5 Ways to Show Your Boss the ROI of Video Marketing

If you already know how powerful video can be to support your brand and your business over time, welcome! We’re happy to have you. But let’s say others on your team still need a little convincing — namely, your boss. That’s no problem; by pointing to the ROI of your video marketing efforts, you can make a solid case for why your team should invest in video.

More than just fun assets for social media, videos can be used across channels (think: emails, blog content, webinars, product pages, landing pages, and more) to support larger business goals. And as a savvy marketer, it’s up to you to educate your team and advocate for change. Showcasing the ROI of video marketing can feel like a bit of a nebulous task, but we’ve got five tried and true tips for you.

In this post, we’ll highlight the top reasons for investing in video marketing and share actionable tips for how to get leadership on board. Let’s dive in!

1. Show video’s sustained growth and increased adoption

Making a pivot to video can be scary, but reassure your boss that you’ll be in good company. The rise of COVID-19 in 2020 led to more businesses embracing video than ever before. At Wistia, we saw a 120% increase in weekly video uploaded to our platform in 2020. Though these numbers have leveled out a bit since the height of the pandemic, we’re still seeing video upload numbers well above pre-pandemic levels.

So, what does this spike in uploads mean? That video as a core marketing and communications tool is here to stay.

And this growth isn’t limited to the Wistia platform — video adoption is up across the board as marketers seek new ways to humanize their brand and connect with audiences. In 2020, 86% of businesses used video as part of their marketing strategy, and 93% of marketers said it’s an important part of their marketing strategy. This matches consumer preferences, as 69% of people surveyed indicated they would prefer to learn about a product or service with a video versus other formats like articles, website content, or ebooks.

The icing on the growth cake? Cisco estimates that video will represent 82% of all internet traffic by the end of the year. That means in order to reach most of your audience, you’ll likely have to adopt video. Video can help your business at all stages, with top-funnel metrics like growing your audience and bottom-funnel metrics like generating more leads and sales. You just have to get started!

“Pandora’s box has been opened, and it cannot be closed. We live in a video-first world. Video is now our first handshake, our first sales call, how our customers get to know our company, how a lead becomes a sale, how we connect with colleagues, and how we get work done. As Wistia’s VP of Marketing, I’m constantly pushing my team to think creatively about how we can embrace video to support all of our team-level and company-level goals. While video has always been an important consideration, it’s become an essential part of doing business. There is an urgency like never before, and as marketers, we have no choice but to figure this out.”

Chris Meador
VP of Marketing, Wistia

2. Share relevant video marketing success stories

Nobody wants to be a guinea pig — especially folks in leadership positions. Instead of telling your boss how it might or could work, show them how video marketing has already worked for other businesses.

Start by putting together a few video marketing examples that will help your manager see the value in what you’re trying to do. Remember, most leadership roles operate on tight schedules, so don’t overwhelm them with a massive list of examples. Pick two to three of the most relevant and specific examples that showcase the type of video content you want to create.

Offering examples of successful video marketing efforts from a business your boss admires is a great starting point. If they’re already familiar with the business and love their content, an example from that company might excite them enough to try something similar.

An alternative way to motivate them is to show video marketing from a direct competitor. Highlight how much video content a competitor has been creating and frame your argument in the context of staying relevant within your market. And if video isn’t widely used in your industry or niche, even better! This is an opportunity for your brand to stand out from the crowd.

To really drive home the value of video marketing, try to select at least one example where you can showcase real results. For example, this could be a video that went viral and was well-received on social media or a video that got a ton of press coverage.

Tracking conversions as a success metric is a bit trickier, but not impossible. You likely won’t be able to see how a video led to more sales or leads since that data is typically internal. If your boss wants to see those metrics, look for case studies from video marketing platforms that highlight how companies met their goals.

3. Underline the value of repurposing video content

A single video can help feed other sources of content marketing for your brand. More content stemming from one video means more time for your team to work on other marketing initiatives. In that way, repurposing video content can be a time and resource saver for the business.

Put your salesperson cap on for a second. Instead of telling your boss you’re going to put all this time and effort into one video, underline just how much content can result from that video. In other words, sell them on a content package. One video can equal multiple blog posts, social media content, ebooks, podcast episodes, and more.

“Instead of telling your boss you’re putting all this time and effort into one video, underline just how much content can come from that one video. In other words, sell them on a content package.”

