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It’s the start of a new year, and there couldn’t be a better time to look ahead at what the next 12 months might hold for video marketers.

Here at Wyzowl, we’ve just published the results of our fourth annual State of Video Marketing Survey, and the numbers suggest this is set to be another big year for video — among both marketers and consumers.

These statistics were gathered by surveying 570 unique respondents in December 2017. The respondents consisted of both marketing professionals and online consumers. Respondents were categorized as marketers or consumers according to their answer to a preliminary question, to ensure they were only prompted to answer relevant questions.

Let’s take a look at some of the big takeaways …

The State of Video Marketing in 2018

1. Video usage is on the rise.

• 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool — up from 63%, the number reported in our 2017 survey.
• 99% of those who already do use video, say they’ll continue to do so in 2018.
• 65% of those who don’t currently use video, say they plan to start in 2018.

2. We watch a lot of video.

From the video content we watch at work, to online streaming services and beyond, video is a central part of how we live. We asked respondents specifically how much video content they’d watch in a typical day, and the average response was 1.5 hours. 15%, meanwhile, told us they watch more than 3 hours of video on a typical day.

3. Marketers rely on video to help them do their jobs.

Video is often cited as a tool that helps drive various areas of business performance, and the numbers back up those claims:

• 97% of marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.
• 76% say it helped them increase sales.
• 47% say it helped them reduce support queries.
• 76% say it helped them increase traffic.
• 80% of marketers say video has increased dwell time on their website.
• 95% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
• 81% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.
• 69% of people have been convinced to buy a piece of software or application by watching a video.
• 85% of people say they’d like to see more video from brands in 2018.

4. Consumers love video.

It’s probably unsurprising, but video seems to add tremendous value to our experience as customers, too …

Where both video and text are available on the same page, 72% of people would rather use video to learn about a product or service.

5. We love to share.

There’s a popular misconception that people will generally only share frivolous, entertainment videos (cats and epic fails!) Our findings suggest that, if you create video content that your specific audience enjoys, 83% of consumers would consider sharing it with their friends. Being a brand is not necessarily a disadvantage — content is king!

6. LinkedIn is poised to fly in 2018. Snapchat? Not so much.

We asked our respondents about all sorts of different platforms and techniques — YouTube, Facebook, interactive video and more. The most eye-catching metrics, surprisingly, came from LinkedIn, suggesting that a video revolution could be set to take place on the ‘professional’ social network in the coming year.

While currently only 38% of marketers share video content on LinkedIn, three-quarters of them reported it to be a successful tactic — and comfortably over half (55%) said they would continue, or start, in 2018.

Throughout the past few years, Snapchat has been one of a number of social channels branded ‘the next big platform’ for marketers. Our data paints a different picture. Clearly, Snapchat is a must-have for millions of consumers, but as a marketing tool, it’s floundering badly.

Only 11% of our respondents have used Snapchat as a video marketing platform, and only 27% of those reported finding it effective (comfortably the lowest rating of any other platform or technique.) More damningly, it’s usage is set to fall in the next 12 months, with a paltry 9% intending to use Snapchat for video marketing during 2018.

Are you prepared for video in 2018?

Those are just a few of the call-out stats, and we’d encourage you to  check out the full report here for a nuanced study of how the landscape of video marketing might look in 2018. What are your thoughts on the data above — and are there any trends, tactics or techniques that you think will soar in the year ahead?