Static websites are becoming more and more a thing of the past, as today's consumers are increasingly drawn to media-rich content. Though these types of features may have previously been too expensive for small- to midsized businesses with limited resources, this is no longer the case, as multimedia content has become more and more accessible.

Your organization can use digital video marketing to communicate with consumers and extend the time they spend on your website. This channel creates a platform through which you can draw and hold consumers' attention while increasing their interest in your products or services.

The purchasing journey can be long and winding. And, too often, consumers are asked to traverse the distance between interest and conversion on their own. By incorporating video throughout your entire website, you can provide consumers with a helpful guide for making their way through the purchasing channel. As such, these tools will help customers have a better, more streamlined experience.

Many organizations have decided to add to their video ad budgets in 2015. In fact, 68 percent of agencies and marketers in a study conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) reported that they expected to increase their spending on digital video ads this year.

However, video viewability remains an ongoing issue in the current digital advertising climate. In fact, according to Advertising Age, Google found that 46 percent of Internet video ads are never viewed, and 76 percent of these unseen ads never even appear on screen. As such, organizations need to put best practices into place, or work with a digital marketing partner that does, to ensure their video ads are reaching their intended audience, and that they're not wasting their time, money and effort by investing in this marketing channel.

Since a video campaign is a great way to tell a story, increase engagement and drive home brand awareness, it's no wonder that Brightroll reported that 72 percent of ad agencies deem online video advertising as effective, if not more effective, than television ads. Consumers make decisions with the emotional part of their brain, and using video is one of the quickest, most effective ways to access that. These are five ways you can get the most out of your video campaign and take it to the next level.

Online video is gaining plenty of momentum with audience consumption and content creation, and technology is only making both easier. Now, social media platforms are stepping up their video wares by offering an advertising platform, teasing out some of the best returns ever seen online — or anywhere, for that matter.

Although some professionals might presume social video ads are as simple as posting social updates that include video content, Twitter and other platforms are enhancing their video delivery capabilities, increasing returns and bolstering the quality of their data insight. Here's a quick breakdown of social video advertising, as well as an example of how brands can cash in quickly.

Live video ad insertion is being heralded as the next big thing in advertising, and it's easy to see why: According to Cisco, mobile video traffic grew to 55 percent of total mobile data traffic by the end of 2014. And all of this mobile video watching is eating into time viewers may have otherwise spent watching television.

As professional content takes up more of that mobile video traffic share, users will expect a similarly professional, television-like ad experience. Marketers need to know how this technology works to determine how it can best be applied.

How It Works

Live video ad insertion allows publishers to strip out TV ads and replace them with videos from third-party ad networks. In much the same way dynamically inserted ads (DAIs) work with video on demand (VOD), the ads are separated from the content and delivered on the fly at the ad trigger. Ads are delivered entirely on the server side with no plugins or software required for the viewer, creating a seamless, local, personalized viewing experience across thousands of devices.

Customer engagement has long been the holy grail of social marketing, and interactive video advertising gives you an unprecedented opportunity to tell your story in a way that's entertaining, relevant and shareable.

At the heart of interactive video advertising's effectiveness is the ability for consumers to pause, go back, click on links and participate in your message. The more time a customer spends engaging with your ad, the more brand awareness you generate. And the more engaging you are, the more you benefit from customer evangelism. When your customer shares your message with like-minded friends, it greatly extends your reach.

eMarketer predicts that video's share of digital display ads will make steady gains, increasing from 26.7 percent in 2014 to 30.1 percent in 2018. And Adobe's U.S. Digital Video Benchmark Report shows that Americans watched or started to watch 38.2 billion videos in the second quarter of 2014, a 43 percent increase year-over-year from that quarter of 2013. This data shows that compelling, visually stimulating video is vital to building brand awareness and moving customers down the sales funnel.

If you want to increase site traffic, digital video marketing is key. With a 100 percent year-over-year growth rate, the highest click-thru rate of all digital ad formats, and ad revenue increasing from $2.8 billion in 2013 to an expected $5 billion in 2016, according to Business Insider, this is a must-have component of any successful digital marketing campaign.

But with YouTube touting one billion unique visitors each month and Facebook reporting an average of one billion video views per day, the video market is pretty crowded. How can you leverage video advertising to increase site traffic? Here are four strategies for success:

Search Engine Optimization

YouTube's videos are indexed on Google and usually come up first in search engine results pages. For effective SEO, remember that spiders and bots can't see your video. Make sure you're optimized by including title tag information, long video descriptions and keywords that identify your link as visual content and make it more likely to climb to the top of search results.

For most organizations, digital marketing strategy is an ever-expanding network of campaigns and objectives that incorporates new opportunities emerging online. Basic efforts like SEO and SEM have been joined by social media, content marketing and mobile technology, among other new developments. Although video has been online for years, video advertising and video creation have often been relegated only to major organizations with deep marketing pockets. But times are changing: Video creation is more accessible than ever, and consumers are making more purchasing decisions on the heels of this influence. To remain relevant among its audience, each brand needs to invest in video as a part of its overall digital strategy. Still not convinced? Here are some key reasons.

As consumers change their shopping habits, automotive advertising strategies are also transforming. EMarketer reported that automakers and dealers in the U.S. will have spent about $6.15 billion on digital advertising in 2014, an increase of 18.8 percent from 2013. But are they spending their budgets the right way? While marketers have made great advances, new trends suggest that automotive marketing techniques must reflect the way consumers leverage mobile, video advertising and other touchpoints to enhance their shopping experience and get the best deal.

Retargeting Cross-Shoppers

Think With Google reported that 72 percent of all auto purchase searches in 2013 involved some form of cross-shopping by the consumer. The good news for auto marketers is that you can leverage cross-shopping behaviors to ensure that your inventory is part of the consumer's evaluation process. Retargeting and remarketing are great ways to drive increased returns to your website by cross-shoppers. New research from the National Automobile Dealers Association shows that 83 percent of consumers say they're most influenced by dealer websites when they begin their auto search. This is a huge opportunity to use paid search to drive consumers to your website and leverage retargeting best practices to entice them to return once they've checked out other dealerships.

Every year is marked by huge innovations and emerging trends that change the digital marketing landscape. With 2014 in the rearview mirror, it's easy to look back and see that many of the changes that altered best practices were forecast in 2013 and even earlier.

Although new trends have dramatic implications for how marketers do business, savvy professionals don't need to feel blindsided. The top digital marketing trends for 2015 have already taken root, and there's no good reason to be skeptical about their bright futures.

By accepting the changes yet to come and planning to attack these trends head-on, marketing departments can get a nice head start on their competition. Here's what to look for this coming year.