7 Video Production myths that are harming your business growth
Believing these 7 myths about video production are keeping you from growing.
Are you still on the fence about video production and whether video content would be a worthwhile addition to your business marketing?
Many businesses hold back because of one or more of the enduring myths about video production. In most cases, these myths hark back to when making video was far more expensive, time-consuming, and less widely used than it is today.
Stay with us as we do some myth busting!
Myth #1: Quality video content and production is too expensive
This myth is probably the one we hear most often: Producing professional video content is just too expensive.
While this might have been the case in the past, it’s certainly not true anymore.
Yes, producing video can be more expensive than other types of media but it needs to be compared on the basis of the revenue returned rather than the initial costs. Quality video content can be used for many years and should more than return your costs in revenue.
Stats show that including a video on your landing page can increase your conversion rates by 80%. In email marketing, videos can boost open rates by 19% and click-through rates by 65%. Embedding videos on your website will also boost your Google ranking so that you’re more likely to show up on the first page of results.
There are options for any budget
If you’re on a super tight budget, you can still make an effective video yourself using your phone or webcam and free editing software.
If you have a little more to spend and you want to increase the quality and quantity of your video production, you could hire a freelancer to film or edit, or work with a video production company to hand off the whole project. This doesn’t need to break the bank.
Making video content is getting cheaper every day. Even for video production companies making professional-quality content, the cost is nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands that it used to take to create branded content.
There’s no sweet spot when it comes to the cost of your perfect video; it’s all down to what works for your business. But what everyone can agree on – and the stats speak for themselves – video is the most effective marketing tool to drive revenue.
Our advice:
Be realistic about what you can afford and look at clever ways to get the most out of your budget. If you want a video with many people involved, several days of filming and complicated post-production, this will inevitably cost more. If your budget is limited, you may need to simplify your videos for now.
Creating content internally is an affordable option – you can always outsource for specialist skills and high-end tech or try for a half-half approach where you shoot content internally and outsource the editing.
Just remember that not all video content should be DIY. While people may forgive poor production on a Facebook Live video, for example, they will expect something more polished from pre-recorded content. Stats show that 62% of consumers are more likely to have a negative perception of brands that publish poor-quality video.
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur”
Red Adair
The advantages of professionally produced video
Professional video production means working with individuals who know how to use video production equipment to the best effect. They also know which steps have to be done and in what order to achieve the results that you want.
Video Production Professionals also understand how to repackage and reuse your video content across various different platforms, extracting as much mileage as possible from every frame of footage. One video can pay for itself many times over.
Video remains one of the types of marketing media with the highest levels of engagement and conversion, as it is able to connect directly with viewers. Properly used as part of an effective strategy, video production will bring in more money than it costs.
Myth #2: Videos wouldn’t work for my business
Many businesses, particularly smaller brands, believe that video won’t work for them. However, in today’s digital age, EVERY business can benefit from video content.
Increased conversions, more dwell time on websites, higher SEO rankings, and, most importantly, great content for an audience in a format that they’re likely to enjoy are just a few of the positives.
If any of those outcomes sound like they would help your business, then video content is for you.
You may have to think creatively when it comes to the type of video you make, but with all the different video styles at your disposal, something is bound to resonate.
Before we move on, it’s worth looking at some of the biggest reasons that people believe videos won’t work for their business – do any of them strike a chord?
- I don’t have any video ideas/creativity’s not our thing
It can be challenging to come up with an idea that you know is worth executing, especially if you’re new to video marketing.
My first recommendation would be to write down every idea you have, even if you think it’s a no-go. The process of brainstorming will help you clarify your thoughts and might spark other ideas in the process.
Remember, you know your brand and your customers better than anyone and that’s invaluable. With your insights, you can be specific about the tone, messaging and purpose of your video.
Get online and find videos that you like. YouTube is a great resource and it’s always easier to get a clearer idea of costs if you know exactly what you want your video to be like.
Check out what your competitors are doing well and badly. Brainstorm with your team, your boss, your friends, and your family (anyone who knows your brand) and be open to their suggestions. They may come up with an angle that you haven’t considered.
Even if you’re struggling to come up with creative concepts, all of the above is information that you can include in a brief to a video production company to tap into their creativity.
Our advice:
Your first video will probably be the hardest to make, simply because it’s new territory. Give it a go though and you’ll find your customers like it and like you more.
And whether you’re making a video in–house or briefing an external creator, get involved in the video creation process to ensure that the video is on brand and you’re getting the biggest bang for your company bucks.
Working with a video production company can be a no-brainer if you struggle with creativity. Video professionals will be able to come up with a great concept and flesh out the ideas into a script and storyboard before bringing it to life in production.
- My business is too small for video
This is another reason that many businesses decide video wouldn’t work for them.
They believe video is only for big companies with big advertising budgets.
In the days of big-screen advertising, it’s true that only the wealthiest of brands could afford video. But advances in technology and the growth of the digital world mean that video marketing has opened up to every business.
Our advice:
It’s not your company size that limits your video creation but your intention and desire. All you need to do is start.
- Videos only work short-term
Many businesses see videos as having a short lifespan in marketing terms. While a news update video might only be current for a few days, most other videos have value for much longer.
A good brand identity video, for example, can last for years. In fact, a lot of videos — especially those strategically posted on social media — will continuously build momentum.
Our advice:
Talk to a video production company about the best way to create evergreen video content or how to create different video types from one shoot. You could, for instance, pull short testimonials out of a larger case study or brand video.
Myth #3: Professional video content is too time-consuming
Most of us are time-poor these days, so you may be worried that creating videos is too time-consuming to be worthwhile.
In the past, video production often did take a long time because there simply weren’t any of the sophisticated apps and tools that are available today. Things are different now, especially in the hands of an experienced video professional.
And let’s not forget that you can get a surprising amount of mileage out of each video you create. Allocate the time and resources now and it will keep paying you back in dividends.
A single piece of video can be repurposed into multiple pieces of content for the web, social media, blogs, editorial, for live events or internal coms, for HR and recruitment, or for customer service and sales reports.
Our advice:
With so many tools available, an experienced company can help you to speed up the video production process.
Editing tends to be the biggest time-suck, so if your budget is limited and you’re only going to outsource one thing to save time then make it this.
Depending on the complexity of your requirements, most videos can now be completed within a few days to a couple of weeks.
That being said, a video takes as long to produce as it has to. A complex video, such as an important commercial, may take a few weeks to plan and shoot. A short explainer video or product video, on the other hand, may be able to be completed within a day.
Video production doesn’t have to take a long time to produce as a general rule. Hiring actors, writing scripts, and researching locations are tasks that will often take a long time. Even these tasks can be streamlined by a professional video production company.
Myth #4: To be successful with video you need a lot of views
There’s an enduring myth that the number of views is the best way to rate the success of a video.
While a high number of views is great, and it can let you know how many people are watching your video, one thing this metric doesn’t tell you is the number of people that are interested in the product or service that the video is promoting.
More sophisticated marketing methods and apps should be used to determine what the viewer does AFTER watching the video.
Do most of them simply click out and do something else? Do some of them do an internet search about the product or service? How many actually visit the website of the product or service being promoted by the video?
The answers to these questions can be much more effective at rating the success of a promotional video.
Our advice:
You may believe that a video has to go viral to be deemed ‘successful’, but the reality is that very few videos achieve viral fame.
The most important thing is that your video content appeals to your brand’s target audience; you can confirm this by tracking the metrics that matter.
If a video goes viral, that’s great, but it shouldn’t be your benchmark for success.
Viral videos usually happen by chance – they capture a mood and get shared by the right people at the right time. There’s no magic formula.
Our advice is to make something that your audience will enjoy; the engagement will be worthwhile in terms of customers and sales, even if you don’t generate traffic in the millions.
Myth #5: For video content, the shorter the better
This enduring myth feeds – and is fed by – most of the other myths on this list. Brands often believe that shorter videos will be easier to produce in-house, cost less and, therefore, offer better value.
These days though, shorter isn’t necessarily better.
As consumers, we’re used to online streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, bringing us long-form content on demand. It’s the norm to watch longer videos on mobile devices, as a result.
