If you’ve been paying attention to Mark Zuckerberg’s recent comments, you know the Facebook founder has consistently stated where the social media platform’s focus is heading into the future. While Facebook began as a predominantly text-focused platform, it has slowly shifted over to become focused primarily around photos. Now the next evolution of Facebook has already begun – an era of video content.

In 2014, Facebook overtook YouTube as the platform with the most viewed desktops videos per month, and video visibility in Facebook newsfeeds increased by 360 percent. Consumer desire for visual and video content has helped to grow Meerkat, Snapchat, Vine, Instagram and several other video heavy social media platforms in recent years. Even Twitter has started to focus more on video content with embedded video, mobile uploads and the recent purchase of Periscope with an eye towards diving into live streaming.

With the competition for video heating up among social media platforms, it has never been easier for small businesses to create and distribute great video content that has the potential to engage their target audience in ways text-based campaigns never could. If your company isn’t ratcheting up efforts to join the video marketing revolution, you risk falling dramatically behind the competition and losing your voice in the marketplace.

We Have the Technology

Just five years ago, the ability to create great video content was reserved for larger brands with massive media budgets. The cost of creating great, or even simply good, video content was prohibitive, as it required the purchase of extremely expensive, high-end equipment and the hiring of professionals who knew how to use it.

However, the current technological revolution has changed all of that in recent years. Today everyone who carries an iPhone or Android smartphone has a HD video camera in their pocket. The software required to create great looking video is becoming cheaper every year, and some companies have even launched services that give users access to professional level templates and software for a low monthly fee.

With cost no longer acting as a prohibitive barrier for small businesses to begin creating compelling video content, companies of all sizes can finally start enjoying the benefits of utilizing video marketing campaigns.

ROI For Video

In an age where capturing your audience’s attention is getting more and more difficult, and customer acquisition is becoming more expensive, video ranks as one of, if not the top, way of attracting audience attention.

A recent study by Cisco estimated that video will account for nearly 80 percent of all consumer web traffic by 2018. In the meantime, video still ranks as the ad format with the highest click-through rate in the industry. Consumers who view video on mobile devices are three times more likely to click-through when compared to static text or photo based ads. However, for video to be an effective marketing strategy you need to target the right people. Consider the use of Facebook dark post to get your video in front of the right target audience.

Of course for your business to enjoy a successful video marketing campaign, you need to do your research and adapt each video to a specific target audience, and utilize Facebook’s surgical targeting capabilities to hit those people. If you create a video and don’t mind paying for the exposure, you get awareness and reach, combined with width and depth. Facebook at this very moment is the best tool for getting your video out there.

Why Video Works

When compared to text ads, video content quickly delivers information to the viewers brain in a way that makes it easier to digest. Using video helps create a better conversion rate for companies and provide a better, more human relationship with their target audience that improves loyalty, brand awareness and boosts sales. When compared to video, text is far more difficult for the brain to process than visual content.

Through video, your business can craft compelling storytelling with real faces, product demonstrations, and emotive language, all of which combine to appeal psychologically to our brains for maximum effectiveness. An individual watching a video that provides entertainment or value is intrinsically more ready to accept the message the sender has created than when reading the same message in plain text content. Whether answering an algebra equation or solving a practical situation in real life, the brain needs multiple sources of structure and stimuli to turn information into knowledge, something video is better at enabling. The solutions, ideas and feelings you present, along with the emotional appeal you’ve created will linger longer with and more deeply affect your viewers, especially when the time comes for your target audience to make a purchasing decision.

Today the process of creating great video content has become cheaper and easier than ever before. The question now has switched from “Can my business afford video?” to “Can my business afford not to do video?”