Will video destroy text in Content Marketing?

Videos have gained more and more space online

Years ago, when Youtube overtook Yahoo in the number of researches, something became crystal clear: video content is going to be more and more relevant.

In 2017, video content already corresponds to 74% of all Internet traffic. Moreover, Youtube is considered Internet’s second biggest search engine, and the world’s third more accessed website, behind Google and Facebook.

That begs the question: Will video content destroy text in Content Marketing?

After a thorough research process, I got to two conclusions:

1. Video content will not take away the importance of text;
2. A Content Marketing  strategy is more effective when it comprises both video and text content.

Here are some reasons that support my statement.

Different types of people choose different kinds of content

ClickTale classifies content consumers into two kinds of visitors:

26770616136. visitors” have something specific in mind. This kind of visitor is in search mode, seeking to solve a problem and operating at a higher cognitive level. This is the kind of visitor who will generally respond better to text content.

Whereas “Non-intentional Visitors” generally consume content casually, often seeking entertainment.  This kind of visitor naturally uses a lower cognitive level and depends on something like Call to Actions and to guide them through an interaction with the brand. They are more prone to cosume video content.

Ideally, you should be considering both kinds of visitors in your Content Marketing strategy.

Sense of control

The psychologist Liraz Margalit states that when watching a video, people unconsciously forfeit absolute control of their surroundings. She compares the experience of watching a video to a more passive activity, a “mental scape” if you will.

The fact is not everybody feels comfortable to give away their sense of control.  Some visitors prefer to take the wheel when driving around a website. This is the kind of person who will probably prefer text content, being free to skip less interesting paragraphs and go back to more interesting ones. Thus, being more in control of the rhythm of interaction with the content.

SEO in largely text-based

If none of the reasons above has convinced you about text’s relevance, this one will: SEO.

I can say that most professionals and companies I work with here at Contentools have a common goal: to be found in Google organic search.

Despite Google’s – and other search engines – relevance to a company’s digital strategy, search engines are limited in their way to find and interpret content. Therefore, text plays a major role in this process: search engines rely on text to track and index content.

It’s worth mentioning that even in video content, text is important: titles, descriptions and key-words, for example, are essential for good ranking on Youtube.

Conclusion

The numbers don’t lie: the internet loves videos. But, make no mistake. Video’s hype doesn’t mean that text’s days in Content Marketing are over!

The trend is on text and video combined, plus the use of different distribution channels and content format, to increase the results in a company’s digital strategy.

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