Both Instagram and Facebook offer long-form content platforms (IGTV and Facebook Watch respectively) – the latter reports that videos over 90 seconds in duration receive nearly 79% more shares and roughly 74% more views than shorter videos.
The reality today is that long-form video has its place and is well received when it’s targeted to the right audience for the right reasons.
On other occasions, short, snappy videos may be more appropriate.
Our advice:
A video should be as long as it needs to be to serve its purpose.
While a testimonial video or product promo might be less than 30 seconds long, a video telling your brand story or providing a product walkthrough would probably need to be longer.
Your decisions should be based on your goals and the way in which you want to use video to connect with your customers.
Myth #6: Using video to promote a business means making a commercial
You may be holding back from using video in your business because you believe that the best/only profitable approach is to create a commercial.
Although this might have been true in the past, it’s certainly not true anymore.
Thanks to on-demand video services or the ability to record our favourite programmes on cable/satellite, most of us are used to skipping through the adverts. Even on YouTube, where you are required to watch ads to a certain extent, approximately 65% of people hit the ‘Skip ad’ option as soon as it appears (a figure that rises to 84% of smartphone viewers).
Therefore, it makes sense to look beyond traditional commercials or digital ads to other types of video.
For example, you could make a virtual tour video that shows off your office space or a how-to video that teaches your customers how to use your product. You could film behind-the-scenes videos or record some face-to-face testimonials.
Our advice:
There is a huge variety of video options for you to use to grow your business. You no longer have to use one video to do it all.
The best approach is to consider the journey your customers go on from hearing about your business until after they’ve made a purchase, then create videos that speak to the crucial points in that journey.
You’ll want to think about how a video will be used. Will it appear on the Home page of your website? Do you want to share it on Facebook or send it via email to people on your mailing list?
The possibilities are endless and extend well beyond commercials.
Myth #7: Producing video content is all there is to video marketing
Do you remember the famous line from the Kevin Costner film, Field of Dreams, where a mysterious voice told him, “If you build it, he will come”?
Well, many businesses still believe that if they create a video, the audience will watch, as though the process begins and ends with video production.
What many seem to forget is making the content is just part of the process. A critical step in an effective video marketing strategy is deciding what you do with your video after you’ve created it.
- Which platforms will you distribute your video to?
- How will you optimise your video for these platforms and your intended audience?
- Which metrics will you use to track the effectiveness of your video in achieving the desired results?
These are all incredibly important questions. The answers to these will help form an effective video marketing strategy that you need to plan before you start filming.
Our advice:
Ideally, you should think about how you plan to distribute a video before it’s produced. This is because the platforms you use can have a direct bearing on the length, style, approach and format of your video.
If a video isn’t properly distributed, it won’t be able to achieve the best possible ROI. Much of video marketing lies in effectively utilising the video once it has been created and the best video production companies double as video marketing experts too.
Conclusions
As we’ve seen, many of the myths surrounding video production are undeserved. In reality, video has many benefits from growing brand awareness to skyrocketing conversions and email clickthrough rates.
You don’t need to spend an exorbitant amount of money on video production and there are options for every budget. In addition, you can use a video in multiple ways and share it through multiple channels, which is more diversified and far-reaching than ever before.
A professional video production company can help walk you through the process or manage it on your behalf. While this requires more of an investment than going it alone, the payoff is high-quality, engaging videos that are carefully targeted to your audience.
Professionally produced videos pay for themselves many times over.
10 common mistakes with corporate videos and how to avoid them
Simple fixes for your online video content to set you up for success.
Could you be making one or more common mistakes with your corporate videos?
More and more businesses are producing and sharing online video content. Unfortunately, that also means more businesses are making the same common mistakes that are preventing them from realising the full potential of video marketing.
The good news is, in most cases, there are simple fixes that can be made to set you up for success with video.
Here are 10 common mistakes with corporate video and how to avoid them:
1. Not having a clear strategy
If you’re a regular reader of the blog then you’ll know why a Video Strategy is essential in effective video production. Before creating content, you need to understand what it is that you want the video to do. What action you want your audience to take, how you want them to feel and what you want them to think?
Take the time to create a video strategy that considers your overall business goals and identifies your target audience. These first two critical steps will combine to inform your content and your methods for distribution. Then, by tracking the metrics that matter, you will build a deeper understanding of your audience and how you could use video even more effectively in the future.
2. Selling too hard
Video marketing is an entire waste of time if it doesn’t ultimately result in increased sales for your business. However, sometimes businesses go for the sale too soon. This can be a hard watch for the audience.
Yes, people are savvy enough to know that they’re being sold too but they don’t need to feel like they’re watching a corporate pitch.
Instead, concentrate on ways that you can offer helpful, genuinely valuable video content to your audience. People want to feel that you’re talking directly to them and that you have their needs at heart.
This is why storytelling is so important in video. Ideally, the customer should always feel like the hero of the piece, with your business at their side as a wise guide or mentor.
The two most popular video content types on YouTube are product reviews and how-to videos. This serves to illustrate that the most-watched videos are the ones that offer real value by helping and guiding their audience.
3. Not focusing on a single message
Think one video = one purpose.
In wanting to maximise the results from each new video, many companies make the mistake of creating a corporate video that’s too generic so that they can use it in as many ways as possible. They want their videos to raise brand awareness, sell products, boost social media following, recruit new staff, and more.
But this approach can really dilute the impact of the video. The audience can’t tell who it’s aimed at or what they need to do after watching, which is a surefire way to make people switch off.
Your audience wants to feel a connection. One of the strongest ways to achieve this is by having a single, clear message in each video that you produce.
4. No call to action
Following on from the previous point, every video should have a clear call to action that reflects the core message and purpose of the video.
A truth of human behaviour is that, when it comes to engaging with marketing, we like to be told what to do next. If your video doesn’t have a call to action (and a lot don’t), you risk viewers dropping off even if they’ve engaged with the content. Don’t give them that chance!
My advice is to keep your calls to action short, to the point and relevant to where the video sits in the customer journey. Some examples of simple but effective prompts include:
- Subscribe
- Make an appointment
- Call today
- Download now
- Join my list
- Sign up for a free trial
The call to action should tell people what they need to do but also give them some idea of what they’ll get – and how they’ll benefit – when they do it.
5. A one-size-fits-all approach
Many businesses assume that they can create one corporate video and release it on every possible platform to get it in front of as many people as possible.
There are several reasons why this is usually a mistake.
For a start, as we’ve seen above, the video needs to be tailored to the intended audience and where they are in the customer journey. This might affect which platform they’re using to view the video. For example, the first contact with a company might come from a short video on Instagram, whereas potential customers might seek out more in-depth videos on YouTube or your website when they know more about your business.
For this reason, it’s advisable to create platform-native content and to think about what the viewer might be doing when they hit play on your video.
Are they likely to be watching with sound on or off? (More about this below). Will they be scrolling through Instagram or watching IGTV? Will they have gone purposely to YouTube for a how-to video or tutorial?
We should also recognise that different sizes and aspect ratios are preferable for different platforms.
My advice is to ditch the cookie-cutter approach to videos and create different versions for different platforms.
Having a strategy in place before production will help you secure all the footage you need to create platform-native videos that share a consistent message.
6. Letting poor quality distract from the message
Poor sound, over-exposed video or out-of-focus shots can all be distracting for the viewer. And, if someone is being distracted by one or more of these issues, it means they’ve probably tuned out the actual message and content of your video.
For this reason, the quality of your video production is important. You want people to absorb your marketing message, and not be distracted by the technicalities of the video production process.
Yes, the audience tends to be a bit more forgiving if they’re viewing a Facebook Live, for example, but regularly publishing low-quality videos will damage your brand image.
7. Not measuring results
Launching a new corporate video is an exciting event but your work doesn’t stop the day it goes out into the world. Many companies make the mistake of thinking they can create a video and just watch the new customers roll in.
While your videos should certainly deliver results if you’ve produced them based on a sound strategy, you won’t truly be able to assess this unless you measure the results.
There’s an often-used quote in digital marketing that “What gets measured gets managed” and there is a large amount of useful data available to help determine the effectiveness of your videos in achieving the desired goal.
