Businesses interested in reaching new audiences might want to take heed of new research conducted by e-Marketer that reveals that online corporate video advertising is vastly more effective in engaging consumers than ordinary web ads. A standard web ad typically yields a tiny conversion rate of around 1 per cent. But according to the e-Marketer survey, when potential consumers watch online video ads, especially if those ads feature product demonstrations, their conversion rates skyrocket.

“Gaining and holding attention is paramount”, claims Tardieu of Full Circle Motivation, who has in the past produced commercials for FMCG, financial services, men’s toiletries and more. “In the online environment the attention span can be short, so the video has to get where it’s going quickly, deliver benefits over features and create a wish to buy, or try, in the process.”

Over half of the consumers polled said that an online video made them feel more confident about a product or company, and 66 per cent of them eventually went on to make a purchase as a result of viewing a corporate video.

Thanks to the exponential growth of video online, professionally handled corporate video production and editing is no longer an optional extra but, increasingly, a necessity. The simple fact is that the internet has driven video consumption into a premier position when it comes to business promotion: People just prefer it to more static forms of content.

And with access points like YouTube opening up, even a modest online video can potentially reach a mass audience. YouTube might once have been a zone-out venue for idle gawping, but it’s now a major marketplace. And brands can readily exploit it to interact directly with customers and showcase their products or services.

Video is becoming the most effective means of content marketing out there – and thanks to the rising trend of internet sharing, that means one thing: Even the smallest firms can make a big splash on a shoestring. It’s no longer necessary to have to have a massive budget to go viral.