In this article, join me in exploring some of the hottest and most relevant video marketing trends for 2020. At the article’s conclusion, you will have a better understanding not only of what these trends are but how you can leverage them in your own business.

A New Decade of Online Video Marketing

The start of a new decade presents a great opportunity to reflect on the past ten years and look forward to the next ten. At least in the technology space, the last decade has brought us so many innovations, ranging from the sheer dominance of social networks like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to artificial intelligence and machine learning providing significant value in our lives. True exponential growth is difficult to see as it is happening, but the simple fact is that increasingly advanced computing power and the development of the Internet economy is dramatically changing our lives in more ways than we can imagine.  

One of those key parts of the Internet economy is video marketing. Video marketing on the Internet has simply exploded in the past few years. All you need to do is look at the statistics. A whopping 85 percent of Internet users in the United States watched online video content monthly on any of their devices. 87 percent of marketing professionals use video as a marketing tool and 88 percent of marketers are satisfied with their return on investment of their social media video marketing efforts. 

I could go on. The bottom line? Online video marketing is a force and it isn’t going away. In fact, as more Internet content shifts from text to video, online video marketing will become even more important for companies of all sizes. Predicting how the future will exactly play out may be a fool’s errand, but my colleagues and I at Dubb are confident that online video marketing is here to stay.

Video Marketing Trends

With that baseline, I want to share some of the specific video marketing trends that I have identified for the coming year. 

At Dubb, I’m fortunate in that I am fully immersed in online video marketing. I not only get to see what Dubb’s clients are doing with our software, but my colleagues and I get to experiment with our own video marketing work. It is immensely rewarding and gives us get a granular look at what is up-and-coming in this world. Because of this, I feel confident that the following online video marketing trends are going to be critical this year. With these trends in mind, you and your colleagues can capitalize on these trends to better serve your current (and future) audience.

  1. The Continued Importance of Original Video Content

As a general proposition, one of my strongest theses is that original video content will continue to be rewarded this year. This isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. According to a HubSpot survey from 2018, 54 percent of consumers wanted to see more video content from a brand or business that they supported. This number is higher than emails or newsletters (46 percent), social images (41 percent), social videos (34 percent), blog articles (18 percent), and PDF content to download and read later (17 percent).

If you are a reader of the Dubb blog, you likely already know why this is. Video content is so compelling because it leverages humans’ natural attraction to images and storytelling. We are wired to pay more attention to images and we have been listening to stories since our primeval days. To put it another way, video content is so powerful because all of us are naturally attracted to it. 

Whether you recently started a software company or work in the marketing department for a larger company, I recommend that you think long and hard about your video content marketing strategy. Original content is only going to become more important this year, so you must have a plan of how your company is going to consistently create high-quality content for your audience. Doing so, you can create and empower evangelists, who spread the word about your product or service. 

Ultimately, 2020 is going to be the year of evangelism over cold outreach. We at Dubb are closely monitoring and preparing so that we can ride this wave. I highly recommend that your company does the same.

  1. Increased Sharing on Social Media Platforms

Small and large companies alike have taken notice, using YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms to create and distribute their content. For instance, at Dubb, we produce a daily YouTube show called The Daily Dubb which provides educational and entertaining content to our audience. Not only is it fun for us to create and produce, but it is a fabulous way to connect with our audience (who we love!). We give our audiences an inside look at our lives and leverage the wisdom of the crowds’ segment by talking technology with tourists in Hollywood. Episodic series like The Daily Dubb can be sticky, capturing your audience’s attention and building genuine, authentic connections (which later lead to sales).

Social media platforms like YouTube provide tremendous opportunities to provide real value to their audiences while evangelizing for their products or services. This includes everything from regularly distributing testimonial videos to taking audiences behind the scenes to show how a company designs its product or service. This year, we will certainly see companies double down on their original content work and distribute their content on social media platforms (like Instagram or even TikTok).