Video can also enrich the written content you already have. Adding video to a blog post can bolster search engine visibility and help you rank for more keywords as a result. Wistia automatically optimizes videos for search engines without putting extra time and effort into video SEO efforts.

“As someone who oversees content creation, I’m focused on getting the most mileage out of our resources as possible. We know video is super engaging and that it has a positive impact on our content marketing efforts, but it takes longer to produce than, say, a blog post. When we move forward with video, we make sure that it’s an asset we feel great about that we can use not only on its own, but also on our blog, in social media posts, and more. This way, we know we’re getting more eyes on our content and getting more use out of a single asset.”

Jenny Coppola
Director of Content & Creative, Wistia

4. Make it clear that video won’t cost a fortune

The cost of video creation is a common concern for many marketing leaders who don’t have prior video experience or a dedicated video team. They might think video marketing sounds nice on paper, but they’re scared of how much it’ll cost the business and whether they’ll see a return on that investment.

Make the process less intimidating by billing video marketing as a small, in-house affair. Instead of hiring external production staff to help with a video, give employees who have video creation experience (or are willing to learn!) a chance to help. That way, your boss won’t have to worry about any additional upfront costs.

“Make the process less intimidating for your boss by billing video marketing as a small, in-house affair.”

Another hesitation your boss may have is the cost of video equipment. They might assume video marketing means you’ll bring in a professional-grade camera and a recording studio for voice-overs. If you happen to have access to those things, that’s great — but it’s definitely not necessary when you’re first getting started.

If you’re in the market for a basic video gear setup, the Logitech Brio (available for under $200) is a quality USB webcam you can start with. If you want to go even more basic, simply stick your iPhone or Android on a tripod of your choice and start filming. Most smartphones already come equipped with great cameras that are easy to use. In fact, the 2015 Sundance Film Festival favorite Tangerine was entirely shot using three iPhones and went on to become a massive critical success.

Remember, these are just starting points. You can always level up your equipment as your boss starts to recognize how well your video marketing efforts are working.

The most important piece is that you clearly communicate any expected expenses. Create a spreadsheet with individual costs and hours spent so your boss can easily scan it and see how much of a financial investment the business is actually making. It will be less than they think — we promise!

5. Come prepared with measurable results

Show your boss the types of analytics you would use to measure ROI for the business. A video marketing solution like Wistia will give you immediate access to a number of compelling video marketing analytics.

There are generally two analytical streams used to measure video ROI: quantitative and qualitative.

Quantitative insights are usually better to present to your boss, because performance metrics are hard evidence of your video marketing success. But presenting numbers alone won’t work — leadership needs to know what the data means for their company. Carefully explain what analytics you’re tracking and why they matter to the overall business.

Qualitative factors such as brand influence are also important, but they can be much harder to track in a measurable way. If your boss is interested in overall brand reach and engagement, keeping track of social media performance and customer referrals can offer some insight.

Wistia comes with built-in analytics that you can relay to your boss with ease. Our platform can track the percentage of viewers who clicked “Play,” percentage viewed, total time watched, Calls to Action (CTAs) clicked, and more.

We can also help users A/B test everything from video thumbnails to CTAs. If you have existing video content, A/B testing can help you make a stronger argument about what types of videos are performing well and worth investing in.

On top of that, Wistia also has seamless CRM integrations — including HubSpot, Pardot, or Marketo — so you can show how many sales or leads are associated with particular videos you’ve published as a company.

The more measurable results you can present to your boss, the better chance you’ll have of helping them see the value in video marketing. You can also use this as an opportunity to get approval to invest in a video marketing software platform like Wistia, which will help contextualize all the video insights you need.

“Quantifying the return on investment of campaigns and assets is incredibly important for growth. At Wistia, we feed our video data into our CRM for real-time lead scoring and qualification. This ensures that our videos work harder for us and that we are quickly able to see what’s working, what’s not, and make informed decisions based on real data.”

Kelly Cheng
Director of Growth & Media, Wistia

Keep your boss in the loop and be patient

If you get the go-ahead to move forward in any way, remember to keep your boss involved throughout the creation process. Our platform gives users the ability to leave feedback at any specific moment of the video, which is a great way for everyone to feel like they’re participating in video projects. That inside look may be just what your boss needs to really appreciate the value of video marketing.