Video usage is on a continuous rise. 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool — up from 63% in 2017. The problem arises when you might not understand how the video marketing landscape is shaping up for 2018 — considering all the different platforms and techniques that are available.

I asked 19 Digital Marketing Experts: “What do you feel is the #1 Video Marketing Trend to watch for in 2019?

Let me tell you, the insights received from the 15 established marketers were nothing short of amazing. I’ve listed all of them below.

1. Brenna Clarine — Valoso.com

“I am glad you asked me to contribute. Here is my insight on the bit:

The top video marketing trend to watch for in 2018 is hybrid events, according to my article on 2018 trends. Hybrid events combine live in-person events and virtual video events. Live streams are obviously an explosive trend that began in 2015 with the birth of Periscope. This trend has been growing ever since, and now, in 2018, we can expect live streaming events to jump in popularity. Experiential marketing is on the rise, and video marketing continues to pervade. Combine the two, and you have a successful strategy for your 2018 video marketing campaign.”

2. Scott Harrell — VideoToOrder.com

“Certainly, the obvious video marketing trends toward engaging customers and prospects via live streaming video events and producing native video content (videos that are optimized for display on specific social platforms) will continue well through 2018. However, I think the convergence of video and customer relations management tools in order to “automagically” create unique content from stock video assets and client data is exciting. Anyone who has seen the personalized videos from Santa Claus via websites like Portable North Pole or was drawn into Showtime Networks’ insanely successful “Dexter Hit List” marketing campaign can relate to the power of personalization. Brands that manage to cleverly weave customers into an interesting story will be the clear winners in the near future.

If this doesn’t fit, is just more of the same or you want something more edgy, let me know. I’ve been working on a few articles about a scary video trend towards using “deepfakes” – the process of digitally, and often realistically, face-swapping in video content. There is a tremendous room for abuse with this sort of technology in video marketing and I think it will become a problem for brands and celebrities.”

Check out his twitter: @LScottHarrell

3. Olga Bedrina — Animatron.com

“There is no doubt that video marketing will only continue growing in 2018 onward. What I expect to impact video marketing to a huge extent is personalization. In the age when we get bombarded by messages everywhere, we can no longer hope to reach the audience with the one-to-many approach. Instead, we might expect to see the shift towards account-based marketing, where highly targeted, highly personalized videos address every person individually.

At the same time, storytelling is another trend we should expect to see more of in video marketing. Video content that tells a compelling story, together with being highly personalized, will win the game.”

Check her twitter: @olga_bedrina

4. Laci Texter — SproutVideo.com

“Starting in the 2017 holiday season and following through into Super Bowl 2018, we saw multiple brands create what were essentially drip campaigns:

They put out teaser videos for their campaign.
Built the storyline over several different video releases to create momentum (doing so seamlessly cross-platform in order to reach the viewer wherever they were), and incorporated corresponding experiences (online and offline) for the big release.

Budweiser’s “Stand By You” is a great example of this trend, especially because the offline experience they incorporated in was a community-focused initiative. For all of these campaigns, engagement was the number one goal and I don’t expect to see this change anytime soon.”

Check out her twitter: @textercomm

5. Kevin Coll — SmartBug Media.com

“For me, there are a lot of places you could look for a big trend in the video marketing space but I have to pinpoint its use in the sales process and delight process. Whether you are B2B or B2C, there is value in the power of video, to help your sales process or interact with customers in creative ways.

For B2B businesses, incorporating video into their sales hand-off process to support or client services, using the Google plugin app like Vidyard GoVideo during the sales process is another example of a way to offer your prospects a unique and tailored experience.

On the consumer side, I would love to see eCommerce companies embracing it in the support process or in the post-purchase process using the same concepts. Imagine getting a video from the Warby Parker team after you bought a pair of new glasses saying “Thank you,” instead of just a normal Thank you email. A video is more intimate and fun.

Consumers have been embracing it for years with the smartphone and social media. Now it is time companies did the same thing in their sales enablement and customer delight process. I think this is a huge trend we are going to see more of in 2018.”

Check out his twitter: @KevinNeilColl

6. Vivek Nair — Vivek Nairs.com

“Livestreaming – I believe this trend is going to help lots of businesses and entrepreneurs tell their story better. Entrepreneurs need to leverage free tools like FB Live, Instagram Live and even Twitter Live for showcasing their “special” story to their prospects and customers. Now with YouTube Live coming into the picture, the freedom to create awesome video content has just hit a new level.

Single piece of advice for entrepreneurs pondering about Video Marketing – “Be yourself and don’t worry about perfection”.

Check out his twitter: @vivektweetsso

7. Katie Raebel — Plum Media.com

“All of the major platforms are pushing live video and naturally many brands are starting to experiment with it. While live video certainly showcases the authenticity of a company, I think more brands will start to look at striking a balance between do-it-yourself iPhone shoots and producing something with a little more polish.

At the end of the day, the quality of that content represents the company. Brands need to be intentional about how they approach live video and more importantly what they’re ultimately trying to achieve by going live.”

Check out her twitter: @kraebel80

8. Dan Rayburn — StreamingMediaBlog.com

“The best thing happening on the marketing side is that the industry as a whole is now talking about specific KPIs so we can look at and measure the value of the message being delivered. Because if we can’t measure it in a meaningful way, what’s the point of using marketing dollars?

So the key is the KPIs and how that is all measured.”

Check out his twitter: @DanRayburn

9. Angela Giles — AngelaGiles.com

“I actually think that using video inside of blog posts is going to be huge! Watch, I am just starting to do it now!

