How to Leave a Lasting Impression With Great Video Marketing
Did you know that video ads are the #1 way consumers are discovering the brands that they later purchase from? So you should approach video marketing campaigns professionally.
With viewers remembering an average of 95% of a message delivered through video — compared to the 10% retention-rate of text — video marketing can do more than just help you get your business noticed, it’s also your answer to keeping your brand top-of-mind with your audience.
Here are the three keys to cutting through the marketing noise to ensure that your next video is a success.
1. Finding the right idea for video marketing campaign
The first step to developing a successful video is coming up with the right idea. With screens, big and small, streaming more footage than ever before, your video needs to be able to stand out from the crowd, grab your viewer’s attention and keep it there. Don’t forget that there are different types of video marketing. You can check these types before starting on your first campaign.
Make it interesting
It’s estimated that the average person will spend 100 minutes a day watching online videos. That’s a lot of video content.
In order to stand out, you’re going to need to give your viewers a reason to pay attention. Consider adding value by giving your customers useful information, or try utilising novelty or humour to keep your customers watching.
Here are some examples of how other brands have kept their video marketing campaigns interesting.
- Old Spice uses quirky humour and the good old-fashioned sex appeal of the ‘ Old Spice Man ’.
- Compare the Market has combined humour with the ‘cute factor’ by creating an entire cast of Russian meerkat characters that have now become synonymous with the brand.
- Nike has partnered with a whole host of athletes and influencers in order to inspire their customers to live an active lifestyle while encouraging them to purchase the brand’s range of sportswear.
Keep it consistent
Consistency is king. Never forget that your video is a reflection of your brand, and therefore needs to remain consistent with the voice, identity and values that you have already established for your business. Inconsistency with brand values and messaging can lead customers to question your integrity.
Consistency helps build trust with your audience, while showing your customers who your brand is and what it stands for.
Tell a story
Storytelling is one of the most important elements in marketing, and is a particularly powerful tool in the hands of video marketers. A brand that can tell a good story will capture their audience’s imagination while inspiring them to make a purchase.
The right story helps customers connect with your brand while seamlessly relating the values and messaging that you wish to convey.
2. The right video production
Now that you’ve got an idea for your video, it’s time to produce it. There are many factors that will influence the success of your video and, in some cases, you may find it takes some trial and error to discover what your audience responds to.
Light it up
Learning how to properly light your film set is an important first step to ensuring that your videos look crisp and professional.
With the natural light of the sun at your disposal, you may not even need to pay for your lighting. As long as you know how to use it, that is. When using natural light in your videos, it’s best to film in the morning or evening when the sun’s light is at its softest. The afternoon sun tends to be quite harsh, and can be quite unflattering and distracting.
If an afternoon shoot is unavoidable, then try to film in the shade or on a cloudy day. Alternatively, you may wish to film inside using a softbox to ensure that your set is well lit.
Mind your background
Take care when establishing your film set. A cluttered background can look unprofessional and can be quite distracting to your viewers. Try using a solid-coloured background to help you minimise distractions, while keeping your video looking clean and professional.
You should also take care to avoid reflective surfaces, such as windows or mirrors, as they may compromise your carefully lit set, or even reflect your camera into the scene.
Hold steady
Hand-holding a camera comes with the risk of producing a shaky film. While many cameras these days come with in-built stabilisation, and some unsteady camera work can be fixed during editing, it’s best not to rely on these when producing your film.
It’s best to mount your camera on a tripod and avoid moving it during filming. If you need to change angles, it’s better to cut from one shot to another rather than panning the camera around.
Cutting from shot to shot also adds a bit of visual interest to your video and can be particularly useful in how-to videos to show the steps involved, or in product demonstrations for a more detailed shot of the product.
Film multiple takes
In the rush of filming your video, it can be easy to miss things. An inadvertent body part might find its ways into the shot, or the camera may unintentionally be revealed in a reflective surface.
Filming multiple takes not only gives you a range of options to choose from for the best result, it also gives you a safety net if things go wrong.
Less is more
In 2018, the average length of a video was 4 minutes and 7 seconds, but even that is often considered too long for a business-related video. In fact, it’s been found that while 68% of viewers watch business-related videos right to the end if they’re under 1 minute, that number starts to drop off rapidly as the length of the video increases.
It can be tempting to try to give your customers as much information as possible about your brand. But overloaded viewers tend to click away from videos or forget the message — if they can work it out at all.
Aim to keep your video as succinct as possible, without losing the key messaging or compromising on quality, so that your viewers can be clear on the key takeaways without becoming bored. Digital Agency Network listed the best video editing tools, you can get help from these software.
Make your video audio-independent
With a staggering 85% of Facebook videos being watched without sound, it’s important that your video is able to function with or without audio.
There are many ways to ensure that your video is audio-independent. Consider utilising captions and be sure to include clear visuals that convey the key messaging. By optimising your video marketing campaign for silence, you’re not only making it more accessible to all members of your audience, you’re also decreasing the chances of a viewer clicking away when viewing in a public place where sound would be considered inappropriate.
A clear call to action
Consider the single-minded goals of your video:
- Do you want your viewers to contact your business?
- Click to a landing page?
- Request a trial?
Many videos fail to convert because brands don’t make it clear what they want their customers to do after viewing. By including a CTA, you’re eliminating uncertainty and providing your customers with clear direction on what to do next.
3. The right distribution
So you’ve made your video and it’s looking absolutely fabulous. But how do you get it out there? The final step of creating a successful video marketing campaign is distributing it across the right channels to make it accessible to the people who matter most to your business.
Go where the customers take you
To ensure that your video is seen by the right people, you need to be distributing it across the right channels.
Consider which platforms your customers are using, and where they spend the most of their time. If you upload your video to Instagram, for example, but your customers are all mid-market business owners who use LinkedIn, then your video is unlikely to be very successful.
Put your video to work for you by doing your research and distributing it on the right platforms.
Make your video marketing campaigns mobile-responsive
It’s predicted that by 2023, 2.72 billion people will be watching videos on their mobiles. That’s a 6% increase from 2019 where 2.16 billion people were found to be watching videos on mobile devices.
By optimising for mobile, your audience will be able to view your video, no matter how they choose to surf the web.
There are many things you can do to optimise your video:
- Distribute across responsive platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo
- Make sure your text is large enough to read on a small screen
- Use the right aspect ratio for your chosen platforms
- Keep it short for people on the go
- Ensure it’s audio-independent for easy viewing, regardless of location
- Create an attention-grabbing thumbnail
Optimise for search engines
While many people choose to attract viewers to their video with paid advertising, you can also optimise for search engines and begin attracting free organic traffic as well.
- Provide a transcript of your video so that search engines can index it correctly
- Include keywords in your titles and descriptions
- If you’re embedding your video on a web page, ensure that the page itself is optimised for search and is relevant to the video’s contents
- Add your videos to your sitemap (and ensure it’s submitted to search engines) so that your video’s are also indexed
You can find out some video creation tools for making this process easier for you.
Send your results skyrocketing with video marketing campaigns
With 88% of video marketers stating that video gives them a good ROI, and 83% saying that it helps them generate leads, video marketing is your key to building awareness and keeping your brand top-of-mind.
If you’d like to find out how you can turn your brand’s story into a successful video that boosts sales, drives message retention and builds trust with your brand, check out our latest video on the three keys to successful video marketing.
