How to Increase and Optimize Video Content
Why should quality, entertaining video be a priority for your adventure travel and tourism business?
As smartphone and tablet usage soars, viewers are drawn to compelling, visual content. Google seems to know everything about us and they’ve tracked our viewing habits extensively. According to Think With Google, video for tourist destinations and attractions is growing by 179% year over year!
Video Interest by Age Group
It’s not just the millennials and younger generations who are captivated by video these days. YouTube data shows a surprising age group breakdown of online video subscriptions.
- 50% of travel video subscriptions belong to the 25-64 year-old age demographic
- 38% of travel video subscriptions belong to 18-24 year olds
Source: YouTube Data, March 2014, United States.
YouTube has found that the younger audiences are captivated more by video blogs (Vlogs) and fresh content, whereas the older demographics tend to be interested in a wider range of content including a variety of travel channel types, brand channels, official networks, how-to videos and specific travel/tour footage.
How Are Customers Searching?
Of the top 1,000 travel queries from March 2013-March 2014, Google data shows us that 71% of travel searches on YouTube were for specific destination names with only 6% of viewers searching by the travel brand. On the flip side – Google searches for travel during the same date range found just 26% of travel searches were for destination names with the majority (58% of searches) looking for the travel brand.
Keys to capturing audience interest
The result of an explosion of social video in the last few years is more content for your brand to compete with. Videos can easily get buried before they capture and engage your target audience. To produce videos that stand out and make a quick first impression, make sure your content is:
Creative
Unique videos that master the storytelling art stand out. New to social media video? Checkout the 7 Keys of Storytelling: Begin at the End.
Funny
Social media videos offer a chance to entertain your guests and offer an authentic view of your business. But beware – humor gone wrong can be dangerous.
What’s funny to some may not be to others and even the big guys get it wrong some times as shown in this Samsung video.
This awesome video created in 2014 by Zoar Outdoor went viral and had subscribers of their YouTube channel rolling with laughter. The video offered a fresh way to showcase the variety of activities available to the outfitter’s customers.
Short
- Social media videos should be kept short because they’ve got just an instant to engage your audience. An Ad Age study found you have:
- 10 seconds to grab a viewers attention
- If you don’t engage the audience within 30 seconds you’ll loose 33% of viewers
- Video that doesn’t engage within a minute has lost 45% of viewers
Helpful And Useful
Over 100 million hours of how-to content was watched in North America during the first 5 months of 2015. How-to video content is not entertainment – instead how-to videos offer useful tips to help your customers. In the tourism and travel industry they can range from packing lists to activity demonstrations.
The moral of the social video story? Short social media videos that are creative and helpful are a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal.
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