While the ‘vanity’ metrics like the number of views, social shares and likes are nice to have, don’t forget to look at how long people watch a video or which bits they re-watch as well as which bits they skip. This data will help you build up a clear picture of what works for your audience and what doesn’t. You can feed this knowledge through to your subsequent videos.
8. Not providing captions
Back in 2016, Facebook stats showed that 85% of videos on the platform are watched with the sound off. A survey from 2019 showed this figure could be as high as 92% when video content is viewed on a mobile.
Even though 60% of Instagram videos are viewed with the sound-on, you could potentially alienate more than a third of your audience if your video isn’t accessible without sound.
In other words, if you create corporate videos without captions, you risk losing the ‘sound off’ audience which could be catastrophic for your conversions, depending on which platform you’re using.
Make sure you always add captions for a sound-off audience and those that are hard of hearing.
9. Forgetting about SEO
It’s surprising how many businesses forget about search engine optimisation (SEO) when it comes to publishing their videos. And yet, SEO is how content is found online.
If you can give your corporate videos a properly optimised video description and keyword-rich/relevant title, this will help your video content to show up in searches.
It can also be helpful to give the search bots some text information about your video content so they know what they’re crawling.
A transcript of a video is the ideal solution when posted with a video on your website.
10. Expecting instant results
Thanks to the rise of viral videos, many companies hope that they will publish a video to an instant buzz and viral success.
In reality, even the corporate videos that seem to achieve overnight fame are actually the product of a video production strategy and, sometimes, years of tracking metrics and honing the message.
As with any content, videos take time to build up momentum. You need people to view, enjoy and share them with their network in order to open your videos to a wider audience.
If you can avoid all of the mistakes above and keep referring back to and refining your video marketing strategy, you should find that videos benefit your long-term marketing efforts even if it takes a while for them to be noticed.
How to Repurpose Video Content to Increase Value
Create additional marketing content by reusing and repurposing your video footage.
A great video marketing strategy should include ways to repurpose video content as well as create fresh content from scratch.
There are many reasons why this is a sound approach. Repurposed video content can:
- Help you maximise the value of each video you create, especially if you invested in a professional shoot
- Attract more views across multiple platforms
- Reach a wider audience
- Reinforce your brand messaging
- Boost your search engine optimisation (SEO)
After investing the time, energy and budget into creating video content that is perfectly targeted to your ideal clients in whichever relevant stage of the customer journey they're in, it would be a waste to use it once and then park it.
Video can keep on delivering value and increasing its return on your investment (ROI). It can also continue to build brand awareness, engagement and customer retention.
But how?
There are many ways that you can keep your existing video content working for you:
- Reuse footage from your content library in new videos
- Recycle and refresh older videos for a new audience
- Repurpose video content across multiple platforms
Remember, it is important to plan the different ways in which you can use a piece of footage before production if you are to do this successfully.
You’ll find some ideas below for recycling, reusing and repurposing your video content.
Pull out short snippets from longer videos
While long-form video is great for platforms like YouTube and will be well-watched by its intended audience when properly targeted, there may be times when shorter 30-second videos would perform better. This will depend on which platform you plan to use.
If you have a long-form video, review it to pinpoint quick snippets that you could use for shorter videos.
For example, you might want to take a few soundbites of a client talking from a case study video and turn them into 30-second reviews or testimonials.
Reuse your "universal" footage
Look for "universal" footage in your videos, such as views of your premises, your long-established products or services, location, etc. This is footage of the constant, evergreen elements of your business that won’t quickly go out of date.
You may be able to use this universal footage in a range of different videos – mixed with fresh content - without having to pay for multiple shoots of the same scenes.
Refresh your old videos
Always keep track of what’s in your video archive.
For example, a video that attracted plenty of engagement two years ago may never have been seen by your newer customers. It could make sense to bring this old content back into circulation.
Another approach is to update the narration of old footage or edit fresh content into a video you’ve used before.
You could even go back to the original raw footage and see if there is content that you discarded before that could be used now.
What are your most popular videos? You could bring them back into circulation by adding an update.
Extract still images from your videos
You can make a video part of a wider campaign by using screen captures as stills for your posters, adverts and other promos.
This can be a strong way to create cohesion across your marketing materials.
High-resolution professional filming will help you here as you should be able to capture crystal-clear stills that display well in a range of sizes.
Create a transcript of a video
Although search engines are getting better at understanding video, it’s helpful to give the search bots some text information about video content so they know what they’re crawling.
A transcript of a video is the ideal solution when posted with a video on your website.
As well as the SEO benefits, transcripts have other positives too.
Someone visiting your website may not always be in the position to watch a video immediately. It could be that they’re in public or at work. A transcript provides a written overview that explains the video without it having to be viewed.
Like closed captions, transcripts also improve accessibility for viewers with hearing impairments.
Reuse the audio
Just as we can review a video for shorter visual snippets, audio snippets of the content can be repurposed too. For example, you could use audio from a video – a testimonial is ideal - as the basis for an ad on a podcast.
Create slides and presentations
As we’ve seen in previous blogs, video is one of the most engaging forms of visual media, which makes it ideal for keeping people’s attention.
Instead of filming something new for a presentation, could you use a video from your archive?
For example, a professional services firm could use footage from a client case study in a presentation about applying new legislation to client cases. Or footage from a training video could be used to show how your company is supporting health and wellbeing in the workplace.
Create GIFs for social sharing
GIFs are a series of images or soundless video that will loop continuously and doesn't require anyone to press play. They are hugely popular on social media because anyone can watch them at any time. They also provide a good middle ground between text and video but go a step beyond a static image.
It’s possible to take short clips from your videos and add text to them. GIFs are highly shareable, especially if they’re humorous or visually impactful.
Repurpose your video webinars
If you have pre-recorded video webinars, there are several ways you can get more value from this session.
For example, you could pull short snippets from a webinar and turn them into a series of 1 - 2 minute video clips containing advice or information for your audience (just don’t forget to include a call to action with each clip).
You could turn short clips into teaser-style videos encouraging people to book on to future webinars. Alternatively, you could package the webinar so that it’s available for purchase via your website or only downloadable to be viewed in the customer’s own time once they sign up to your mailing list.
Compilation videos
People love compilations whether it’s a "Greatest TV Shows of the 80s" style programme on Channel 4 or a blog rounding up the best posts of the year.
Your archived videos might lend themselves to a compilation too. For example, you could take the highlights of your most recent footage to tell the story of ‘Our Year in Video’.
Key takeaway
When you’ve invested in video content, it should work as hard as possible for you to deliver greater value and increase your ROI.
By considering how you can repurpose content as part of your video marketing strategy, you can organise the video shoots more effectively to capture footage that you’ll need months and, sometimes, years in advance.
I’d always recommend that you work alongside video production professionals to design a video strategy and capture your video content. This is because professional companies will understand how fresh and repurposed content can be used to its full potential, extracting as much mileage as possible from every frame of footage.
Developing a strategy for using video in your marketing mix can be confusing if you haven’t worked extensively with video before.
If you want to make video a profitable part of your business, you must have a video marketing strategy that extends beyond your normal digital marketing or content marketing strategy and maximises the impact of the videos you produce.
Don’t know exactly what you need?
Get in touch for some free advice and discover:
- What videos will have the greatest impact on your bottom line
- The best way to have your videos produced, based on your needs and budget
- The video marketing channels that will deliver the greatest reach and engagement for your brand
If you enjoyed this article and found value in it then please consider sharing it with your network. We’d really appreciate that!
Video metrics and why they matter to you
How we measure whether your videos are delivering the desired results.
Producing a successful video is not just about making something that looks good but also about making something that actually delivers results.
But, how do we know if a video has achieved the results that you’re looking for? Well, we track the video metrics that matter!
The approach of combining art with science is at the heart of any good video marketing strategy.
But what are the video metrics that matter and what do they mean for your videos?
Five main types of data for video
There is a huge array of data available to assess how a video is performing and whether it’s achieving the goals you have set for it. Different platforms offer different video metrics that, when put together, can help you build a deeper understanding of your audience and how you could use video even more effectively in the future.
