With the holiday season quickly approaching, Slidely, creator of Promo, the #1 video creation platform for businesses and agencies, published its 2018 Holiday Marketing Trends & Research Report. This study asked 400 business owners and marketers to weigh in on their holiday marketing strategies and plans for the 2018 holiday season.

Nearly half of all respondents said that they began using video marketing within the last year, bringing the total adoption of video marketing to more than three-fourths of all respondents.

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“We’ve been watching more and more businesses use video marketing over the last few years to promote their business,” said said Hila Shitrit Nissim, VP of Communications at Slidely. “It seems like we’ve hit a tipping point–video marketing is now affordable and accessible to the mass market of businesses both large and small.”

The survey also highlighted the growing competition among businesses vying for the estimated $720 billion in holiday spending.

Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed said that they feel there is extra competition during the holidays.

When asked how they plan to combat this competition, respondents shared their top strategies and tactics:

• 45% create more content or post content more often
• 20% run a holiday sale
• 20% use more videos to stand out from competitors

The study also revealed that businesses seem to be cautiously optimistic about their holiday campaigns. Forty percent of marketers said that they’re increasing their ad spend during the holidays.

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More than half of the respondents say that they expect the holidays to have a positive impact on their business, but despite 40% saying they plan to increase their ad spend during the holidays, two-thirds of respondents say they have a difficult time quantifying the ROI of their holiday marketing.

“We’re excited to help more businesses adopt and use video marketing because we know it works, as it continuously works for us,” said Tom More, CEO at Slidely. “Our past research has shown that consumers love video content and that it drives action and revenue for businesses. Every business should be able to create and use lots of videos as a core part of their marketing strategy.”

Respondents in the survey pointed to Facebook as the primary platform where 78% are planning to spend the bulk of their 2018 holiday advertising budget.

Promo’s award-winning video platform makes creative videos accessible to all businesses, providing ready-made video templates, over 13 million premium video clips and photos, curated licensed music and a user-friendly editor.

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