Why video marketing?
Video marketing has emerged among digital mediums as one of the most important types of content to complement a full digital marketing strategy.
Hubspot recently published that 43% of consumers want more videos from businesses and that 51.9% markets feel that video marketing provides the best return on their investment.
As a medium, video allows for fuller engagement of the senses facilitating verbal, nonverbal and visual communication allowing for multi-modality and deep storytelling. Video provides the most visceral experience out of any marketing medium available currently, while also enjoying the benefit of being the most passive content for your audience to consume.
The problem? Many marketers have little experience creating videos and find the idea of even creating one to be daunting.
Luckily, many SaaS companies have sprung up to meet the demands of the market. These companies make creating videos seamless, even for the likes of yours truly. Many of these platforms have very reasonable costs and allow for the editing of footage with: sound, overlays, filters and text or provide templates which can be quickly used to create content ready for social media. Here’s one of my own “beautiful” creations made with Biteable.
https://biteable.com/watch/embed/digital-business-communications-video-1491017
My video’s script:
“If your business doesn’t use digital marketing you’re MISSING OUT.
On reaching new Customers globally… and increasing your revenue.
Accessing channels to communicate with your audience directly.
Whether they are at home or on the move.
Experiment to discover how best to communicate.
To make sure your business’s voice is heard.
Digital mediums have special advantages for business.
Digital communication is the fastest available.
Anything can be changed or adapted effortlessly.
Everything is only a few clicks away in the digital world.
100 people… 1,000,000 people can interact with your business.
Any action your audience takes can be quantified and refined.
Start your digital journey and help your business reach the top.”
Tips before creating your first video!
Like all marketing activities, it’s always important to consider how video marketing will integrated into your overarching digital strategy. Considering the objectives that your video will attempt to achieve should be considered before picking up your camera, as well as the thoughts or actions that your video will attempt to influence.
After considering your own impetus for creating a video, it’s time to empathise with your audience. 86% of marketing videos are viewed on desktop (Hubspot, 2017), with the majority of videos viewed on mobile and tablet being hosted on social media platforms. Regardless of platform, videos with a length of less than 90 seconds have the best retention rate with 53% of viewers consuming the whole video (Hubspot, 2017).
Video is a superlative medium for storytelling and expression of brand values. Instead of pushing branded messages through yet another medium to untrusting customers empathise with them and create a story where your customer is your protagonist, overcoming their problems and meeting their needs with the help of your product or service. The more you can personalise your video marketing to reflect your customers, the more they will engage with it (Hubspot, 2017).
Overall, video is a fantastic medium for communication and engagement with your audience and with advances in video creation and editing softwares, as well as SaaS platforms, it can be easily added to your marketing repertoire.
References
Brinker, S. (2016). Hacking Marketing. 1st ed. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, pp.15-23.
Costill, A. (2017). 11 Awesome Video Marketing Tools. [online] Searchenginejournal.com. Available at: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/11-awesome-video-marketing-tools/137767/ [Accessed 6 Aug. 2017].
Kolowich, L. (2017). 16 Video Marketing Statistics to Inform Your Q4 Strategy [Infographic]. [online] Blog.hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing-statistics [Accessed 6 Aug. 2017].
MacMaster, K. (2017). 7 Video Marketing Best Practices Worth Fighting For. [online] Vidyard. Available at: https://www.vidyard.com/blog/7-video-marketing-best-practices-worth-fighting-for/ [Accessed 6 Aug. 2017].
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