Broadly speaking though, all of the available metrics will fall into five different categories:
- Reach
- Engagement
- Conversion
- Retention
- Audience
Let’s look at these in more detail.
Reach: How many people have seen the video?
The data in this category helps us understand how many people may potentially have been exposed to your video content.
This doesn’t necessarily mean people who viewed the video in its entirety – or at all! – but instead, the number of people who may have seen it in a social media newsfeed, for example, thus registering as an ‘impression’.
Each platform varies in how it measures reach and impressions. On Facebook, a video just needs to appear on the screen – even without playing – to count as an impression.
Reach data can be a helpful measure of brand awareness and impact and it is the first metric that we look out for. Without reach there will not be a lot of other data to measure but, it is only the start. To get a fuller picture you’ll have to dive deeper. What actions have your audience taken as a result of seeing your videos?
Engagement: How interested in your video was your audience?
For marketing of any kind to be effective, it needs to attract engagement.
In other words, people need to like what they’re seeing and interact with the brand in some way. We might measure this by looking at metrics such as:
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- Watching with the sound on
- Watching the video to completion
- Repeated viewings
Generally speaking, the higher the level of engagement in a video, the more effective the video is.
This is reflected in YouTube’s algorithms, which use ‘watch times’ rather than ‘views’ as an important positive ranking signal. After all, a view can be a matter of seconds whereas longer watch times suggest the viewer actively choosing to consume the video content.
Facebook, on the other hand, uses average completion rates – i.e. the per cent of each video your audience watches – to rank video content in newsfeeds. The more people who watch from start to finish, the better for your visibility.
According to Facebook, 48% of all video watch time can be attributed to social sharing, which is why stats relating to likes, comments and shares are relevant.
It’s worth keeping an eye on average view durations too. This measures the total watch times of a video divided by the number of watches. This can help us build up a good sense of the ideal video length for the audience – if people keep dropping off 30 seconds into a 45-second video, it could be an indication that the video needs editing or that future videos should be shorter.
Data covering repeated viewing is also helpful. Are there particular sections of a video that people keep re-watching? If so, this could be a sign that this portion of the video is of greater interest to your audience.
The above metrics are all positive signals that your video content is striking a chord with its intended audience. People want to watch, they’re interested in what you have to say.
If, on the other hand, you don’t see much in the way of engagement, this could be a sign that you’re reaching the wrong audience or that your message needs fine-tuning before it will resonate.
Negative feedback such as how many people hide a video or unlike your Facebook page after watching will give you a clearer view of what videos just aren’t a good fit for your customers.
Videos comments tend to provide softer, qualitative data about how people feel about your videos or brand. This can give you some powerful insights into what matters to your audience.
Conversion: How many people are doing what you want them to do after watching the video?
As we saw in my previous article where I detailed How to create a video marketing strategy it is essential to have clear goals for your videos.
Most often, a goal will include something you want people to do after watching your content. This might be visiting your website, signing up to your mailing list, making a booking, or buying a product or service.
For this reason, most businesses concentrate on conversion metrics.
This is the data that tells you about sales, new leads, lead quality, site traffic, clickthroughs and conversion rates.
Stats such as your clickthrough rates can give you great insights into how your call to action is working. Does it need repositioning within the video or would different wording work better?
Also, conversion stats can help you understand how video is best used on your landing pages. Again, does the position make a difference? Or the length? Are people more likely to make a purchase on a sales page with or without watching a video?
Retention: What happens to the customer after they buy from you?
If you’ve read How to use video content throughout the ‘customer journey then you’ll remember that the journey doesn’t end with a purchase.
Every business should focus on retaining as many customers as possible. Research shows that as few as 8% of your customers can account for 41% of your revenue – these are your repeat customers!
So, retention metrics are those that help you build up a picture of how many customers are returning, how long they stay a customer, how often they buy from you and how they rate your service. You might also want to look at referrals and customer complaints in this category too.
The videos you create for the retention or loyalty/advocacy stage of the customer journey will have a different message to your earlier-stage videos. Retention metrics will help you to craft and refine this message.
Audience: Who is watching your videos?
The final broad category of video metrics is relevant at all stages of the customer journey and will be core to your video marketing strategy.
These are the audience metrics that help you understand who is watching your videos.
As well as providing demographics such as gender, age, location, socio-economic background, location, device, etc. of your audience, these metrics can also help you answer different questions.
For example, are your videos resonating with the right people? Or are they reaching an unexpected audience? What type of videos seem to resonate most strongly with your audience?
Why the metrics matter
What gets measured gets improved and no online marketing campaign can be successful without measuring and analysing performance. One of the real strengths of digital video marketing, as opposed to traditional video advertising, is the amount of useful data available to help determine the effectiveness of the video in achieving your desired goal. But, it’s important to know which video metrics matter so that you can refine your video marketing strategy moving forward.
By taking time to reflect and track the results of each video you publish you can strengthen your video marketing strategy. In turn, this will boost your visibility, develop your voice, build your audience and improve conversions.
Do you need help in creating an effective video strategy for your business? At Reach Video we provide the strategy, content and ability to connect to your target audience, drive them to action and deliver tangible, profitable results.
The importance of storytelling in your brand videos
How to weave stories into your brand videos and why your customer must be the hero in your story.
If your marketing content is to stand out from the crowd then it is important to tap into the power of video storytelling.
We all love a good story. As human beings, we are psychologically wired to enjoy them. Stories help us to make sense of the world, concepts, emotions, morality, society and so much more.
Stories create an emotional connection
Stories invite the audience to step into the main character’s shoes and imagine themselves going through the same trials and triumphs.
For video marketing purposes, this is powerful because you can entice your target audience to join you on a journey that highlights how good their life will look if they buy from you.
Video storytelling can make your brand more memorable as our human brains find it much easier to recall the key points of a story than a list of features. It can also help you to forge a deeper emotional connection with your customers, secure more sales and result in more repeat business.
The customer is the hero
Many businesses make the mistake of believing that they are the hero of their marketing stories. But, in truth, a story will only resonate if the viewer – in this case, the potential customer – takes centre stage.
If you have read my previous article, Your Brand Video. What it is and what it’s not you will already know that the most successful brand stories are those that recognise the ‘hero’ is not the brand. Your challenge is to pinpoint where your business fits into the hero’s story and then play that role with aplomb through the story you tell (more about this later).
Plot-lines that work for business videos
According to storytelling expert and screenwriter, Melissa Cassera, there are two main types of plotline that are particularly effective for brand videos.
The first is to tell a story about Overcoming the Monster. The second is to take your customers on a Quest with you.
At their heart, both types of story are about the triumph of good over evil, heroes over villains, success over adversity.
How does this translate into a video to market your business, products or services?
Using the Overcoming the Monster approach, the monster will probably be a problem that your customer is currently facing.
This could be a legal problem that they don’t know how to overcome, being stuck in a dead-end job with no prospect of promotion or a dietary need that’s affecting their life – the type of challenge or ‘monster’ will depend entirely on the nature of your business.
Once you’ve identified the monster that is most affecting your potential customers, your video needs to tell the story of how your business can help the viewer to slay the monster.
The Quest format may overlap with an Overcoming the Monster story or be told independently.
The concept of the quest is that the hero of the story – your customer – will go on a journey through various challenges and pitfalls until they reach their desired destination.
Your business should act as a guide, leading the customer safely through their journey to a happy ending.
The rule of three
From 10-second Instagram marketing videos to three-hour-long films or children’s short stories to classic novels, most stories are told in three acts.
- Act one – the ‘Hook’ – sets the scene and draws the audience in
- Act two tells the meat of the story, setting up the conflict and delivering on the hook promised in act one
- Act three resolves and concludes the story, giving viewers a satisfying ending – with marketing messages, act three may end with a call to action
This ‘rule of three’ can be applied to most marketing messages and is a strong way to define the story you want to tell in your video.
Other key elements to include in your video story
I’m a big fan of Donald Miller’s StoryBrand approach to brand storytelling. After analysing a huge number of famous films and stories, Donald believes that there are seven key parts to any compelling story:
- You know what your audience wants
If you’re able to identify exactly what it is that your potential customers want and need, you can not only develop an engaging story but also communicate how you can meet these needs in a clear, compelling and memorable way.
