely to become increasingly common. There’s currently already a mindset shift happening, where companies are moving from thinking “video is a nice-to-have” to “video is a must.” We’re experiencing this change firsthand with our own business users.
“We’re seeing a change in how people communicate at work. It’s a mindset shift from, ‘oh, we should do a video,’ to, ‘of course we’ll do a video. What else would we do?”
-Sabba Keynejad, CEO at VEED
Businesses that catch up and make this mindset shift can start reaping the benefits right away.
This mindset shift, while initially fraught with learning curves, will ultimately help your team become more video-oriented. As time goes on, your team will become more proficient at making videos, videos will become less expensive and time-consuming, and the benefits will only grow.
There will be a large element of change management here, so if you have someone in mind to lead the charge, make sure you flag them when pitching video-first to your stakeholders.
Video Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
Video doesn’t mean what it used to. Again, videos used to be long, expensive, highly polished, and inaccessible to most organizations. These more complex, high-production-value videos still exist, and they still have their place, but this isn’t true for videos used for day-to-day communications.
There are numerous video platforms available which allow you to make professional-grade videos more easily than before (and without the expensive equipment required to make videos in the past). For instance, VEED empowers you to make professional-looking videos in minutes, using the devices you have already.
As for video length, shorter is often better.
Short videos have the highest engagement rate of any video type when it comes to learning about products, compared to infographics and other media types. In fact, 66% of viewers finish videos under one minute, with the percentage dropping as the runtime increases.
Not only are shorter videos performing well with audiences, but raw, user-generated content (UGC) is also doing well. In fact, studies point toward Gen Z leaning toward UGC, and 92% of marketers say UGC helps with their product awareness efforts. These come at no or negligible cost to businesses.
Videos can cost as much as you let them, but that doesn’t have to be much. 42% of marketers say their average video only costs $0-500. When you’re starting out, you can easily create videos for virtually nothing. This is especially true where internal-use videos are concerned.
42% of marketers say their average video only costs $0-500.
(Source: Wyzowl)
Video is the Future — and It’s Here
The future is often uncertain. But, one thing is for sure: video has a great place in it.
81% of employees use asynchronous video at work already. This number will likely rise, too, when you consider 98% of people want to work remotely. Video comms are beneficial in any setting, and crucial to the success of remote workplaces.
81% of employees use asynchronous video at work.
(Source: Loom)
Where generations are concerned, the future has also arrived. Gen Z are the second-largest video consumers, and set to overtake baby boomers in the workforce by 2024. Not only does Gen Z prefer video over articles, but the majority consume video when trying to discover new solutions or companies.
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There’s never been a better time to invest in video. It’s accessible, affordable, and capable of helping you transform your business inside and out.
The generative AI market is growing 46% per year, powering countless video tools like VEED. This has made it possible to make better videos at scale even for those with little to no knowledge of video production.
The democratization of video is here, and it’s time to embrace it.
