With billions now using messaging, and billions of videos being watched everyday, marketing teams need to adapt these megatrends.

The world’s top four messaging apps — WhatsApp, Messenger, WeChat, and Viber — now have a combined total of nearly 4 billion monthly active users.

That’s more than the combined total for the top four social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn).

Megatrend #1: Messaging

After analyzing the marketing tools being used by all 100 companies on Forbes’ Cloud 100 list, we discovered that 15% of them are using messaging on their websites.

Ultimately, the approach is that these companies use messaging on their website depends on how much traffic they’re getting, and how they want to balance the quantity and quality of the conversations they’re having with visitors.

For example, it makes sense that Dropbox, which has the most-visited website in the world, would only display messaging on their business sub-site.

That way, they can filter out some of the “noise” of website visitors who have no intention of paying for a business plan.

One last thing about messaging before we move onto video:

Overall, we found that 69% of Cloud 100 companies have a call-to-action on their website that prompts people to get in touch with sales. However, only two of those companies give you the opportunity, to chat with someone live after clicking that CTA.

At CodeCarrot, we see this as a huge missed opportunity for generating a new category of qualified leads.

By replacing your “Contact Us” form with messaging — or simply by adding messaging button on your site — you can generate more leads and, ultimately, shorten your sales cycle.

Meanwhile…

Megatrend #2: Video

Ten billion videos are now being watched on Snapchat every single day and 100 million hours of video are being watched on Facebook per day.

These figures may look fancy but it’s predicted that by 2021, video traffic will account for 82% of all internet traffic.

Over 34% of Cloud 100 companies are producing video content on a regular basis and uploading them on YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo.

Overall, adoption of video is more widespread among the Cloud 100 compared to messaging adoption, with just over one-third of companies producing video content on a regular basis.

While YouTube is clearly the most popular channel for uploading video content, it’s noteworthy that companies are regularly uploading video directly to Facebook and not just sharing links to video content uploaded to YouTube.

The difference is that instead of using Vimeo as a social network for sharing new videos regularly, most use it as a way to host their “evergreen” videos like product walkthrough videos on their websites.

Final Thought: The Relationship Between Messaging & Video

While at first glance they might seem like completely unrelated technologies, messaging and video both deliver on-demand, personalized experience that buyers have come to expect these days.

And while messaging lets you engage with visitors in real-time on your site, video can help you drive those visitors there in the first place.

They’re not just popular marketing channels, they’re gateways for reaching billions of potential customers all around the world, that’s why, at CodeCarrot, we consider messaging and video to be megatrends.