Check out her twitter: @angelaksgiles

10. Ivan Hernandez — Dremex.us

“Personally, I believe that live streaming videos have taken off and will become a trend this year. People want to be updated in real time and not only about political debates, events, news, or influencers but ordinary people who are expressing their thoughts and sharing how exciting their life is – It is a fact that we will see more and new influencers.

In order to adapt to these changes new video marketing strategies need to be developed, and creative efforts need to be directed to create original, authentic and spontaneous content that can be broadcasted live – Live video streams will help reduce costs because the videos would not require post-production expenses.

Besides, the content creators can take advantage of the length of these videos because live videos streams increases the viewer’s engagement, even if it is three times longer.

The following example proves that live videos will be the de facto standard when it comes to reaching the masses instantly with little to no cost. I used my Twitter account – I am nobody, believe me – to tweet a famous actress who has 1 million followers on Instagram, 200 thousand on Twitter and 250 thousand on Facebook to recommend a new clothing brand. She liked its products and bought some t-shirts. Once she received them, she started to broadcast a live video on Instagram to show the products, emphasizing its quality, beauty and how happy she was to receive them. This video was shared across three of her social networks, and I did not have to pay anything for it. Can you imagine what the ROI was after that?

In conclusion, live videos are going to mark a tendency and will lead us to a more connected world.”

11. Daniel Glickman — Animatron.com

“At Wave.video we see a clear trend of posting videos as the format of choice on social platforms. Videos far outperform images in the social feed, (Video gets more visibility and engagement) but until recently only larger brands could afford to produce them. While there is still a need for expensive, custom videos, small businesses are finding that video storytelling tools like our own are affordable and effective.

We see video content being created for all sorts of topics and occasions and posted regularly to almost all social channels. Expect your social feed to consist mostly of videos, perhaps as soon as late 2018.”

Check out his twitter: @cmoconfessor

12. Keith Gutierrez — Modgility

The #1 video marketing trend in 2018 is using video for everyday communications to build relationships. These are helpful, value-based emails that can be used to make an introduction, provide customer support, training and more.

There are several innovative Google Chrome extensions out there that are making video simple to record and integrate into your everyday communications. These are tools like Loom and Soapbox by Wistia.

Here’s an example of my Loom email signature video.

Check out his twitter: @keithgutierrez

13. Kim Garst — KimGarst.com

“My #1 video marketing trend in 2018 is that more and more businesses will step into storytelling using live video opportunities like Facebook LIVE, Twitter Live, Instagram Stories, Snapchat, etc.”

Check out her twitter: @kimgarst

14. Luke Severn — KDMC

“With the rise of video marketing on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, video marketing on LinkedIn is going to dramatically increase in 2018. When scrolling through my LinkedIn feed, I certainly don’t see as many videos as I do on Facebook and Instagram, but I’ve recently seen an upward trend in the amount of videos I’m seeing on LinkedIn, particularly those that are marketing focused.

Expect to see more videos on LinkedIn and an increased focus by LinkedIn on making it easier to post and share videos.”

Check out his twitter: @Lowkey_Luke

15. Jaron Gilinsky — Storyhunter

“Marketers have been investing more in their own branded content studios as they create a mix of content and ads (there is often little to no difference) across several social channels. All such channels – even previously text-heavy platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn – push marketers to create more images and video.

In the year ahead, we expect a lot of marketers to look for tools to scale production and turn those studios into a distributed model. Rather than rely on a single team at their corporate headquarters, they’ll tap into the best producers and creators anywhere who can best tell their brand’s story.”

Check out his twitter: @jarongilinsky

16. Ian Hardy — Global Media Desk

“Although they have been around for a while, 360 videos are gaining in popularity. Studies have shown that viewers interact and share 360 videos at a higher rate than their 2d counterparts.

What makes 360 videos especially awesome is that they allow brands to place consumers inside an experience and actually influence what they see. 2018 will have businesses, especially retail and real estate, continue to explore 360 videos and give their customers new and realistic ways to explore their products.

17. David Murdico — Super Cool Creative

The #1 video marketing trend I see in 2018 is writing, producing and promoting more quick, short, less expensive videos for different uses.

One of the first questions I ask when a new customer comes to me looking for one video, is what do you plan to do with it? I see too many smart marketing people investing way too much in that one magic video, and they want it to be funny, but not off-brand funny, and they want lots of product info in there, and all the calls to action, and they want it to go viral too, organically, with little or no spend.

In 2018 we’re seeing more brands, businesses and startups liking one or two creative ideas, then asking us to produce different videos for different purposes – some for awareness, some for specific product features, different CTAs – some funny, some not, and promote them in different ways – social media, pre-roll, promoted posts, pitching to the media, bloggers, influencers.
Then we look at the results, and see which are selling stuff and which aren’t.

18. Britt Laeger — StoryTeller Media + Communications

I think the biggest video marketing trend we will see in 2018 and beyond is immersive, engaging video experiences. Whether it’s interactive video content, 360 video, or even live-streaming, video is no longer a one-way communication stream. Businesses and brands will need to continue to personalize the experiences of their viewers rather than creating a one size fits all video strategy.

Check out her twitter: @bmiyo

19. Solomon Thimothy — Clickx Marketing

Creating videos in 2018 has been easier than ever before, especially if you’re planning to go live. I read a stat that 95% of brand and agency executives plan for live video to be a very important part of their marketing strategy in 2018. Live video is not something to take lightly, this trend is here to stay.

There are some key benefits with live videos including low production costs, increased engagement, higher quality of views, and shareability even after the initial broadcast. Not to mention, it’s easy to set up on your mobile device and to start broadcasting on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, etc.

Check out his twitter: @sthimothy

Now I want to turn it over to you…

What an amazing collection of useful advice.

What do you feel will be the number 1 video marketing trend this year?

Let me know by leaving a comment below right now.