Thanks to the rise of online video content it’s getting harder and harder to differentiate between your Facebook news feed and YouTube. From piano-playing cats to senate confirmation hearings, video dominates every aspect of our online lives. If you’re in marketing, or own your own business, and are wondering if video is right for you, we have five reasons why that answer should be a resounding “yes.”

1. It’s how your audience wants to receive their information

   

   The first rule of marketing is to give your audience the information they want, when they want it and how they want to receive it. And based on the numbers, video is the clear communication channel of choice for today’s consumer. In fact, a recent study has indicated that four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. And one in four consumers would completely lose interest in you if you didn’t post an accompanying video.

   
   

2. It gets more engagement

   

   It used to be that advertising media departments would base their success almost entirely on the number of “impressions” they could get (the number of times your message is seen by your audience) but today, it’s all about “engagement” (getting your audience to actually interact with your brand). And once again, video is king of the mountain.

   According to Brightcove, videos posted on social media generate 1,200 percent more shares than text and images combined. And content creation company Invodo reports that 92 percent of mobile video viewers share the content with others.

   And it’s not just true for videos posted to online platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Forrester reports that emails containing an embedded video lead to 200-300 percent increase in click-through rate.

    

3. It improves your visibility

   Whether it’s Google or Facebook, tech companies know that people prefer to see video content and they rank it accordingly. In fact, Facebook recently changed their algorithm to give even more preference to long-format videos, knowing that people are more likely today to sit through five-, 10- and even 15-minute videos. Higher visibility on Facebook will only drive more traffic to your website—and isn’t that what it’s all about?

   Hint: it is.

    

4. It’s more affordable than ever

   Back when I started in the industry, video production involved sitting in a small, windowless studio alongside a highly trained editor who operated the controls of a hardware and software system that cost more than the combined salaries of the entire creative department. Today, that entire system has been replaced by a souped-up CPU and some pretty easy-to-use online software. Not only that, but for simple, more-homemade videos, marketers and business owners alike can simply pick up their iPhones, shoot some footage and then edit their masterpiece with free or low-cost software like Apple’s iMovie or Wondershare’s Filmora.

    

5. It’s only going to become more important

   

   A recent study released by Cisco reported that by 2019, video content would makeup 80 percent of all online traffic. The study went on to predict that by 2021, 13 percent of that traffic will be broadcasted live, representing a 1,500 percent increase.

   Still not convinced that you need to dip your toe in the video content stream?

   Well, just consider that six years ago, 87 percent of online marketers indicated that they created video content on a regular basis (a number that without a doubt has grown substantially). What are the chances that your competitors are among them?

   With that to chew on, I leave you with this video of Twiggy the waterskiing squirrel.