Recent years have seen brands and digital publishing companies race to keep up with the “pivot to video.” As algorithms on search engines and social media change to favor video content, the percentage of video traffic has increased greatly across all channels.

Cisco predicts that videos will account for 82 percent of all Internet traffic by 2022, up from 75 percent in 2017. Maybe you’re aware about this turn but aren’t sure how to incorporate it into your business or are afraid the market is saturated, but video content can be an important and valuable part of your marketing strategy, particularly in the form of vlogging.

Vlogging, a portmanteau for video blogging, has risen in popularity as a form of both entertainment and marketing, but is often most associated with a single person talking, unscripted, to a camera, usually demonstrating everyday life.

As easily as individuals can reach out to their audiences, there’s no reason brands shouldn’t take the same opportunity. In fact, a report from HubSpot found that 54 percent of consumers want to see videos from brands more than other content types.

Why Vlogging?

Video content is obviously powerful, and vlogging just as much so, but why is that? Here is how vlogging can help your business:

• The main draw of vlogging is that it’s authentic, minimally edited and offers a more genuine connection to the audience. For a brand, vlogging is an opportunity to break through generic advertising language and build trust with consumers. Consider this when you plan your video content and make sure the videos are genuine, or else the videos could backfire and harm your brand’s reputation.

• Video content can strengthen your brand persona by giving your brand a voice and a face so you can move beyond the business-to-consumer relationship.

• The short length of vlogs is easy to digest and suits the shorter attention span of most consumers, who also prefer visual to written content.

• Vlogging is extremely cost-effective. With technology today, many smartphones have the capability to produce good quality video content, and some apps even contain powerful editing software of the like found on PCs, often for a fraction of the price. Good video content can be produced at low costs with high returns for the time and investment.

What to Vlog About

So you want to start vlogging? Before you turn the camera on, consider these topics to get you started:

• Anything you would blog about can probably be turned into a vlog! Any kind of product description of tutorial is often more effective in video format and will diversify the content you provide for your consumers.

• Have news about your brand you want to share? Get a manager or project head to introduce the idea themselves.

• Host a fun event lately? Show your audience a highlight reel or a vlog of the night and you’re including all of your target consumers, even those who couldn’t attend, and enticing them to continue interacting with the brand

• Show off a day in your company’s life. “Daily vlogs” aren’t just for social media influencers. The more you let your audience in on the behind-the-scenes action the more likely they are to feel a personal connection to the brand and will continue to support it.

As you experiment with adding vlogging content to your marketing line-up, make sure you make the most of it by cross-promoting on other social media channels and post consistently, just as you would with other media types.

Vlogging is yet another way for you to tell your brand’s story and make it meaningful, so give it a shot!

Originally published for Magic Mile Media