Video marketing can be a fantastic tool to any business if is used correctly. It goes far beyond viral videos with a wealth of formats and ways to engage your audience. Just like any form of content marketing you can tailor your video to any demographic, as well as new, potential and existing consumers. Regardless of whether you are business-facing or consumer-facing video content marketing provides a great alternative to more traditional forms of content marketing, allowing you to add a more tangible and personal touch to your marketing communications.
The Advantages Of Video Marketing
YouTube and most other video platforms are more than just a video platform, they are social, they offer the functionality to engage with your watchers. What many people and companies forget is that YouTube is actually the 2nd largest search engine after Google which only goes to demonstrate the sheer potential that any well optimised, good quality video marketing campaign has. In fact, this year's Interbrands Top 100 companies (such as coca cola, Google and IBM) actually invested $4.3 Billion in video marketing over the past year. One of the important things to also highlight here is that not all of these companies are consumer-facing, which demonstrates that good quality video content marketing goes beyond viral campaigns and consumer-facing products and services. In fact 75% of execs watch work related videos every week.
Making The Most Of Your Videos - The Most Common Video Marketing Mistakes
There are some key areas in video content marketing which simply must be done correctly if you are going to produce a good quality, effective video. They may seem like common sense but here are our top tips when it comes to creating a successful video content marketing campaign.
Camera Work – There is nothing worse than shoddy camera work; invest in something like a proper tripod, we don't want a a wiggly shot where you are left feeling slightly drunk. Make sure that you frame your video correctly. Regardless of what format you choose from talking head and interview through to demos, ensure that the shot is framed correctly, no one likes to see those 2 black bars down the side of your videos and whatever you do make sure that your video is (and stays) in focus!
Audio – Regardless of how new and fancy your camera or computer may be don't just use your in device microphone as the quality will never be quite up to scratch. Take the time and invest in a proper microphone and then ensure that the sound is properly synchronised with your video.
Have A Strategy – You can overkill with any content marketing campaign especially if you don't have any form of plan or strategy. With this in mind it is essential to ensure that you create a content strategy so that you maintain structure and continuity across your marketing communications not just your video marketing.
Don't Be Boring - One of the most important things that you must remember when it comes to video marketing is that you must keep things concise. You have about 10 seconds to attract and keep a viewer's interest before they will click away so dont witter and get to the point. Also consider carefully who you have doing that talking, just because you are the CEO of the company doesn't mean that you are in the best position to present in the videos. No one wants to watch someone who is stiffly reading off cue cards. You don't have to be funny, but try and relax, be informative and most importantly be passionate about what you are talking about as this will go a long way when it comes to engaging with your consumers.
Engage – According to The Content Marketing Institute, audiences are about 10x more likely to engage, embed, share and comment on video content compared to blog or social posts so make sure that you make the most of these opportunities. Iconic examples of great consumer engagement through video marketing include 3's Dance Little Pony and The Old Spice video campaigns, which in fact had an estimated 107% increase in sales as a result.
Optimise For Search – All your videos should use keywords and tags, and make sure they have a good quality description and a catchy descriptive title. Consider providing a transcript (especially for educational or instructional videos)
Regardless of what style and format of video you choose to do or what topic you cover try to remember these key points to create a successful video marketing campaign.
