A video marketing strategy shouldn’t be a ‘nice to have’, it should be a requirement. Within just a few years’ time, video has started to dominate almost every channel and platform.
Nowadays, over 50% of consumers prefer to see video over any other form of media (Google 2016), whether that’s via social media, email led campaigns or even above the line advertising. So, if you’re not including video in your communications, you are seriously missing out.
Nobody can dispute the power of video, but how do we make content great and ensure it stands out amongst all the noise?
Without further ado, here are VideoSmart’s 5 tips on creating successful video content:
1. Connect With The Viewer
For a video to be watched (and shared), it has to benefit the viewer. Videos that are purely brand focused or trying to drive sales with no real consideration for the end user will likely be ignored or worse, disliked.
Think about the videos you have recommended to your colleagues or friends lately… were they emotional or sentimental, funny, informative or inspiring? Likely.
Good video content connects with the viewer and leaves an impression. By adding brand history or a sense of nostalgia, it’s more likely that you will connect with your audience.
Likewise, if your video is used to showcase new products or capabilities, this can evoke inspiration and engagement.
Whatever your story, make it resonate with the consumer from start to finish. If the content starts to become generic or salesy, be warned; your audience will probably switch off.
2. Include Call-to-actions
Adding a call-to-action helps you keep hold of that customer at the point when they are most engaged – allowing you to drive conversions and prolong activity.
Common call to actions include ‘click to find out more’, ‘download the app’ and ‘share this video’, but can be more unique depending on the objective.
There is much debate about where to position a video’s call-to-action; some feel the end is best, whilst others prefer to insert it in the middle.
After analysing 324,015 videos, Wistia, a video software company from the USA, found that a huge 95.9% place their CTA at the end of the video. Only 4% choose the mid-video option, and a tiny 0.1% put the CTA up front.
Studies have also found that mid-roll CTAs have an average conversion rate of 16.95%, compared to an end in-video CTA rate of 10.98% (Wistia 2016) - likely because those consumers have not quite made it to the end of the video (cue our stat about 95% of personalised videos being watched to the end).
3. Search Engine Optimisation
On Google, more than 4.5 billion searches are made per day and YouTube generates more than 3 billion searches per month. So, how do you make sure your content is made visible to your customers?
First of all, use keywords in the title of your video you want to rank highly for. The title is one of the most important factors of ranking well on Google or YouTube. Tip: keep it under 66 characters so that it’s easily visible in search results.
Secondly, add a description to your video. Both YouTube and Facebook offer this capability and it should be used – when doing so, be sure to include relevant keywords.
4. Collaborate With Influencers
Video content can improve brand trust, especially if they are done in collaboration with an influencer. Because the truth of the matter is, 83% of people today trust peer recommendations more than company advertisements.
When a trusted influencer recommends a product or when a celebrity comments on a service, it can feel more genuine than when the brand does it themselves. In modern day society, peer-to-peer recommendations have become more powerful than ever.
Warning: picking the right influencer is key, as Diclegis found out when recruiting Kim Kardashian.
5. Prioritise Mobile Optimisation
90% of videos are watched on mobile (Wordstream 2018). What’s more, YouTube reports mobile video consumption rises 100% year-on-year.
This means that content needs to be mobile-friendly. Want to include graphs and charts? No problem, but make them big enough or dynamic enough to be viewable on mobile.
For videos, you’ll need to make sure that it’s playable on mobile and hosted within a responsive player size to avoid the frustrations of buffering.
Video sizes should be device agnostic meaning your content should be visible on both phones (640px wide) and desktops (1920px wide).
Conclusion
Of course, these are just 5 out of hundreds of important video marketing tips – keeping it short and picking the right style are amongst the many others. But, by using the above, you’ll be making a great start.
Video marketing offers a world of opportunity and should be a staple part of any marketing campaign. With videos boosting conversion rates by 80%, it’s critical you start thinking about it and where it could slot in to your overall strategy.