- You can identify three levels of problems
In stories, there are three types of problems that prevent the hero of the tale achieving what they want. These problems are either external, internal or philosophical.
Typically, the external problem is something that has happened or will happen to the hero that’s beyond their control. For example, the target customer for a legal firm may be someone who doesn’t know how to go about writing a will but desperately needs to do one.
Using this example, the internal problem would be that the hero of the story has to find someone they can trust and someone who is affordable to help them but they don’t know where to start. They keep putting their worries about their will to one side, reasoning that it’s not urgent.
The philosophical problem explains why their internal feelings need to be resolved.
The hero in our example above risks leaving his family with a huge amount of stress and legal hassle to sort out his estate. Without a will, they will not be able to ensure that his last wishes are honoured. The hero won’t want to leave his family to suffer when he’s gone.
As Donald Miller tells us, the best marketing messages solve all three of these problems in one go.
For example, “At Acme Law, we offer a trustworthy, affordable will writing service that will protect your estate and save your loved ones from distress when you die”.
- You position yourself as a guide
In every good story, there’s a guide, mentor or teacher who comes in and helps the hero. In the case of brand marketing, this guide should be your business.
You can use storytelling to show how you support your customers to help them achieve whatever it is they want. This might be by giving them the best tools, insider knowledge, an easier journey or something else altogether.
- You can give your audience a plan
Think about your favourite story and the chances are that the guide who supports the hero puts together some sort of plan for them to follow.
The plan is what tells your audience how you’re going to get them from where they are now to where they want to be.
For example, an orthodontist might tell potential customers who want a brace that they should:
1) come in for a face-to-face consultation,
2) receive and agree their individual treatment plan and
3) complete their treatment with the beautiful smile they’ve always wanted.
The clearer you can make the plan, the better.
- Know your call to action
Even with the most compelling, effective marketing videos, it’s essential to provide a clear call to action. What is it that you want the people watching the video to do next? People won’t act unless you tell them.
- & 7. You know what success or failure looks like for your audience
Your story and the call to action may lead to a happy or sad ending for the customer, depending on what they decide to do (or not do).
Your brand story needs to show the viewer how good their life will look if they follow the call to action or how bad it would look if they decide to walk away.
Your customers have to have a stake in the story
What each of the approaches above tells us is that your customer has to have a stake in the story you choose to tell.
This stake is what will spark an emotional connection and spur the viewer to action once the story is over.
With brand messaging, you can use your story to show your purpose, values and how you benefit others. In turn, your target audience will realise that they share the same values, beliefs and aspirations as your brand. They will prefer to buy from you over another company because of this alignment.
As we’ve seen above, video storytelling isn’t just about telling the history of your business. It can also be used in other types of video such as explainer videos, behind-the-scenes videos, events videos, testimonial videos and case studies, or culture videos, as just a few examples.
In all cases, just remember that your business is the guide that leads the customers to success. Now, go out there and overcome the monster that is effective video marketing!
Developing a strategy for using video in your marketing mix can be confusing if you haven’t worked extensively with video before.
If you want to make video a profitable part of your business, it’s important that you have a video marketing strategy that extends beyond your normal digital marketing or content marketing strategy, and maximises the impact of the videos you get produced.
Don’t know exactly what you need?
Get in touch for some free advice and discover:
- What videos will have the greatest impact on your bottom line
- The best way to have your videos produced, based on your needs and budget
- The video marketing channels that will deliver the greatest reach and engagement for your brand
The tremendous power of the Video Testimonial
Why you should create testimonial videos for your business.
When was the last time you made a major purchase decision, without first checking out reviews for that product or service?
Online reviews have become essential to today’s customers and video takes their impact to the next level.
Why are testimonials, reviews and case studies so important?
According to the 2019 BrightLocal Consumer Review Survey, 82% of people say that they check reviews before buying, while the average consumer reads 10 reviews before they’ll trust a business.
The message is clear – in today’s marketing savvy world, a business without customer reviews or testimonials will really struggle to win new customers.
Why is this?
We all know that businesses will use their marketing to say how great they are, so we approach these messages with a healthy dose of scepticism. What we really want to see is reviews and testimonials from genuine, recent customers.
According to the BrightLocal survey, 76% of us trust online reviews as much as recommendations from our friends and family (a figure that skyrockets to 89% for consumers aged 35 to 54).
The power of testimonial videos
Who better to sell to your future customers than your current happy customers?
People want to hear honest, unscripted opinions about your products and services from someone who doesn’t have anything to gain from encouraging them to make a purchase.
I’ve mentioned just a few stats above that show how influential reviews are (the BrightLocal Survey includes a lot more). Video testimonials, reviews and case studies take this influence a step further.
Video testimonials are more effective than written reviews because the human brain retains 95% of what it sees in a video, compared to 10% of what it reads.
There’s also an emotional connection that comes from seeing and hearing someone speak about a product or service. The mannerisms and expressions of a genuine customer add a layer of authenticity that simply can’t be achieved with text.
It’s known that the human brain is full of mirror neurons that fire either when we do something or when we see someone else doing it. If we watch a video of someone feeling happy, relieved or thankful, for example, those mirror neurons tell our brains to feel the same emotions too.
A testimonial video taps into this, inviting the viewer to step into the shoes of the happy customer and imagine how they will feel when things work out well for them too. This is an integral part of the brand story and how you can use your marketing to guide your audience to a successful outcome.
Video reviews, testimonials and case studies are also a powerful way to humanise your brand, even if the potential customer hasn’t come face-to-face with anyone from your company yet.
They see and hear someone who is just like them – someone who is struggling with the same challenges or who has the same aspirations – and it creates a feeling of connection and familiarity and the promise that your company will do its best by them too.
These feelings are essential to building credibility and trust.
Social proof is a powerful decision-making factor, so the fact that you have people who are so pleased with their customer experience that they’re willing to talk about it on camera is a huge vote of confidence.
Creating testimonial videos for different stages in the customer journey
Testimonial videos are incredibly versatile, meaning that they can be pitched to different stages of the customer journey. For example, you might want to use short testimonials that focus on emotional experience for the Awareness stage but release in-depth case studies highlighting measurable outcomes for the Conversion stage.
A really effective approach is to film an in-depth case study but pull out shorter snippets and soundbites to use as testimonials or to include in your company’s brand story. This is a great way of repurposing your content throughout your sales funnel and making the most of your video marketing budget.
This tactic also helps to take the potential customer on a journey with the existing customer. For example, someone might watch a short testimonial just as they’re becoming aware of your company but be more willing to watch a longer case study when they’re seriously considering a purchase. The viewer might think, “This was the person who said they were happy with this company. Now I want to know what made them happy, in particular. How did they measure the outcome?”
Another benefit of video testimonials is that they are ideal for sharing on your website, social media or via email, boosting the visibility of your brand across multiple platforms.
The case for case studies
As we’ve seen above, a cost-effective and strategic approach is to film in-depth case studies and then use snippets from these as testimonials.
According to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2018 benchmarks study, case studies are ranked as the second most effective content marketing tool behind ebooks and whitepapers. Pre-produced videos were the third most widely used type of content marketing after social media posts and case studies.
Knowing that case studies and video are both ranked so highly, it makes sense to bring them together.
Case studies give you room to take an in-depth look at a customer and why they needed a product or service that you offer. You can then draw out the benefits that came from choosing your company over your competitors.
How to use video testimonials
Once you’ve found suitable customers to feature in your videos, you’ll need to think about how you’re going to use the testimonials and where they’ll fit in the customer journey. This will help you pinpoint the kind of soundbites you want to pull out.
Testimonials are the ideal way to convey your authority and expertise as well as your connection with your customers in a way that makes the customer the ‘hero’, the one who has triumphed with your help.
Here are a few ideas for soundbites you can look for when collecting testimonials:
- Overcoming objections – Look for testimonials that address the reasons people may be worried about buying from you, e.g. “I was worried that the service would be expensive but I saved over £500 by getting professional advice”.