As far as specific platforms, LinkedIn and Instagram are particularly excited. While LinkedIn may not initially come to mind when designing a video marketing strategy, it is a terrific platform for your video content. According to a Hootsuite study, video posts on LinkedIn earn an average of three times the engagement of text posts. Especially if you run or work for a B2B business, you may find LinkedIn to be a fabulous place to build brand equity this year. And even better, with Dubb, you can take your already-existing video content and seamlessly push it to LinkedIn. 

With Instagram, you likely already recognize the power and reach of this game-changing platform. Perhaps you already have an Instagram marketing strategy and are seeing promising results. With that said, I think one of the more exciting features of Instagram will be Instagram TV (“IGTV”). IGTV lets users and brands make videos are longer than Instagram Stories. Specifically, regular users can make videos up to ten minutes long while the videos of verified users can go as long as 60 minutes. While brands have been particularly slow to adopt IGTV, I believe that brands are going to heavily invest in it this year. IGTV offers all of the positive features of Instagram while giving brands the opportunity to create and share long-form content. 

  1. Video Email

Companies have also started to recognize the power of sending original video content to their audience via email. Video email lets you take advantage of all the positive attributes of video and combine them with the stickiness of email. With many of us checking our email accounts multiple times per day, video emails can be a great tool to accomplish many of your business goals.

Whether they use Dubb or another service, it is all too easy to create a quick video and distribute it to an email list. If companies want to get more granular, they can even create quick videos and send them to prospects who are at the bottom of their marketing funnels. Video emails will continue to be critical, as they leverage the power of personalization and storytelling—delivered at scale and directly in prospects’ mailboxes. 

  1. The Rise of the Video Podcast

Separate from video emails, I think that 2020 is going to be a big year for the video podcast. The podcast industry has experienced a ton of growth in recent years, but the growth has primarily been in audio. I believe that podcasts are here to stay, as they provide tons of value and entertainment to long-tail audiences. At Dubb, for instance, I host the Connection Loop podcast, where I speak with creators, entrepreneurs, marketers, and others about topics like video marketing. It’s a rewarding way to provide value to our audience while taking lessons and insights from other masters in their craft.

Ultimately, I think that savvy creators are going to combine podcasting with video to share their content and stories in an extremely unique way. The great thing about online video marketing is that there are not many hard and fast rules. Companies that can create video podcasts that are fun, educational, and catered to their specific audience will likely succeed.

  1. Automated Video Marketing Rules the Day

In 2020, I strongly believe that automated tools are going to be even more valuable for everyone from small startups to the biggest business in your sector. Even if you have a sizable marketing team on your staff, taking advantage of tools like drips and workflows can make your job so much easier. They let you set up your video content in advance and track what is and isn’t working—all in real-time. With that knowledge in hand, you can shift the strategy as appropriate in order to make the most interesting (and highest converting) content for your audience.

As a side note, if you are looking for a tool that can help you leverage automated video marketing, I recommend that you check out Dubb. For instance, our workflow automation features include drips and workflows. They can help you automatically send certain videos to certain prospects. As a prospect proceeds down your funnel, you can send her more detailed videos about your product and how it can create value in your life. The ultimate choice is yours, but with Dubb’s automation features, your work will become much easier.

  1. Shifts From Advertising to Content

Finally, I want to return to this general point about the continued rise of video content in 2020. I believe that this year is going to be significant in that B2B brands emphasize more organic video content over paid advertising. While they aren’t mutually exclusive, the shift will be dramatic because these companies will see a lower return on investment from social media ads. Ultimately, lower quality leads have made social media ads less financially appealing. 

Because of this, companies (like ours) will shift those dollars into creating even more original content. Yes, social media ads are still sophisticated. They aren’t valueless. However, I foresee more companies questioning whether they are truly satisfied with their ROI. It’s worth it for you and your company to participate in this exercise. It can lead to some useful insights—whether or not you allocate more resources toward digital content.

A Fascinating Year

I believe that 2020 is going to be fascinating for a whole host of reasons. At Dubb, we are focused on creating even better products and features for our users. But beyond our work, the new year promises exciting developments in these video marketing trends for 2020. No matter your business goals, I encourage you to watch these trends. By being proactive, you may be able to capitalize on these trends before your competitors do.