In 2024, a marketing agency that doesn’t do video isn’t a marketing agency.

And a marketing plan that doesn’t include video simply isn’t marketing.

In a previous post, we discussed how the “middle ground” of marketing agencies is dying. The middle ground is a small agency with three to ten people that does a little bit of everything. In the past, these agencies had clear value because they could deliver a broad portfolio of marketing tactics prior to focusing on what worked best.

These days, however, “middle ground” marketing is self-sabotaging.

Most “middle ground” agencies don’t have the personnel, skills, or technology to deliver top quality video content at scale – and video is a necessary pillar of modern brand communication. Research shows video is more memorable, easier to consume, and more effective at driving buyer behavior than text or images.

In fact, just having a video on a landing page increases a visitor’s likelihood of taking the desired action – even if they don’t engage with the video in any way. It’s that powerful. No matter what your message is, video is there to make it more compelling and ensure it sticks.

For Marketing to Make an Impact, Video Must Lead

The more complex your service offering is, the more work your marketing needs to do.

For service-based businesses, that “heavy lifting” often comes in the form of educating your prospects on what you do, who you do it for, and why your way is best. The more attention and energy your website visitors use to decode that information, the more likely it is that an important part of your message will be lost.

Video smooths the path, making even the most sophisticated messages more palatable and easier to digest. That’s why video now plays a leading role in so many different ways throughout any enterprise’s marketing strategy. Video is no longer a “nice to have” that simply ornaments the message of text-heavy blogs.

These days, video is found in all these places and more:

• Social media across all platforms, from Facebook and Twitter to LinkedIn, TikTok, and beyond.
• Efforts to communicate the brand story and deepen brand relationships across the life-cycle.
• The search engine optimization strategy, where video joins up with blogging and podcasts.
• B2B sales, where video permeates the buyer’s journey and supports sales teams directly.

Long story short: there will always be more text than video, but video now reigns as the default content on the internet. It’s the default because it’s what most people look for first. Not having video in 2024 is like not having a business website in 2010. It instantly makes a business look less serious – and maybe even suspicious.

If You’re Hiring a Marketing Agency, Here’s the Key Question to Ask

When it’s time to consider a marketing agency, due diligence is essential.

Start by understanding exactly who you’re dealing with. A boutique marketing agency that does a few things exceptionally well has the problem of tunnel vision: When all you have is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail. By contrast, a “middle ground” agency often excludes video storytelling due to its complexity.

Video has a high barrier to entry: it requires the right tools, the right technology, the right knowledge, and the right personnel. Much of the time, video becomes most effective when the company’s own leadership team is directly involved in telling the brand’s story, yet most marketing agencies don’t know how to facilitate that.

That’s why, no matter who your marketing agency is, you should always ask:

“How will this marketing agency integrate video into my marketing plan?”

A modern, effective marketing agency should have an answer to this question because it should be part of their process from the beginning. That answer should be thoughtful, detailed, and totally aligned with your business and its goals. Anything less than that is a waste of your time and your marketing budget.

A Full-Service Marketing Agency Integrates Video Marketing from the Start

A full-service marketing agency is one that brings the right people and expertise together under one roof so you harness the full power of the marketing ecosystem within a single vendor relationship. Full-service marketing integrates video storytelling all along the way, maximizing its impact across multiple customer touchpoints.

When it comes to making a real human connection, video is the next best thing to being there. Your business deserves nothing less than everything video has to offer.

Contact New York Ave to find out more or get started today.