Messaging apps like Messenger, Slack and WhatsApp have become the biggest communication platforms connecting people today. According to Statista, the top messaging apps have more than 6.1 billion monthly global active users combined, and this number continues to grow. Despite this, a report by Buffer found that almost three-quarters of brands (71 percent) do not utilize messaging apps in their marketing.
Messaging apps have also moved from our personal lives into the workplace. The surge in Slack usage between 2012 and 20219 - up approximately 37% every year to now over 10 million daily active users - is just one proof point. Teams adoption has grown even faster. In a two month period in Spring of 2020, from March to May, it went from 44 million daily active users to 75 million. Today it boasts 145 million daily active users, and is growing.
With so many of us using messaging apps daily, there's huge potential for digital businesses to use them to create communities, promote events, and help sell products and services. However marketers will need to learn some new tricks to communicate optimally within messaging apps' small browsing environments - also known as microbrowsers. The overarching principle here is to 'think small'.
Micro-video clips: the power of small - microbrowsing
Video use in marketing has exploded in recent years. According to Hubspot research, 87% of video marketers reported that video gives them a positive ROI - up from 33% in 2015.
One way to significantly increase marketing effectiveness in messaging apps is to use what we call micro-video clips. Marketers use these 5 to 20 second videos to spur viewers into action - whether it's sharing your content, following you on social media, clicking through to view a longer video, or buying products. Any longer, and you risk alienating time-strapped audiences. Any shorter and it's essentially a GIF, primarily for entertainment value.
Before you start adding micro-video clips to your message app communications, you need to bear in mind that audiences will be viewing them through a wide range of microbrowsing environments and devices. Speak with your development team about ensuring that videos dynamically respond to the environments that they're viewed in. This goes beyond resizing content to fill the screen of a PC, tablet or smartphone, it's also about ensuring that the most important visual elements stay prominently in the frame. You don't want this sort of thing to happen!
Content-aware AI and machine learning technology can handle this dynamically, creating multiple variants of every video in different aspect ratios so that it never has to be a laborious process for marketing or development teams.
With short form micro-videos, it's also important to use subtitles. Although most YouTube videos are played with the sound on, 85% of video content watched on Facebook is viewed on mute with subtitles. For this reason (and generally as a best practice for web accessibility and compliance), create subtitles to go along with your micro-video content.
These are just a few points to consider when creating marketing campaigns that integrate comms on messaging apps. Many of us have been told in life, "Don't sweat the small stuff." But in the world of digital marketing, it's those small details that make your content accessible, compelling and ultimately, profitable.
For more information on the State of Visual Media, please click here
This article is written by Juli Greenwood, Director Global Communications, Cloudinary
