There are many ways to market your company, although not all the techniques available have the same impact on your success. Some methods are more effective than others and sometimes the greatest effect comes from a mixture of tactics used synergistically. Today we’ll discuss successful video marketing to promote your business.
One promotional tactic growing in popularity over the last several years is video marketing, and it’s not hard to see why. Recently, experts projected that video streaming will generate 80% of internet traffic in the coming years, or to put it in other words: people prefer watching videos compared with most other types of online content. While creating a video marketing campaign is more complicated than simply improving your social media posts and so forth, crafting strategic video campaigns generates traffic and improves market performance.
In this blog, we’ll take a look at some useful tips to help you create successful video marketing campaigns.
Create standalone projects
Many marketing campaigns are multi-faceted. When a company creates the campaign, they’ll think about various channels and methods they can use to get their message out into the world. However, since creating a video is a little more challenging than other marketing methods, experts recommend treating it as a standalone project. By that, we mean that it’s best to focus on crafting a video rather than trying to squeeze a video into a broader marketing campaign. The video should be the primary — perhaps the only — marketing method used for the campaign and other tactics, such as social media and email marketing revolve around sharing the video.
Get the right video tools
One of the reasons why videos are so popular these days is that anyone can make them, although you’ll need some software, video equipment, and expertise getting the most from the tools! WIth a high-quality smartphone, especially one with an excellent camera like the new iPhones, making good videos is easy. You don’t need $1000 of special video equipment to get started. If you want to upgrade your system, try buying some lighting and an external microphone.
You can help to make your video look more professional by investing in a product like the OM4; that helps eliminate shakiness from your video. If you ever wondered why pro videos look so much better than the ones you usually make, it comes down to two things: the stability of the camera and the lighting. Both of these issues can be easily handled, however!
You must edit your video since raw footage doesn’t usually effectively communicate your message. We use Adobe Premiere Pro, although others prefer Final Cut. For the money, I think the Adobe product is easier to use and produces professional-quality editing.
What’s the point of the video?
Of course, while it’s all good to create a pretty video for your business, it’s important that you think about why you’re making the video in the first place.
A video can be an excellent marketing tool, but only if the video fits your strategy and forms part of the valuable content sought by consumers. Videos that fail usually do so because they don’t reflect much intrinsic value to one or more segments of your market. So, before getting too excited about the act of creating your video, think about the narrative. What are you trying to convey to your customer with this video? If you saw this video from another company, would you watch it? Fundamentally, usefulness is the goal of your video.
For instance, explainer videos demonstrate how to use your product to get the most from the product. Promotional videos might show real customers enjoying the product. There are lots of other video options but the key is providing value.
Where to post
Once you’ve got your video, you need to post it online. But where? There are lots of different video platforms for hosting your content, then even more platforms to share links to that video to reach prospective customers.
In fact, it’s probably a good idea to think about where you’ll post the video before you get too far into the ideas stage because different platforms have different requirements. If you choose to make a video for, say, Twitter, then you want to make it short and snappy — around 30 seconds. Videos that you have on your website can be longer and more in-depth.
Hosting your video on YouTube or Vimeo helps speed up delivery of the video versus storing it in your website’s databases so they load faster.
Short and snappy
But regardless of where you posting your videos, want short, snappy videos with lots of action and music. You might create a 3-minute video or one that’s 15 seconds, but what should remain the same is that there’s no fluff. Attention spans aren’t what they used to be so keep the action moving. If users feel like they’re watching a video that’s not getting to the point, they’ll switch off. There’s a reason why cooking videos that get straight into showing how to make a meal do better than ones with 5 minutes of talking about the history of the dish. Ultimately, it’s about being respectful of your customer’s time. You’re inviting them to watch your video, after all.
Stay on brand
It’s really important that you stay on brand when it comes to your videos. If you’re a serious, professional company, then videos should support that positioning. A jokey video is fine around the holidays or on April Fool’s Day, otherwise, leave the cutsie to brands where that positioning fits.
As well as the overall tone, think about the styling of the video. It should speak to the style of your website and other promotional materials that you send out into the world — not the same exactly, but at least similar. You do this by echoing colors, images, logos, etc. Most videos start and end with branding content, called a donut because it surrounds the video. In the beginning, feature your logo and other branded elements. In the end, include your call to action.
Track engagement
Sending your video out into the online world is just the first half of the job. The second half is keeping an eye on its performance, how people engage with it, and ultimately whether it’s generating increases in sales. If it’s not performing as well as you’d like, then don’t give up on video marketing forever. Poor performance just means you must tweak a couple of aspects to improve performance. There are plenty of video marketing tips and tricks that’ll push you in the right direction if you don’t get it right the first time. It might take three or four videos for you to get things right.
Conclusion
Successful video marketing supports your other marketing efforts and you should consider using videos as a tactic in your overall marketing strategy. However, as we’ve seen in this post, creating a video is a little more complicated than other marketing techniques.
There’s also the cost factor. Even if you’re able to do a big chunk of the production yourself, you still end up with a bill that’s higher than most other content tactics you use. But there’s a reason why so many companies invest in video marketing: it’s effective. And with more and more people watching videos these days, successful video marketing is an essential consideration in any marketing campaign.
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