- Solving problems – Aim to get soundbites that highlight the customer’s problem and how your product or service provided a solution, e.g. “I needed a proper contract that I could send out to my customers. Acme legal created one for me, covering issues that I hadn’t even considered”.
- Adding value – Look at how testimonials can help you take potential customers past the payment threshold by focusing on how much value they received, e.g. “I have received bespoke support as well as lifetime access to expert resources so it really is tremendous value”
Summary
Testimonials are all about highlighting the benefits of choosing your business from the customer’s perspective.
They answer the customer’s question, “What’s in it for me?” and provide a strong motivation to buy.
The tremendous power of the video testimonial means you should be looking for ways to use them wherever it makes sense. This is why, in a previous post, I listed the testimonial video as one of the 7 effective ways to use video in your business marketing.
They are easily filmed and you can use them across a variety of different marketing campaigns. Surely, there can’t be much other content that offers a better bang for your buck?!
Developing a strategy for using video in your marketing mix can be confusing if you haven’t worked extensively with video before.
If you want to make video a profitable part of your business, it’s important that you have a video marketing strategy that extends beyond your normal digital marketing or content marketing strategy, and maximises the impact of the videos you get produced.
Don’t know exactly what you need?
Get in touch for some free advice and discover:
- What videos will have the greatest impact on your bottom line
- The best way to have your videos produced, based on your needs and budget
- The video marketing channels that will deliver the greatest reach and engagement for your brand
Your Brand Video. What it is and what it’s not.
How to use your brand video to effectively tell your story and attract your ideal audience
Not so long ago, businesses would rarely use more than one type of video. This would be the company video, a promotional film that was all about themselves and was often a little conceited too. This video would be shown everywhere possible, at presentations, exhibitions and on a constant loop in the company reception.
These days, with video most commonly shown on the internet, it is no longer enough to use one style of video to do it all. Corporate video has evolved and the company promotional video is now commonly called a brand video. You may have read my earlier article where I listed the brand video as one of the 7 effective ways to use video in your business marketing. It is still an essential element of a business’s video marketing but the content and structure need to be different if the video is to attract and engage your target audience.
So what is a brand video? Read on to find out.
Brand video overview
A brand video is perfect content for raising awareness and positioning your brand in the market. This ‘top of funnel content’ should be targeted at an audience that is early in their customer journey and needs to be created with an emotional connection in mind.
People buy with emotion and then justify their purchase with logic, so an “awareness video” such as your brand video is about encouraging people to connect emotionally with your company. You must do this before asking them to buy.
Tell the story of your business and why you do what you do. Show potential customers that you have the answers they need and that you understand them. Give an overview of your products and services. This is your chance to introduce your brand.
Why create a brand video?
The brand video is powerful content for your business. It introduces potential customers to the personal story behind the brand and is a great way to showcase why you’re the best choice for your audience.
Your brand video is a fantastic way to bring the personality and ethos of your business to your target customers in a format that people are most able to retain.
This is core video content that plays an important role in many video marketing strategies.
What should a brand video include?
As we’ve seen above, a brand video needs to tell the story of your business, the how and why it came into being. There are many different ways that you can choose to do this, depending on the story you want to tell.
Typically, the duration of these videos is between two and three minutes. Long enough to tell your story, differentiate you from the competition and engage potential customers without being overwhelming.
If possible, try to include one or two client testimonials within your brand video. Video testimonials help people see other people like themselves, which helps them relate, to picture themselves in the other person’s place. Therefore, a client testimonial video can be an extremely powerful tool in converting sceptical leads. There needs to be a method of gaining your prospect’s trust to convince them to engage further with your business, which is why video testimonials are so powerful.
I’m a big fan of Donald Miller’s Storybrand and if you’re familiar with his content then you will already know that the most successful brand stories are those that recognise the ‘hero’ is not the brand. Instead, we must position the client or customer in the hero role with the brand, business or product serving the role of the guide. At the awareness stage in the customer journey, your audience doesn’t really care about you. They are focused on themselves and their own problems which they are seeking a solution for. Acknowledge your audience’s problems, provide a solution through your products or services and offer to guide them to a successful resolution.
The structure of your brand video
Your brand video or ‘story’ needs to have a clear emotional hook that grabs the audience’s attention with something that they really care about. This can be a visual, textual or aural hook, whatever will best serve your story and draw the viewer in.
Often, the emotional hook will reflect the ‘pain’ or problem the customer faces. You should emphasise what’s at stake from the outset.
From this pain comes desire – the desire for a better life, a resolution, the realisation of a dream. This is what sets your brand story in motion.
The video should set up the positive outcomes that can be reached by working with your brand, product or service. Allow your customers to really connect with that and want the same outcomes for themselves.
This is where your brand comes into its own, guiding and leading the customer through their journey of transformation and success.
With your business by their side, how will the customer’s new normal look? Your brand story should clearly highlight the win, the possibilities of a changed life that come from engaging with your brand.
Finally, a soft call to action inviting viewers to learn more or engage further works well and can be either explicitly mentioned or more subtly encouraged through the words and action on the screen. This could be asking viewers to download a free guide, enter a competition or sign up for a webinar. The action will depend on your video strategy and the overall goals of the business.
Building on your brand story
With your ‘Brand Story’ in place, we recommend creating additional video content that continues the conversation with your prospective customers and moves them through your sales funnel. Examples of such content include ‘Client stories’, ‘How-to’ or ‘Explainer’ videos, ‘FAQs’ and in-depth ‘Services’ videos.
As we can see, brand videos are a powerful communication tool between any business and its customers.
Of course, the content has to be supported by a great video marketing strategy. In other words, you need to know why you’re using video and what your desired outcome is. Get that right and your content will truly resonate with its target audience, turning them from first-time viewers into passionate brand ambassadors.
Developing a strategy for using video in your marketing mix can be confusing if you haven’t worked extensively with video before.
If you want to make video a profitable part of your business, it’s important that you have a video marketing strategy that extends beyond your normal digital marketing or content marketing strategy, and maximises the impact of the videos you get produced.
Don’t know exactly what you need?
Get in touch for some free advice and discover:
- What videos will have the greatest impact on your bottom line
- The best way to have your videos produced, based on your needs and budget
- The video marketing channels that will deliver the greatest reach and engagement for your brand
7 effective ways to use video in your business marketing
What different styles of video content to use & when
If you want to attract new customers online, increase engagement and grow your business then video marketing provides many benefits. But having decided to use video marketing to grow your business, what style of video should you use?
The answer will depend on the purpose behind the video and where it fits in the customer journey.
Below are seven common styles of video that can be used for different reasons.
1. Brand videos (The story of your ‘why’)
Your brand video is perfect content for raising awareness and positioning your brand in the market. This ‘top of funnel content’ should be targeted at an audience that is early in their customer journey and needs to be created with an emotional connection in mind.
This is where the power of storytelling really shines when it comes to video. Every business has a unique story to tell. What’s yours?
The brand video is powerful because it introduces potential customers to the personal story behind the brand.
Why was your business created? How did you come to offer the products or services that you sell? Why are they so important to you? How do they make a difference to the lives of your customers?
Having a brand video is a great way to showcase why you’re the best choice for your audience. It will serve as a visual introduction, allowing people to become familiar with what exactly your company has to offer.
This is core video content that plays an important role in many video marketing strategies. So important, in fact, that I’m going to dedicate an entire article to the brand video in a future post.
2. Testimonial videos (Case studies & social proof)
People influence people.
Recent stats show that 72% of us won’t buy from a company without customer reviews.
Every business will tell you that you should buy from them. The truly convincing marketing message comes from genuine, satisfied customers who are happy to talk about how buying from a business benefitted them in some way.
And this is where video has the edge over the written word. It’s one thing to read a great review about a business but it’s quite another to see the person on camera, to witness their emotion, and to hear them talking about how much they’ve gained by buying from you.
There’s no better way to show the impact you’ve made than to show the people you’ve impacted. This is the ultimate social proof.
The testimonial video, or the in-depth case study, is a must-have for any business aiming to attract customers online. It can also be used later in the customer journey during the consideration and purchase stages. I’ll explain why you should create testimonial videos & case studies for your business in a future article.
