Following trends is one of the best ways to stay ahead of your competition, especially in marketing. Sure, this means adjusting your marketing strategy every few months, but it’s almost always worth the effort—especially when a well-timed marketing campaign yields incredible ROI. The latest trends in ecommerce for the year 2017 seem to be aligning seamlessly with video marketing and video content, making the need for ecommerce video production imperative. Here are just four of the trends currently sweeping the second quarter.
CATERING TO THE MILLENNIALS
Millennials are consumers between the age of 18 and 34. These are people born in the late ‘80s and the early 2000’s, and they experienced the rapid, almost instantaneous change in technology while growing up. Ergo, they’re the ones with the talent, the know-how, and the boldness to navigate—and be entirely dependent on, even—online shopping and ecommerce.
As someone in ecommerce, these are the people you want to target. Ecommerce video production makes it possible, seeing as 4 out of 5 millennials find videos extremely helpful during the shopping and purchasing process. In fact, 1 out of 3 attributes their purchases directly to watching ecommerce videos.
CAPTURING GENERATION C
We’re all familiar with Generations X, Y, Z, but a previously unnoticed sub-segment of generation Y—the millennial generation—may be growing large enough to become wholly relevant. Generation C is comprised of millennial consumers who “actively create and share video content on YouTube.” In other words, popular YouTube personalities fall under that specific subgroup—and so do their millions of subscribers.
What’s in right now—especially under the Health & Beauty and Tech & Gadgets categories—are haul videos. These are videos where social media influencers show other Gen C followers stuff that they recently bought (usually done after a shopping spree or splurge, so that there are more items shown) and share the price, brand, and first opinions of the items. A haul video markets the products clearly and unashamedly, which may be why Gen C people are 3.6 times more likely to buy their own products after watching a haul video.
PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCE THROUGH LIVE STREAMING
Live stream videos started popping up in 2015 (or perhaps a little earlier) and they’ve just been growing in power since. They’re perhaps the best form of storytelling videos and, when optimized for mobile format, can be quite powerful in handheld devices. Live stream videos can still be considered a form of ecommerce video production that can personalize the shopping and purchasing experience for the viewer. Live streaming on mobile devices can also cater to over 50% of consumers who admit they use mobile videos as their personal shopping guides.
THE CONTENT MARKETING SOLUTION
Content marketing is the digital marketing world’s response to advertisements—and, subsequently, ad blockers. People hate it when an obvious ad interferes with their video watching or website surfing. Content marketing gets around this by being something people actually want to see. The in-your-face buy this now! approach belongs strictly to late-night infomercials and as-seen-on-TV products. By utilizing consumable content, content marketing does a better job promotion and advertising.
Content marketers enjoy 7.8 times more site traffic. It also generates three times as many leads even though it’s a good 62% cheaper than outbound marketing. Ecommerce video production produces content that you can spin into your content marketing strategy (because everybody loves videos) which makes ecommerce videos a must have in your 2017 marketing arsenal.
