Businesses that use video in their marketing campaign tend to grow revenue almost 50% faster than their counterparts. Moreover, almost 80% of consumers prefer to watch a video than read text on the page. Now, these numbers (50% and 80%) are quite impressive, yet, a surprisingly large number of enterprises still underuse videos in their social media campaigns. Still, just using videos is not enough, you need to learn how to use them more effectively.
The fact that videos are sometimes spontaneous doesn’t mean that you can just give direction to the actors and start recording. These are marketing tools and they need to be planned out. More importantly, this plan needs to be put on paper. What you want is to include a call-to-action (CTA) and its placement needs to be as strategic as possible. So, how do you write a script? First of all, try to use just a couple of words to describe each part (the opening, the main point, the CTA). Then, choose the language that is appropriate to both you and your audience.
After recording, you need to spend as much time editing as you possibly can. Sure, raw footage is sometimes appreciated and seen as more genuine but as a visual medium, people have a certain fondness for the properly edited footage. So, you need to make sure that everything looks like it’s professionally done. According to video production Sydney experts, one of the simplest and most efficient ways to handle editing professionally is to actually hire experts to do it. Outsourcing is the way to go here, seeing as how it saves time and delivers a superior end product.
Knowing when to post your video on social media is just as important as the content of the video. After all, whether or not people will stick until the end of the video is one thing but whether they give it a chance depends on a number of factors, one of which is the timing. Understanding when to share on social media is one of the biggest factors that will determine the success of your video marketing efforts. Each platform has its own ideal time to share for engagement. Workdays, between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. are the best, seeing as how people often check their phones while taking breaks from work.
As we’ve said, one of the main ways in which people consume media is through mobile devices. This is why it’s so important that your videos are optimized for mobile users. First, it would be a good idea to go for a square video ratio. This makes it fit the mobile device screen much better. Making text bigger than usual is also a good move. Keeping it short means keeping it mobile-friendly, which is a piece of advice that you should never ignore. Most importantly, preview it for mobile, both on mute and with sound, just to be safe.
Sound is a key component for any video; however, it is incredibly important that you understand that you don’t choose the way in which your audience consumes your content. A lot of people use their phones. Some use their phones in the workplace, which means that the most natural way for them to use this is without the sound on. So, while you do want to have a great voiceover, background sound, or even a theme, you need to make sure that the video alone is enough. Using titles and taking this approach also makes your videos even more inclusive.
The next thing you need to do is figure out how clickable your video actually is. If it plays automatically, you need to make sure that the first couple of seconds are compelling enough. If the videos don’t play automatically, you need to make sure that the caption is compelling enough, that the thumbnail evokes their interest, as well as that the length is good enough. For instance, people on social media don’t want videos that are too long. If they have an intimidating minute, they might avoid clicking it altogether. On YouTube, on the other hand, especially if the theme is deep and complex, too short video length can be equally as discouraging.
The last thing you can do in order to protect your creations adds a watermark. Of course, you want people to share your content but they also need to give credit where credit is due. Remember that you’ve invested so much hard work and creativity in this video. The last thing you want is for someone else to exploit it. Adding a watermark will only take a minute of your time.
When it comes to the equipment and production itself, this is a field that has so many variables. So, we’ve focused on general rules that are universally applicable. The key thing is that you format your videos according to the preferences of your audience. In other words, start by checking how they’re using these mediums and then proceed to tailor your content to meet these principles.