3. Services (Demos/product walkthroughs)
There will always be barriers that hold people back from buying. Price, functionality, ease of use, time commitments or fear of making a mistake are all common worries.
Product or service demos/walkthroughs are one of the most effective ways to address these issues and show people why they shouldn’t walk away without making a purchase. Because of that, it is perfect content to use during the consideration and, most commonly, purchase stages of the customer journey.
Use a product demonstration or service walkthrough to show exactly how something works or to highlight its value or convenience.
Ultimately, these videos should help potential customers picture what it will be like once they’ve made their purchase. You can help them imagine using one of your products or being supported by a service you offer.
4. How-to (Explainer videos/FAQs)
Sometimes it’s difficult for people to understand what a product or service includes from pictures or text.
A short-form explainer video can help to make your offering clearer and, similar to service demos/product walk-throughs, they are most likely to be used during the consideration and purchase stages of the customer journey.
This style of video highlights the features and benefits of a product, service or business idea in a succinct and compelling way.
You’ll often find explainer videos on a landing page or the Home page of a website, as well as ads on social media.
Another option is to use video to answer your potential customers’ FAQs.
There are different approaches you can take, from product demonstrations to a customer service rep talking straight to the camera. Many businesses also create a series of videos to answer a different FAQ in each one.
The key here is to identify what potential customers worry most about and reassure them with information, advice and experience.
This content can be the difference between people dropping out of the sales funnel and turning into a paying customer.
5. Culture (Meet the team/employee bios)
With so much of today’s communication being done online via email, instant messaging and chatbots, it’s easy for businesses and their customers to forget that there’s a person on either side of the communication.
Like the brand videos we mentioned above, employee bio videos are an engaging way to introduce the people that make the business.
These videos can take the place of a headshot and short blurb on your About or Team Profile web pages or they can enhance the text. They act as a short portrait of your key people, showing why they care about what they do and why this matters to your customers.
After all, it’s not just your business that has a unique story to share – your employees have their own too. Profile videos can showcase their talent and experience, while also beginning what will hopefully be a lasting connection between your customers and staff.
Another option is to create company culture videos that highlight what your business is like behind closed doors.
These videos have great social value and they’re good for recruitment. If you’re keen to recruit new employees, culture videos are the best way to show off what sets your business apart and makes you unique.
6. Community Involvement
Once you’re at the stage where you’re putting out a lot of content then it’s a good idea to mix things up a bit.
How does your business connect with the local community? Are there any initiatives that your employees are involved with? Could your team take part in some volunteering or sponsor a local organisation?
You can use video to show what you’re doing to support your wider community, why you’re doing it and how you’re making an impact. Again, this is a fantastic way to show the human face of your brand.
7. Thank you (personalisation)
The customer journey should continue long after someone has made a purchase from your company for the first time.
Stats show that it costs five times more to recruit a new customer than it does to keep a current one. Repeat customers also convert more easily, spend more and make more referrals than one-time-only customers.
But how can you use video to help with customer retention?
‘Personalisation’ is the key here. It’s important to make sure that your existing customers feel individually noticed and valued. You can do this by sending out a video thank-you message or a personalised welcome message.
How could you use video to grow your business?
So, there we have it, seven different ways in which you can use video to engage with your current and prospective customers. There are, of course, many other ways in which you can use video to grow your business. First of all, assess what it is that you want to achieve and then consider what style of video aligns best with your goals.
How could you use video to grow your business? Contact us to start a conversation.
Developing a strategy for using video in your marketing mix can be confusing if you haven’t worked extensively with video before.
If you want to make video a profitable part of your business, it’s important that you have a video marketing strategy that extends beyond your normal digital marketing or content marketing strategy, and maximises the impact of the videos you get produced.
Don’t know exactly what you need?
Get in touch for some free advice and discover:
- What videos will have the greatest impact on your bottom line
- The best way to have your videos produced, based on your needs and budget
- The video marketing channels that will deliver the greatest reach and engagement for your brand
How to create a video marketing strategy
The 7 elements of an effective online video marketing strategy
Many businesses realise the effectiveness of using video as a marketing tool but, if you’ve read my previous articles, you will understand that to make the best use of video you must be strategic in your approach. Below I will introduce the 7 elements of an effective video marketing strategy that aligns with your audience, your chosen distribution platforms and your business goals.
A strategy-first approach means that you take a ‘big picture’ view and map out what you want to achieve through using video, how you’re going to achieve it and how you’re going to measure its success.
You begin by identifying your target audience, who you are aiming to reach with video. Then you determine your own business goals, what you’re trying to achieve through the use of video. These first two critical steps will combine to inform your content, what your message will be and your methods for distribution, the platform(s) you will use for sharing your videos. Optimisation of your content is crucial if you’re to achieve the best results so you will also need to know which metrics to track and analyse. Finally, you can decide on the method and style of production that is the best fit for your strategy.
These individual elements combine to form a robust video marketing strategy. Let’s take a closer look at each of them:
1. Identify your audience
Your first step is to identify the audience you want to reach using video.
Normally, for a business, your target audience will be your ideal customer. You won’t be able to position what you’re offering to meet customers’ (and potential customers’) needs without knowing who they are.
To be successful, it is important to consider your audience with every piece of content that you create.
- How well do you know your ideal customers’ backgrounds, their goals, and their challenges?
- How well do you understand their interests and needs?
These questions may sound specific, but you need to really understand your customer and your audience. Because when you understand your audience, you understand what they care about and therefore what content you can create that’s going to cut through and mean something to them. You’ll know what videos to make, where those videos need to be distributed and how to create a cohesive video marketing strategy that resonates with your ideal customer throughout their journey as they become aware of, engage with and decide to buy your product or service.
Consider creating a detailed profile or ‘customer persona’ of your ideal customer that will help you understand them better.
2. Set your goals
- What do you need your video content to achieve?
- Where along your ideal customer’s journey could you use video content most effectively?
- What areas of your marketing and customer engagement funnel need improvement and where are the gaps that could potentially be filled by online video content?
Having the answers to these questions is important when developing a video marketing strategy for your business. Video marketing can be used to raise brand awareness, build customer relationships, grow your mailing list, or to promote products and services. You can use it to answer questions, educate, share testimonials, tell your brand story, stream live events or deliver entertaining content.
Combined with an understanding of what your audience needs, your goals will help you pinpoint the kind of video(s) that you need to produce.
3. Define your video’s key message
Now you are clear on your goals and the audience you want to reach, you can begin shaping the key message of the planned video(s).
- What is it that you want to say?
- What is the main thing that you want people to take away and remember after watching the video?
As with all successful marketing, the key is to make your message clear and concise.
The video needs to speak to its audience in a way that rings true and with a message they can’t ignore. Without something useful and interesting to say to the target audience, you risk seeing your video sink without a trace.
If there is a lot you want to say about a particular topic, you could always create a video series covering bite-sized elements of the same subject. This is an effective way to build anticipation in potential customers who see one video and want to view more from you.
4. Decide your primary distribution platform
An advantage of knowing your audience is that you’ll understand how they like to spend their time and how they like to consume video.
- Where do they watch video?
- How do they watch video?
- What devices do they prefer?
The answers to these questions will help you plan what will be your primary distribution platform and how you might use other platforms to promote your content.
- Are you going to publish the video on your website?
- Will you start a YouTube channel?
- Which social media channels do your customers love?
It’s critical that you produce your video content according to the optimum specifications for each particular platform. This includes such things as screen ratio, the size of the video frame, how to use captions or titles on the screen, and even the overall duration of your video.
It’s not just technical specifications you need to think about; the way that the video is actually structured should be considered too.
All of those decisions need to be made in a way that recognises the nuances of the individual platforms that you’re going to be publishing on. The reality is that YouTube is a different platform to Facebook. And LinkedIn video is different from Instagram video. Every social media platform is a video platform these days and you need to create content with production considerations aligned to your chosen distribution platforms.
5. Determine your optimisation techniques
In brief, you’ll need to optimise your video for your audience and also for the algorithms of the various video platforms. If you don’t, your videos might not even be seen by your intended audience.
