Content marketing has changed significantly over the years. Although blog posts and other types of content continue to be important strategies for businesses, today, video marketing is on the rise.
According to Cisco, video makes up 64% of all internet traffic already. The popularity of video lies in their ability to engage and share an idea with the viewers. Thus, businesses are allocating a significant amount of advertising spend on videos.
Companies are now using the power of videos to enhance their content marketing strategy. Because it delivers your messages to clients in a meaningful way, easy to understand, and memorable, businesses small and large are implementing videos into their marketing plan.
Video content is successful because it does two thing simultaneously, first it fulfill people’s information need as well as entertain them. Small business who failed to include video marketing in their internet marketing strategy will do so when they realize what opportunity they missed. According to Nielsen 64 percent of brand marketers indicated video content will dominate their strategies moving forward. However, it’s important for your business to implement the strategy correctly.
Here, I am going to share 7 ways you can make your video marketing strategy better. Let’s start!
1. Create Short and Quick Videos
Technology has changed the way people chat online with each other, connect with people all over the world, and distribute information.
In fact, with technology continuing to improve, people are relying more and more on their smart phones. With people being distracted more easily, the average attention span of a person has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to today’s 8 seconds. Therefore, short videos may be easier to capture people’s attention and get a quick message across.
Creating long videos are important when you’re trying to address information that requires long explanations. However, companies should not neglect the power for a short video. A short and focused video can contain all the necessary information and allow users to absorb it quickly.
A video that is to the point doesn’t have to be lengthy. They can keep your viewers focused and avoid dragging the video for too long.
Nowadays, many mobile apps have been created to help individuals create short and creative videos that can be shared via social media platforms like Instagram. Although Instagram videos are short in length, then can help to attract viewer’s attention and prompt them to view full videos on your website.
In fact, big companies Toyota and Malibu Rum are utilizing video apps, like Vine, to promote their products in a creative way.
A research from Wistia even stated that a 30-second video was viewed average 85% more while 2-minute video is only viewed at an average of 50%.
If your message is too complex and requires more than 2 minutes to explain, then you can either split them into several videos. However, don’t feel the need to avoid long videos, as they can still be powerful and engaging for users. It’s important that you understand your audience and create a variety of videos that are different lengths.
2. Turn Your Tips Into a Video Tutorial
When people are searching for help and guides online, they tend to come across lengthy blog posts that detail all the information. Although, they can be extremely descriptive in providing accurate instructions, they can’t provide the same help that a video can.
A video to guide through the process and instruction for “how-to’s” can allow users to see it visually. Even though pictures can be included in a blog post, it’s not the same as watching someone do it and copying what they have done.
For example, if you were a hair salon company and have written a long post about how to dye your hair at home, you can create a video to accompany the post. This will allow you to easily convey the information through visuals and demonstrate the whole process for the viewers.
In fact, it’s a great way to take old content on your website and give it a refresh by including a video. This way, you’re creating new content for your business and adding more resources for your website visitors.
You can also consider creating a series of tutorials and tips that can help users. These videos are informative and can easily be shared via social media. Lastly, they make a great addition to your emails, content, and blog posts!
3. Add Call to Actions
If people are interested in watching your videos, then why don’t we use this as an opportunity to reach out to them?
One deadly mistake that many businesses do is that they forget to add call to actions in their videos. Suppose your audience loves your video and would love to find out more about your product or even be informed about the next product. If you don’t have a call to action, then you lose the opportunity of obtaining their emails and generating a possible lead.
In general, there are a few ways you can create a call to action for your videos:
- Voice Call to Action: Have the speaker in your video encourage the watcher to sign up for the newsletter or fill out a form.
- Annotations: If your video is hosted by YouTube, you can create annotations that can prompt users to click on and take them to a website. You can have them anywhere you want and at any point of the video. This way, if you’re showcasing your product, you can have an annotation that can prompt viewers to check out on a new tab. For example, here is General Electric‘s video with a CTA to subscribe for more videos with the use of annotations.
- Links in the Description box: You can also include the links in the description box and encourage viewers to click there as well.
