If you own a small business or are in business for yourself, there’s a lot of compelling evidence suggesting that online video marketing should be a major focus of your advertising and marketing budget.

Online video is growing faster than most other advertising formats and mediums.

• Video ad revenue will increase at a three-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.5% through 2016, according to BI intelligence estimates. 

• That's faster than any other medium other than mobile. And much faster than traditional online display advertising, which will only grow at a 3% annual rate.

By 2017, video will account for 69% of all consumer Internet traffic, according to Cisco. Video-on-demand traffic alone will have almost trebled. Leafing through a swathe of statistics on the subject, I'm hard pressed to find any indicator that doesn't suggest rapid growth.

With online video quickly becoming a key means for people to satisfy their information and entertainment needs, small businesses that fail to include it in their internet marketing strategies will do so at their peril.

Video is the future of content marketing. That is, if it's not the here and now. Various studies show more than half of companies are already making use of the medium – a figure that's predicted to rise as more and more realize the possibilities. Nielsen claims 64% of marketers expect video to dominate their strategies in the near future. It's not difficult to see why.

YouTube receives more than one billion unique visitors every month – that's more than any other channel, apart from Facebook.

What’s The Market for Online Video?

45.4%

According to comScore, which measures online engagement and use, that’s the percentage of Internet users who view at least one video online over the course of a month. The average user is exposed to an average of 32.2 videos in a month, increasing the chances that your marketing message will be seen. But what does that work out to in real numbers?

100 Million

That’s the number of Internet users who watch online video each day. Granted, a lot of those are watching the latest viral video with a goofy cat or a cute kid, but an awful lot of them are looking for advice on how to do something or how to make something work better. And a whole of them are looking to buy a service or product.

90%

The percentage of online shoppers at a major retailer’s website who said they find video helpful in making shopping and buying decisions. Retailers who provide online video to show off their products report that the products with video sell a lot more than products with no video.

75%

That’s the percent of executives who told Forbes that they watch work-related videos on business websites at least once a week. The results breakdown:

• 50% watch business-related videos on YouTube 

• 65% visit the marketer’s website after viewing a video  

The success stories of videos that have gone viral are legend. A recent campaign from Volkswagen, for example, saw a trio of its videos viewed a combined 155 million times. If such numbers seem out of reach for companies without 12-figure revenue streams, they at least demonstrate video's inherent shareability. Engage viewers and they will share the video with others. They will spend longer on your website and more time interacting with your brand. For any social media campaign, any SEO exercise, video is without doubt one of the best tools in the kit.

It is naturally engaging and, in an age of information overload, it's vital for small businesses to offer content that is easy to digest; if not, consumers will simply move on. Video does this very well. If a picture paints 1,000 words then one minute of video is worth 1.8 million, so say Forrester's researchers. Little wonder then that Axonn Research found seven in 10 people view brands in a more positive light after watching interesting video content from them.

But is video really possible for small businesses? Absolutely. Production costs have fallen significantly in recent years and you no longer need to be a technical whiz to work out how to use it. Apps such as Twitter's Vine, with its six-second maximum clip length, have dramatically increased the opportunity for businesses on a limited budget to get stuck in. Nevertheless, if you're to realize a decent return on your investment, you will need to bear the following in mind.

If you want to fully realize video's potential, you must make it easy for users to find and share it. 

Effective video marketing has to be engaging right from the start, but how do you know where your video is going off the rails? That’s where video analytics comes in. Detailed video analytics will tell you who’s watching your video, how long they stay engaged and exactly where they click away. Armed with that information, you can sharpen your message and target it more precisely. If you haven’t started your own video marketing campaign, isn’t it time you jumped in with both feet? There’s nothing to lose and about 403% more profit just waiting for you.