If you or your digital marketing agency is not already doing video marketing you can’t really escape any longer. Many articles have already been written about video marketing. But the problem is that they can either overwhelm you with detailed information, or just focus on the hype without providing any real steer on how to go about this.
In this article we want to present a balanced view of video marketing. We want to give you enough information to point you in the right direction, without losing you through boredom part way through. To help us do this, we will borrow the sentiments of Rudyard Kipling in his poem Six Serving Men:
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
So we will look at:
- What is video marketing?
- Why do you need to do it?
- When should you use it?
- How do you do it?
- Where is the best place for it?
- Who benefits from it?
What is video marketing?
Put simply, video marketing is the use of video to do any aspect of marketing that you currently do by any other means.
Three of the main purposes for which video marketing is used are:
- To educate and explain
- To influence and inspire
- To engage and entertain
We will look at each of these in more detail below.
Why do you need to do video marketing?
Everywhere you look, there are stats around endorsing the power of video. Around 5 billion videos are reportedly watched on YouTube every day, and videos also generate an estimated 1200% more shares on social media than text and images combined. It’s estimated that over 80% of all traffic will consist of video by 2021, 13% of this being live video.
Stats such as these change all the time, but there is no doubt that people want to see video, including from brands with whom they are engaging. Video provides versatile and informative content that is easy to digest, and can also be shared across many different channels.
If your site’s landing page features video, this can increase conversion rates by over 80%. Also, 90% of customers say that they use videos to help them make purchasing decisions. Videos have also proved to be effective in increasing open rates of emails.
Search engines also see videos as high-quality content, which means that using video can be beneficial for SEO. So whether you use them on main pages or in content, make sure that your videos are optimised for SEO by incorporating relevant keywords, and adding a meaningful title and persuasive meta description.
So overall, video can vastly improve your ROI over many channels. Therefore it’s not so much a case of why do you need to do video marketing, but why would you not do it?
When should you use video marketing?
We saw earlier that three of the main purposes for which video marketing is used are:
- To educate and explain
- To influence and inspire
- To engage and entertain
We will now look at each of these in a little more detail.
To educate/explain
Videos that educate or explain usually feature either thought leadership or some kind of practical instruction.
If you are recognised as an expert in your field, then a thought leadership style video can add value to your viewer’s lives. It can give them knowledge, information, ideas and concepts that they can then incorporate into their current situation. It is also an excellent source of bringing your brand to peoples’ attention and generating more leads.
Practical instruction videos can take many different forms. They can explain about your product or service, demonstrate it, or perhaps show a fictional journey of someone using your product or service to solve a problem: animated videos can be an effective way of doing this.
You can also use video to endorse your product or service by providing social proof of it in use. Successful case studies on video are always compelling viewing, as are any endorsements of your product or service by influential brand ambassadors.
To influence/inspire
There are many ways that you can influence or inspire people to use your product or service. You could try something generic, such as inspirational images or quotes, followed by stories of people successfully using your product or service to change their lives in some way.
Influencing videos might include interviews with experts, or less formal conversational chats with special guests or influencers. Any permutation which will help to persuade the viewer that they need your product or service is definitely worth a try.
To engage/entertain
People love to be entertained, so you need to find ways of getting them to laugh or smile. We can tend to be a little cautious of using comedy for business purposes, but it can often help you to get a point across much more effectively than more conventional means. It can lift people out of their humdrum daily routine and cheer them up. And humorous content can also draw attention to your brand and interest people in investigating it further.
Also pursue the human interest angle. If your business is doing anything special or a bit different, or hosting any kind of event, then let people know about it. Either live stream or produce a video of highlights of the event. Live video is particularly powerful as it gives you the opportunity to have real time interaction with your audience, as well as being easily transmitted and shared on social channels.
How do you do it?
All well and good, but if you want to make a marketing video how do you go about it? Many people are a little unnerved by the technological aspects.
The main thing is just to get going and do it. You can waste a lot of time procrastinating about the best video creation process. And yes, you do want it to be as good and professional as possible. But, like all things, it will get better with practice. So you need to be realistic and accept that your first video is unlikely to take the world by storm, but at least you are getting out there.
A simple five point plan to get you going is:
Plan
Start off by deciding the length of video that you are aiming for. Short and to the point works best. Suggested optimum lengths for different platforms are:
YouTube 2 minutes
Facebook 1 minute
Twitter 45 seconds
Instagram 30 seconds
Bear in mind that around 20% of your viewers are likely to click away from your video within 10 seconds, so you need to get a key message in right from the start to make sure that they hear it.