Optimising for an audience means enticing them to actually press play. To stop their thumb scrolling and attract their attention. Not only that, but you’ll also need to retain their interest long enough to get your message across.
Optimising for the algorithms is similar to search engine optimisation and makes use of some common digital marketing techniques. There are many optimisation strategies to give your videos a higher chance of ranking. In general though, if your videos are getting watched and maintaining the interest of your audience then the algorithms will also look favourably upon your content.
6. Analyse your video’s performance
What gets measured gets improved and no online marketing campaign can be successful without measuring and analysing performance.
There is a lot of useful data available to help determine the effectiveness of the video in achieving your desired goal. In fact, this is one of the real strengths of digital video marketing as opposed to traditional video advertising.
Pay attention to the metrics that matter so that you can refine your video marketing strategy moving forward. No matter what your chosen distribution platform is, think about what data you have access to and how that data can inform your future strategy.
One of the critical pieces of data when it comes to online video is how long people are actually watching your videos for. Take some time to understand the data. Look at those places where people are dropping off in your retention graphs, whether that be on YouTube, Facebook or wherever and identify what could be improved in the future.
If you’ve never created marketing videos before then your first opportunity for analysis will come after your first video is released. If, however, you already have a back catalogue of videos then I would advise that you do this immediately. You can use the analytics already at your disposal to inform many of your future video production decisions. So, make this the starting point for your ongoing video marketing strategy.
7. Decide what kind of videos you will make
Production considerations are the last element in an effective video marketing strategy. When you make strategic decisions about audience, goals, content, distribution, optimisation and metrics BEFORE you plan for production, the power of a video marketing strategy becomes clear.
By completing the various steps above, you should have a much stronger sense of who you want to reach and why, your key message, and the kind of video that will have the biggest impact on your audience.
As we’ve seen, different types of video are likely to be appropriate for different segments of your audience.
- Do you want a product demonstration video for people interested in a particular product range?
- Do you want to share a customer success story to promote a service?
- Or do you want to film a behind the scenes video about your staff?
These are just a few of your options. In my next article, I’ll be demonstrating how you can use video content throughout the customer journey.
Summary
Developing an effective video marketing strategy for your business can take some time and effort but it’s essential if you’re to achieve the desired results with video. With each and every video within your marketing strategy, you need to understand what it is that you want the video to do. What action do you want your audience to take? How do you want them to feel? What do you want them to think? Content that does not have a clear idea of what the intended goal is for the video is simply noise. Your mission is to cut through the noise.
A carefully designed strategy is your roadmap for success with your video content.
And, by taking time to reflect and track the results each time a new video is launched, you can strengthen your video marketing strategy. In turn, this will boost your visibility, develop your voice, build your audience and improve conversions.
Do you need help creating an effective video strategy for your business? At Reach Video we provide the strategy, content and ability to connect to your target audience, drive them to action and deliver tangible, profitable results.
Video Strategy - The When, Where and How of Video Production.
Why Video Strategy is essential in effective video production
Video is everywhere these days and it’s no surprise when you consider the 15 reasons why video marketing boosts business that I revealed in a previous post. However, now that everybody seems to be doing video it can be difficult to cut through the noise and reach your target audience and this is where the importance of developing an effective online video strategy becomes clear.
Many businesses understand the importance of using video in their marketing and outreach efforts but too often they are focussed on video from a form-driven approach. Video for video’s sake is what I call this “ Everybody’s doing video, so let’s make a video!”
But, if you’re considering using video within your business I would like to, first of all, ask you why?
- Why do you want a video?
- Is it just a video that you want or is there more to it than that?
- What is it that you really want that you’re hoping a video will help you with?
- Do you want a video or is it that you actually want the results that video can bring?
If you want your business to grow, change or you have identified something else within your business that needs to improve, then it’s true that video content can help you achieve that but you must be strategic in your approach.
How and why a strategy-first approach will shape your video production
A strategy-first approach to video production will help you to define how you’re going to use video to grow your business.
- Do you want to tell potential customers about your brand?
- Do you want to increase the sales of a specific service?
- Do you want people to sign up to your mailing list?
These are just a few examples of the kind of goals you might have for your video marketing but each of those goals would require a different type of video.
For example, increasing bookings for a specific service might entail showing the service in action or filming a case study and client testimonials.
On the other hand, if you want to grow your mailing list, you might create a tutorial video explaining possible solutions to problems your clients often experience.
Once you define what you want a video to achieve, you can frame every decision you make about the video in terms of, “Does this serve the ultimate goal of the video?”
This will include the content, style, length, format, where you host and share the video, and much more.
The benefits of having a video production strategy
When supported by a strategy, marketing videos should:
Strike a chord with your target audience
You could have a great message to share but if it’s heard by the wrong audience, it just won’t have any impact. Imagine, for example, a large corporate law firm accidentally reaching sole traders and freelancers with limited budgets – it’s not that the service isn’t great but that the audience is wrong.
A properly targeted video will resonate with its audience, speaking straight to the heart of what they need right now and demonstrating how your company can help.
Stand out from the other videos seen by your target customers
With more than a billion hours of video being watched every day, video marketing is a double-edged sword. Yes, there’s a huge demand for video content but there’s also a lot of competition.
Videos that are supported by a marketing strategy tend to stand out from the noise. This is because they have a clear message for a clear audience.
Perform well to key influencers in your industry
Another benefit of a carefully crafted video that’s supported by a strategy is that it should resonate with influencers. These are people who are respected and followed by your target audience. If an influencer shares your video, it acts as a vote of confidence about the quality of your content.
Attract engagement on social platforms
By planning how to use your video on social media, you can increase the amount of engagement it receives and extends the reach, i.e. how many people see it. This means you can get in front of more of your target audience.
It’s important to understand which platforms your target audience use and look at different distribution and sharing options. For example, are you going to host the video on your website? Do you plan to set up a YouTube Channel or host your video on Vimeo?
Does the format need to suit Instagram? Are you planning to run video ads on Facebook?
Having a strategy will help you answer all of these questions and pinpoint the best use of your budget.
Again, the key thing to remember is the overall goal for your video, then use social media to serve that goal.
Convert well for your goals
Speaking of goals, if your video is underpinned by a clear strategy then you should see conversion rates that reflect all of your groundwork.
According to a survey by ReelSEO, 73% of B2B organisations that use video marketing report a positive return on investment (ROI).
The risks of not having a video production strategy
The alternative is to leap into making a marketing video without a plan. The risks of this approach include:
Failing to resonate with your target audience
Too many businesses go to great lengths to reach their target customers only to waste the opportunity with a weak marketing message. A strategy will help you determine exactly what you need to say to get the best results.
Lack of views and engagement
If a video fails to resonate or it isn’t shared on the right platforms, you will find that it disappears into the ether with very little engagement. This is a waste of what could have been a fantastic opportunity to connect with your customers.
Lack of reach
Due to the way social media and search algorithms work, a lack of views and engagement will mean that your video has limited reach. This is because the various platforms use engagement as one of the signals for sharing high-quality content more widely.
Low conversions
Videos that don’t have a clear message or audience suffer from low conversion rates. This is because people don’t watch the video to the end or fail to take the action you want them to take after watching.
Spiralling costs due to an ever-changing or poorly defined brief
As I’ve mentioned above, a video production strategy will help you streamline your decision-making process. Every element of your video marketing can be steered by how it fits with your overarching goals.
The flipside of this is that you end up with an organically-evolving video that has no clear purpose. Constant tweaks and changes of direction can quickly eat into your budget.
Low ROI
In the absence of a strategy, all of the above elements can combine to give you a low or even a negative ROI.
In fact, without a strategy in place, it will be hard to track your ROI at all as you will not know which metrics to monitor.
Summing up
Unfortunately, many businesses go wrong by failing to adopt a well-thought-out video content strategy. When the video doesn’t deliver the results that they wanted, they conclude that video marketing doesn’t work.
In reality, almost any business can enjoy huge benefits from video marketing but the strategy has to come first.
What do you want video to do for your business? Let me know in the comments section below or contact me directly. I’d love to hear from you.
In my next post, I run through how to create a video marketing strategy that is aligned with your audience, the platforms on which they spend their time and your business goals.