First things first: yes, video is amazing

Online video is an amazing way to get information and entertainment, and in many ways it knocks the socks off of plain old text or, audio. No wonder nearly 700 videos get uploaded to YouTube alone every minute. It’s rich, creative, seemingly an irresistible opportunity for any brand to stand out and “go viral”.

And video is getting better all the time! It’s easier than ever to provide subtitles and transcripts that help people find your content and to watch it even if they’re blind or deaf. HTML 5 is making video more accessible on more devices than ever, and mobile networks are good enough for people to access video without getting back to their desks. Video has matured enough that people can share particular timestamps of long videos, comment on them, and embed them in blogs and tweets. In short, many of the big problems that plagued video’s commercial use are being fixed.

Three major hurdles remain

But as a marketer you still really need a compelling reason to choose video over text. Next time your agency pitches an elaborate video programme, whether for internal or external communications, there are at least three main reasons to think twice before raising the PO.

Accessibility is everything in marketing

The first relates to access, repeat viewings and sharing. Your audience can read text anywhere. They can copy and paste it into emails and tweets to quote it. They can forward it. They can print it. They can read it on the train, in bed, in the office, at any time, without needing headphones or having to worry about disturbing anyone. Most video needs a network connection, a capable device, and a commitment from the viewer to take a chance on a link that they can’t easily preview or scan through to see if it interests them. If your video newsletter arrives when the recipient is wandering a quiet museum… well, it’s not going to get watched. He might have snuck a peek at a text newsletter, though.

Video costs so much more than text

The second is about the cost and time to create videos. It’s cheaper and easier than ever to make and distribute video — amateur video, that is. But if you want to produce really polished video, you still need much of the costly infrastructure of a TV show: lighting, good camerawork, sound, editing and post-production, not to mention the script, set and visuals. And you’ll also have to either pay one or more actors to deliver the script, or get your executives to take time out of their schedule to do it. And not all executives are natural speakers. All of this is dependent on time and place — it’s not easy to create a video asynchronously with teams spread around the world, which is an unfortunate reality of business.

How much does reuse mean to you?

The third relates to reuse and your independence as a marketer. Text you can chop about and reuse whenever you like. That bit about your new product from the brochure you just wrote? Snip — it’s in your new white paper. It’s not so easy to reuse video (although tools do exist). And while your text is your own, you’re much more dependent on your agency when you want to do more video work, or to refresh it with new brand guidelines, or add a new section to the end of a video case study.

Pick the right tool for the job

So, think carefully before you pick the video option. Just because it’s the cool, multimedia option doesn’t mean it’s automatically the right (or only) tool for the job. What does your audience want and need? What’s the best vehicle for your content? How much do you want to spend?

Have you had any experience (good or bad) with using online video marketing? Let us know — by text or video!