Video isn’t a luxury anymore; for online businesses, video is a necessity, and well worth both the investment and the time and effort to do well. The numbers just don’t lie: consumers love videos and use videos to influence purchasing decisions.

Why Video Matters

• Nothing drives web traffic like video. According to a study by Cisco, video accounts for 80 percent of consumer web traffic. Consumers seek out video content.
• Video drives sales. Up to 90% of consumers use video to help make purchasing decisions. Videos are also great for helping consumers remember your message; viewers retain 95% of a message when it’s in a video, compared to 10% when they read it in text.

How much does video cost?

• That depends on a number of factors, including the quality of your equipment and the size of your video crew.
• On the low end, getting the equipment needed to shoot a professional looking video will cost around $1,300.
• If you want to splurge on the best possible equipment, that might run upwards of $10,000.
• You might also consider outsourcing video production, in which case you will want to know the daily rate of the video producer you’re planning to hire.

But if you’re not looking for professional video production, there are plenty of cheaper ways to create video content to attract viewers and/or potential customers. There is video software like Lumen5 and Wave.Video that you can use to create content with video shot from a phone or a less expensive camera.

Video production is the present and future of consumer engagement. Here’s more info about the video production process, from initial budgeting to the final cut.

Thanks to Make a Video Hub for this insightful infographic.