Remember the popular Amul Butter punchlines that etched the brand in the hearts of every Indian till date? Those cheeky punchlines that never failed to deliver, are one of the reasons the brand went on to become a household name since the ‘80s. And, to this day, it remains utterly butterly delicious in our hearts.
Words have power.
They have made brands and captivated hearts since the beginning of advertising in the year 1700. Captions and taglines have enticed consumers and reinvented brand loyalty.
But, in the present era of visual grandiosity, does text content still hold ground? Will text survive the sand storms that video content has unleashed in the recent digital decades? Or will it be wiped off like another vanishing dune?
Let’s take a look at why video content is fast becoming the essential oil that could rejuvenate your content marketing and if text content would stand the test of time.
Text Content v/s Video Content
We know that it's content that makes a brand visible. While text captivated the consumers through the early centuries of content creation, in today’s fast-paced world, video content rules.
Yet, what makes text content still appealing?
Benefits of Text Content:
Cost-effective: Budget is crucial to content creation. Written content is way cheaper when compared to videos. With targeted and creative content writing, you can present a great idea to your audience without having the burden of the additional costs involved in video creation.
Time-saving: Text content is a life-saver when you are into aggressive marketing, publishing content on diverse platforms every other day. You can announce, agree, disagree, attract and advertise on platforms like Twitter, Facebook or Instagram in the nick of time. You can voice a thought or share an idea easily by typing right away on your social media accounts and get instant responses and feedback. Meanwhile, a video post, on the other hand, would require money, expertise, and meticulous planning before getting published.
Versatile & Flexible: The possibilities of text content are infinite when compared to video content. Text content helps you provide a varied range of quality information that can attract the audience. It is easier to track relevant information within the text, as the content is divided into headings and subheadings, which a video content usually lacks.
Be it a marketing email or a newsletter, a press release or a thought leadership article on LinkedIn, you will need text content, at least for another few years and till the digital revolutions replace it completely with videos.
Inevitable: Yes, visuals may seem to have more appeal and clarity than text. But can you imagine an Insta reel without words? Visuals can be breathtaking, but that caption beneath breathes life into it. An HD image of a product on Amazon (or any other retail shopping site) can turn heads and get many clicks. But will it be complete without the right description in words?
Even video posts on social media platforms need text content to secure search engine rankings. For example, YouTube demands a short summary regarding the uploaded video. It demands that the description, though brief, must be well written and unique.
In the stretched road ahead for content marketing, text content may lose a few words. Quantity may reduce but the demand for quality descriptions, narratives and scripts will surge in proportion to that of visual content.
Easily accessible & eloquently silent! Text content is hassle-free when it comes to effective engagement. You needn’t mute your phone or download any app to enjoy the special effects as in video content. Text is available anytime anywhere.
VIDEO CONTENT
With or without text, visual content works magic for brand building.
No one would have forgotten the video advertisement for Hutch (now, Vodafone-Idea) mobile services, almost 20 years back. The ad gained popularity in 2003 as the creative heads of Ogilvy (Bengaluru) came up with the storyline of a little boy being followed everywhere by his loyal pet - a pug.
The pug became an instant celebrity and Hutch anchored ashore the Indian soil. The ad perfectly conveyed the tagline of the new mobile service, “Wherever you go, our network follows”.
Years after the acquisition of Hutch by Vodafone, the latter used the pug-concept for its branding. The recent was the one with the “stay safe” tagline during the pandemic outbreak.
The ad is just another illustration of the power of video content. There wasn’t any voice-over, or any explanations as the visuals of the wandering boy and his pet rolled out to the tunes of the background music. The video ad established Hutch in India.
Today, every media platform throngs with videos of all types. Informative videos, graphic videos, tutorials and shorts. Businesses are fast shifting gears to video content creation as a way to communicate better with today’s visually tuned-in audience.
Why should videos matter?
Benefits of Video Content:
Enticing: Visual content is beneficial in attracting an audience and bringing in
more web traffic.
Better reach: Videos tend to boost the exposure of the content. Visual content generates more views and shares on social media feeds, and pages and helps trigger curiosity regarding the content or brand.
Greater impact: Videos convey more information in a shorter period of time, thus making a stronger impact on the audience than text.
Retention power: Videos, with their visual impact have higher retention power of the ideas, concepts or message shared. “we remember what we see”.
Easily comprehensible: Visual content is easily understood by the audience and has better acceptance across global platforms irrespective of location, language or culture. Also, it does not require any time or effort to understand the content, unlike text or audio content. Even learning gets more interesting and less time-consuming with tutorial videos rather than textbooks or audio.
Wrapping up
As videos keep enthralling the audience and engage effectively, there is still a good percentage of the audience who love to read and enjoy creative stories, captions, e-books and blogs.
The question may arise as to which content form you should prefer to steer your content marketing strategy. The answer is quite debatable as it will always depend on the objective of the brand.
With social media shaping the future of content creation, it is more likely that people choose visual content over text content. However, crispy, catchy text content will always prevail for a large chunk of the audience.
How do you find this read?
For targeted and effective text and video content that engages your audience and gets them glued to your web pages, reach ThePendits at +91 8448040030.