One of the most common observations we have as a video production company is that people often know that their business would benefit from video marketing but struggle to make the most of this opportunity. We’ve compiled a list of our top 8 tips to ensure you have a killer video marketing strategy:
Know your target audience and address their needs, not yours. The most crucial, but often overlooked, aspect of planning a video marketing strategy is specifying who your target audience is and considering the content that would be most appealing to them. Many businesses start their video marketing strategy with ideas about what they want to say about themselves, not about what their customers want to know. Before you do anything else, you should spend time identifying the needs of your customers – then you can go out and create a video that will be meaningful to them.
Keep your key message strong and simple. In an effort to make their marketing efforts cost-effective, some businesses try to cram in every single detail about themselves and their products/services etc. into a single video. These videos don’t work because the audience experiences overload and the message fails to resonate with potential customers. It is much better to produce a series of short, targeted videos than one overly long and unengaging video.
Include a call-to-action in your videos. If you are hoping that your video will lead to viewer action (and let’s face it, that’s typically the number one reason why businesses decide to create a video in the first place), you have to make it clear what that step is. Make it easy for your audience to understand the next step – whether it be taking up an offer, calling a number or visiting a website.
Prioritise production value where you can. While there are video marketing opportunities that don’t require the latest high-resolution production cameras and cinematic lenses, care should always be taken to achieve optimal production value for your budget. Shaky cameras, poor delivery or distracting background elements generally reflect poorly on a brand. In particular, sound quality is often overlooked when businesses create videos themselves and this can create the biggest disconnect between the audience and your message. If you are creating your own videos in-house, it is worth investing in decent audio recording equipment.
Make every dollar of your video marketing budget work for you. The primary constraint for many businesses when considering video marketing is budget. Creating memorable and effective videos typically requires a production company and this can become expensive if not managed properly. We would suggest spending some time with your chosen production company to plan a cost-effective filming strategy, including capturing evergreen (i.e. always relevant) content. For example, if you know you would like to roll out 12 different videos to market your business over the next year, it makes sense to film these back-to-back where possible to minimise the call-out expenses of the production crew. You may, in an instance like this, only need to pay for 3 filming days if you plan your content effectively, rather than for 12 days if you film these one at a time. Similarly, a good production company will work with you to generate evergreen content, allowing you to re-use footage or have filmed content on file for use in further video marketing. For many of our clients, we have been able to produce entirely new video products from footage we have kept on file from previous shoots with that company.
Create buzz before you even start making your video. Businesses can generate content for other marketing platforms, such as blogs and social media accounts, throughout the entire video production process. For example, you can ask questions and collect feedback on key script points, create teasers to let your subscribers know about the upcoming shoot, post behind-the-scenes images or B-roll footage from the shoot, or show a series of highlights before the final product is released.
Spend time getting your video in front of your target audience. Just as you spend time on promoting your other business assets, consideration needs to be given in how to best get your videos in front of potential customers. Researching the platforms that they are likely to access videos on is crucial. One of the great aspects about video marketing is that there are multiple opportunities to get your videos in front of people, often with no cost. An explainer video on your website, for example, could be shared across various social media networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Vimeo etc.), used in email marketing or embedded as part of an email signature, incorporated in presentations or sales pitches, featured in a blog or digital newsletter, shown in-store or at events, and more … all for free! Make sure you create a comprehensive distribution map for each video to get the highest ROI.
Don’t expect to revolutionise your business with a single video. Although some businesses have reaped huge success from a single video, the reality is that they are generally the exception. Most businesses require several videos to really build marketing momentum; this is especially true if you are not hiring a production company and are using DIY videos – you should expect some trial and error in working out what works for your business. In the same way that you wouldn’t create a single blog post or LinkedIn update and think that you can hang your marketing cap up, videos are not a single-shot strategy. They should form part of an ongoing marketing campaign for businesses to truly see the benefits.
Developing a killer video marketing strategy is an important part of pre-production that should not be overlooked. Don’t be afraid to ask video professionals as many questions as needed about this stage to get the most from your efforts.
On that note – do you have any questions? Post them below … we’d love to help out!