Ask any marketing professional and you’ll probably hear the same story about video content in email campaigns: Video increases engagement and drives customer loyalty. Your competition is using video, so you’re at a disadvantage if you’re not incorporating it into your email strategies and other content marketing efforts. But there are many benefits of video marketing beyond these factors, so have a look at the many advantages:

Emails with the word “video” in the subject field are more likely to be opened. On average, the click-through rate of emails mentioning video is 65% higher as compared to messages without “video” in the subject line. If you focus on video content as central to your campaign, that number rises to 200% higher than email campaigns that use them sparingly or not at all.

Your prospects spend a lot of time watching video. YouTube is #1 in video views, with more than 4 billion per day; Facebook is just under that number in the #2 spot. And they’re not just watching the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge or viral cute kitten videos. Seventy-five percent of executives told Forbes that they’re watching work-related videos at least once a week, while 55% of internet users watch every day.

People who watch video share video. When viewers see something they like, they’re very likely to share the content with their followers on social media. More than 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter every minute, though the video length does have an impact in the decision to share: Videos at a half minute or less are shared 37% more often than those lasting 30 seconds to one minute.

Search engines reward video. Google, Bing and other search engines are all about bringing an enjoyable experience to users of their platforms, so they tend to boost quality videos on the search engine results page. Video results appear around 70% of the time in the top 100 results

More customers watch video before buying. Visitors to a product description page at an online marketplace are 64% more likely to buy that product if they watch a video first. The convenience can’t be denied, as the “BUY” button is just a click away. This is a considerable benefit over TV ads, which require a prospect to head to the store or go online if they want to make a purchase.

And even if they don’t buy, they stick around: Visitors who watch video content linger on a site approximately two minutes longer than those who don’t.

Video is mobile – just like your prospects. Improvements in mobile technology have enabled easy, quick-loading video viewing on smart phones and tablets. Video viewing accounts for about 50% of all traffic on mobile devices, so you need to your content to be in that space.

These benefits of video marketing are undeniable in their effectiveness, but this is only a short list of the advantages this content format offers. The important takeaway is that your competition is doing video and you can’t be competitive without it. While your budget is certainly a consideration, the investment is little compared to the cost of missed business opportunities.