As the digital marketplace becomes increasingly visual, the way you present your organization to the public must evolve to keep up. Global internet video traffic is expected to quadruple between 2015 and 2020, and video viewing on mobile devices has gone up by 532 percent since 2012. Including video content on your website is no longer optional if you want to position your brand as forward-thinking and socially aware.

Spending on Video Yields High ROI

As a small business owner, you already wear many hats, and you may not feel confident about producing your own videos. While it's not difficult to create your own webinar or informational video, paying for professional production is always an option. The key question is whether your investment of time or money will be financially worthwhile.

HubSpot has assembled some impressive statistics that all give an affirmative answer to that question: Watching a product video makes 64 percent of users more likely to buy, while including a video on a landing page increases conversions by 80 percent. Including videos in your email newsletters will double or triple your click-through rates, and 92 percent of mobile video users say they share videos with their friends.

Many Options for Posting Video

Video content is highly adaptable, and you can choose the way of posting it that your customers are likeliest to find and enjoy. The following list will give you an idea of the wide variety of video approaches that are available to you:

• Branding on Your Website: You can post one brand video on your main home page, or you can tailor different landing pages to specific customer personas by posting different videos on each.

• Instructional and Product Demos: When potential buyers have the opportunity to see your product or service in action, it’s easier for them to picture themselves benefiting from it. Informational content on related topics will appeal to users by providing actionable material that they’ll be motivated to share with friends.

• Support Topic Explanations: Posting clear instructions on using and troubleshooting your product decreases the amount of time you have to spend providing customer support. It will also give users a sense of confidence that they’ll be able to make the product work without having to make phone calls. Even if you’re only explaining your return policy, a video makes everything clearer.

• Webinars and Podcasts: These have been around for a while, but they remain justifiably popular. Many great free options are available for producing these, and they have a lot of flexibility. Live webinars allow for interactivity, but after the live streaming is over, the recorded webinar retains its value. Users can listen to it over and over in the future.

• YouTube Channel: Every video you create can be posted on YouTube as well as on your website, and there are good reasons for making use of YouTube’s dynamic search capabilities. Searches for “how to” topics on YouTube are growing by 70 percent per year , and when you create your own channel, you can generate a subscriber list for all your video content.

• Posting to Instagram and Facebook: When potential customers see your video ad on Facebook, they experience an increase in brand awareness, ad recall, and intent to purchase. Instagram now allows 60-second video posts, and 40 percent of the most popular Instagram videos are posted by commercial brands rather than by individuals.

Today’s shoppers are no longer satisfied by static ads and written content alone. Providing an engaging video experience will clarify your brand identity and put your company at the front of the field.