End the Video with a CTA Screen: When your video is coming to an end, you can edit in a screen that can show what users can do next after watching the video. KISSmetrics have included a screen like so that runs for a few seconds to give the user time to click on their CTA.Call to action.
4. Transcribe Your Videos
This isn’t exactly an element of your video itself but has to do with the content of your video and how it can benefit your site.
When you’re creating a tutorial or a how-to video, you can transcribe the words in your video into a blog post accompanying your video.
Sometimes, people are able to watch your video, but unable to listen to the audio, maybe because they’re on the bus without headphones. Therefore, you can include a transcription of the video for people to read instead.
Also, it can give your SEO a boost. Because Google can’t actually crawl the content of your video, you can have a transcript of the content to allow Google to crawl it. This way, you can rank for the keywords within your videos and for the content as well.
5. Quality Matters
If you want to get noticed, then you mus have to provide high-quality videos for your audience. I am not saying that you need to hire a professional actor or actress to star in your next video or even a professional director to film your how-to video.
As we all know, “the first impression is last impression”. Content is absolutely important, but your first impression will determine your viewer’s interest in your next video.
According to a research by Visible Measures, 20% of your viewers will click away from a video in 10 seconds or less. By 1 minute, you would lose approximately 45% of your viewers and then 60% by 2 minutes!
There are few things you need to keep in mind when shooting videos.
- Shoot close-ups – You want to want to make sure you have a close capture of any important elements that you want to address.
- Avoid zooming – It’s important that you’re not zooming in and out with your recording devices. This will distract the audience and cause a horrible viewing experience.
- Have proper lighting – Surprisingly, people don’t realize the importance of having proper lighting for a video. Lighting is important because you don’t want shadows on your hosts’ face or your product. Therefore, purchase lights that can help with filming.
- Ensure high-quality sound – The worst part of a video is not being able to hear what you’re trying to say. If you can’t capture the audio, how are you able to get the message across? Make sure you have a mic that can pick up sound properly, but ensure that it isn’t too overpowering!
- Don’t overdo it with the special effects, graphics, or text overlay – It’s no longer 1990s where we’re excited about floating texts and special effects in our video. Keep everything simple! Focus on what you’re trying to deliver.
- HD Quality – Finally, you want to ensure that you’re filming at a high quality. Nowadays, videos are posted in 2K and even 4K. Sure, you don’t need to have a 4K video, but it’s important that you’re providing an HD quality video that users can view. This way, your video isn’t pixelated and can clearly show the products, graphs, people, and the content of your video.
6. Measure and Monitor Your Success
When you’ve created videos and posted them, it’s time to sit and watch them perform, right? Actually, this is where the important stuff comes in.
With any marketing strategies, you need to fine tune them to ensure that they are performing and see if there are any changes that you need. It’s important for you to monitor the success of your videos and measuring the changes.
Here are a few things you should look at:
- Who is viewing my videos?
- How long are they watching my videos for?
- Where is the traffic coming from for the video?
- Who is sharing the videos?
- At which point of the video are viewers abandoning it?
- How many leads are we getting from the video?
- Which call to action is performing the best? The annotation at the beginning? Or the one at the end?
There are elements within your video that is contributing to the success or the failure of the video. In the end, you want to generate leads and traffic to your website with video content!That’s why it’s crucial for you to understand what mistakes you’ve made on your previous videos. This way, you can refine and make modifications to the next ones and ensure that they perform well.
7. Create a Publishing Schedule
There are many businesses that create weekly or bi-weekly videos that they publish on a daily basis. This allows users to be aware of upcoming announcements or video tips that your company is going to share.
Similar to your weekly email newsletters, you can create videos on a timeline. This allows your content to be consistent and motivates you to create new content for your viewers.
Final Thoughts
If you are launching a video marketing campaign for your business, then you should keep these tips in your mind. Most of companies are investing their money in video marketing because 75% of audience visit website after watching video.
If you have any other marketing ideas or tips share with us via comment. All ideas and suggestions are welcome.
Author: Umesh Singh
Courtesy: techwyse.com
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