As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you very likely know the inherent challenges in building and connecting with your community online. Consumers today expect more from online content and even more still if they’re going to attach themselves to it with those highly-coveted “shares.” In this post, you’ll learn why you need a video marketing strategy and how to get started using video to better connect with current and future customers.
Your Community Craves Video
Hubspot Research found that 54 percent of online audiences prefer video to print or other content types. That’s more than half of the people on the internet! Video beats pictures, articles, blogs and even the ever-more popular podcasts.
The time is now to budget video into your content marketing strategy. Yes, video has historically been more expensive to create than photos and blog posts, but production costs have decreased significantly in recent years. With the right content strategy, you can shoot high-quality videos right from your smartphone!
Even if you’re not filming with a top of the line camera, your community will be drawn to videos with heart and emotion. Simple and authentic – those are your keys to connecting with your audience through video. Keep in mind the old journalism adage: “show, don’t tell.” Show the benefit behind your product or service and drop the salesy jargon. Social media videos, especially, shouldn’t be directly selling. No matter where you post your videos, make them relatable to your target audience, compelling, and concise. Bonus points if you can show the core values of you and/or your company.
Benefits Of A Video Marketing Strategy
Implementing a video marketing strategy will bring many unique benefits to your small business. Here are some of them:
- Video creates an emotional connection and captures your audience’s attention far more than any other type of media. According to The Visual Era, 55 percent of people consume video content thoroughly.
- Videos have higher engagement rates than other content types. Consumers are 27 times more likely to click with an online video than a standard banner.
- Video will improve your SEO. According to Comscore, adding a video to your website can increase the chance of a front-page Google result by 53 times!
- According to Animoto, customers prefer to watch a product video 4x more than read a product description.
Video is known to boost conversions and sales, more so than any other type of content. 64 percent of people say they are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video about it.
The Best Type Of Video For Your Audience
Create a long-term strategy for producing engaging and compelling videos that connect with your target audience. This means, creating a video that reflects your brand’s values through interesting stories. Your audience will be most receptive to consistent content with variance in the types of stories and videos you post. Get creative and produce a mix of short, medium and long-form how-to videos, animations, testimonials, contests, event coverage, AMAs, and more!
Here are some tips according to video type:
Brand videos:
Make them fun and interactive! Let your community know who you are and the values your brand represents.
Event videos:
Don’t lose the chance to give your audience insight into the events you organize. Show off what happens behind the scenes in an authentic and maybe even vulnerable way.
How-to videos:
A definite trend! These are an audience favorite. Discover your customers’ difficulties with your products and solve them via a step-by-step video short.
Animated videos:
Another fun favorite!! Add animation to your video strategy with an automatic service like PowToons. This platform will give you user friendly tools to make high quality and fun videos easily.
Testimonial videos:
Let your customers speak for themselves! People want to know what others think before purchasing a product, and this is the perfect opportunity. Get your customers to post their own videos on your social media with a unique hashtag and/or by hosting a giveaway for the winner!
Live videos:
More popular than ever! With cable “cord cutting” happening at record speed, think about every website like a tv channel vying for attention. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are betting on live videos with their Stories feature. Did you know that at least one-third of Instagram users prefer Stories than the traditional feed? Take this as your cue! In June 2018, Instagram launched a new update to its platform, opening Instagram TV – a new way to show your audience longer videos of up to one hour. Stay on top of this and make sure your channel is ready for the eyeballs watching it.
Start Making Videos Right Now
Video content has been chosen by marketers as one of the most versatile and profitable digital marketing tools there is. So, how can you start making them right now?
First, build the story. Create a script that details the story you will tell and what images (or scenes) you’ll use to tell it. Keep your videos short! Atten spans are shorter than ever online.
Second, record the footage using a phone or camera. Make sure the light source is facing you or the subject so the video doesn’t make the rookie mistake of being backlit (i.e. face the sun or make sure there isn’t a sunny window behind you). You can also use an online video makerto facilitate the work.
Editing
Next, edit your footage. Here is our experience with video editing software:
- Apple iMovie is great for beginners; it’s user friendly and allows you to add images, video, text, voiceover, music, and transitions. The best part about iMovie? It comes built-in to most Apple products.
- Promo is an online platform where you can choose pre-recorded footage and personalize text, music, and images. This platform isn’t free but the cheaper plan is $39/month.
- PowToon is the online platform we love! It’s great for animations but makes all kinds of videos. There are lots of features to play with: different backgrounds (including animated ones), emojis, office cartoons, icons, music, images, and animations. In PowToon, you can upload your own pictures, text, icons, and voiceovers. Try it out for free!
- Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro are more advanced editing tools that will let you turn your video into a masterpiece. As they are professional grade tools, they are more difficult and expensive than the others listed. But this means you can get extremely precise in your sound and lighting editing.
Audio
The last part of making a video is adjusting or adding audio. With the platforms mentioned above, you can add voiceover to your video. You can also consider using music without a copyright. Here is a YouTube channel we often use.
Publishing
Last step: publish on a video platform like YouTube and share it all over your social media channels. Be sure to pin it on your FB page until you publish your next video. Create a blog post around the video and it’s content too! If it’s a longer video, chop up pieces of it and use those to promote the longer version (as “teasers”). Example: Conduct a 60 minute interview with your CEO or a focus group and publish awesome, 15-second clips every day for two months before you release the longer-form video!
Key Takeaways
Don’t wait another minute to make adding video to your strategy a priority. Start your video marketing strategy now and see for yourself the results it will bring. If you’re interested in exploring video marketing, schedule a complimentary strategy session with us here. We’d love to help you and your business through the art of video!