Script
You need to script your video to grab the attention of your audience so that they don’t actually want to click away. They will be asking themselves why they are watching your video so you need to give them a really convincing answer.
Your video needs to have a story that will draw them in. It needs to provide value to them and also to hook into their needs and desires. A good script is essential so that the video flows as well as it can. So don’t be tempted to try and improvise, at least not in the early days of your video marketing journey.
Record
Your two main options for this are either a professional camera – such as a DSLR – or a good quality smartphone. You may be better to start with the smartphone option, then progress to a higher spec camera if you decide to start producing a lot of videos.
Whichever option you use, you will achieve a better result if you also incorporate three other essential pieces of kit:
- Tripod: shooting with a tripod will ensure that you maintain a steady and consistent shot with no jittering. It also makes sure that the phone or camera is protected from damage during the filming.
- Mic: camera internal microphones may not be good enough for what you are trying to do. So if possible, set up at least one external microphone to capture a better quality and more realistic sound.
- Lighting: the best method of video lighting is three-point lighting. Try to place three lights around your subject: one at one side above their head pointing downward, one at the other side at eye level, and one aimed at the back of their head. Experiment with this to get a good depth of image.
Edit
Once you have recorded your video you may want to go ahead and use it straight away, which is fine. But there are also other things that you can do to it to make it the best product that it can be. There is a wide range of video editing software out there, some of which is free. Video editing software can enable you to effectively cut, paste and delete parts of the video to get the content to the best length and order for your purposes. You can also add effects, filters and background music.
Some of the most popular video editing software offerings to help you do this are:
- iMovie
- Adobe Premiere Pro CC – or simplified version Premiere Rush
- Lightworks
- Filmora
- Shotcut
Publish
Once you are happy with your video, what do you actually do with it? You need to upload it somewhere that people can access it. This is known as hosting.
The two main options for hosting are to either publish your video directly to a social media site, or use a hosting site and post the links on social media. If you are doing a quick targeted video or live stream, then publishing direct to a social media site works fine. But if you have a video that you want to be able to use flexibly across different channels, a hosting site would be the best option.
Three of the most popular video hosting sites are Youtube, Vimeo and Vidyard.
- YouTube: Youtube has 2 billion users worldwide and is the second largest search platform in the world, behind Google. It’s free to upload your videos to YouTube and optimise them for search. Viewers can engage with your videos by liking and commenting on them, and you can also set up a channel that users can follow. One disadvantage is that the number of ads on Youtube could potentially interfere with the user experience. It may also not be the most effective channel for driving traffic back to your site as viewers are more likely to move on to view other videos instead.
- Vimeo: Vimeo is the second largest video hosting platform and has an easily navigable user interface. Videos tend to be better quality than some of those on YouTube, and the audience more professional. Vimeo also has very limited ads and commercials. Vimeo does offer a basic, free membership, but the storage is limited to 500MB a week. But it does offer several different premium account options geared towards businesses.
- Vidyard: Vidyard is built specifically for businesses, and enables you to publish and update to other channels from a central location. It also provides a range of viewer insights regarding the types of video content your audience likes and how and where they watch their videos. It also enables you to personalise videos to different viewers. Vidyard is available as both free and pro versions.
Where is the best place to use video marketing?
Once you have uploaded your video to a hosting site, there are then various ways you can use it across your social media channels.
You can use video effectively on Twitter to drive traffic to a landing page, promote a post, or increase engagement with your audience. Bear in mind that Twitter is all about keeping things short and simple, so tailor your videos accordingly. Short clips that grab attention and are easy to digest work best on Twitter.
Facebook and Instagram
Most Facebook and Instagram login to scroll through the latest feeds and see if anything catches their eye. So you need to start your video with something visually stimulating that will grab your viewer’s attention as they scroll by. For both these platforms it is best to make sure that your video works both with and without sound, for example by incorporating text or captions so that viewers can follow along without audio if necessary.
LinkedIn recommends four different themes for creating video to be used on its platform:
- Show: showcase or explain new products and services.
- Transport: give the audience a taste of what it’s like to be at your business or event.
- Teach: what new knowledge or useful time-saving hack do you have to share?
- Share: either topical thought leadership or recent company news.
Who benefits from video marketing?
As we have seen throughout this article, there are tremendous benefits of video marketing for you and your brand, particularly in terms of attracting attention and generating new leads. But consumers – both existing customers and potential new ones – will also enjoy watching and engaging with your videos.
So if you are not already using video marketing, it’s time to dip your toes in the water.
We hope that the above information helps to get you started, and that you are able to successfully incorporate video marketing into your future digital marketing strategy.