Plus How to Make High-Quality Videos within Budget
Video has become the dominant content medium on nearly every online platform and marketing channel. Video is so popular that 86% of businesses use it as a marketing tool.
If you’re not yet producing video content, let’s discover why it should be part of your content strategy and how you can ensure your videos delight and benefit your audience.
3 reasons video marketing increases customer engagement
Show; don’t tell. People prefer watching over reading.
As the saying goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Humans are naturally visual creatures; our brains can identify images in 13 milliseconds or less, and half of that time is visual processing. Compared to text-based content like blogs and email newsletters, video content (with static or moving images) is simply easier to consume.
HubSpot’s 2017 research found that out of the 3010 people surveyed, 54% of consumers prefer video content over email newsletters, social media, blog articles, and downloadable PDFs. The response from marketing professionals correlates with these findings, as 84% of marketers say video has helped them generate leads.
Video marketing appeals to our squishy, soft emotional side
Has a commercial ever made you cry ? Chuckle? Videos can convey powerful emotions by telling a story through elements that appeal directly to our senses. The soundtrack, voiceover, dialogue, expressions on people’s faces, and colours of graphics in a video
The emotional appeal (sometimes called emotional marketing) definitely works in businesses’ favour. A 2016-2018 Motista report that gathered data on 100,000 consumers show that customers who have an emotional connection to brands possess a whopping 306% higher lifetime value compared to customers who don’t. This explains why, out of the 582 people Wyzowl surveyed in December 2021, 88% of users said they decided to purchase a product or service after watching a brand’s video and 78% said watching a brand’s video convinced them to download or buy a piece of software or app.
Videos are great tools for helping customers learn about your company
Consumers turn to brand videos to inform their decisions during the consideration stage in the buyer’s journey. 96% of consumers said they watched a video to learn more about a product or service. There’s something to be said about learning via video; studies show that people retain 95% of a message when exposed to it via video.
Videos provide a lot of value, and they tell customers a lot about your brand. When done well, product demos, tutorials, and customer testimonial videos not only educate your audience about your products and services, but they also validate your credibility. Educational videos like webinars, online courses (LinkedIn Learning, anyone?), and virtual keynotes do the same: they demonstrate your industry knowledge and position your brand as an authority figure.
Make your videos as engaging as possible
You don’t need fancy equipment or an entire production crew to shoot a great marketing video in 2022. Video content creation doesn’t have to be expensive. All you need is your iPhone camera, some dedicated time, and these six tips:
Tip #1 – Make your video in HD.
We’re long past the time of grainy, pixelated video quality. Most computer screens now are built for HD resolution. You don’t need to have movie-level video quality, but your videos should never be under 720 resolution—the lowest resolution to be considered HD.
Tip #2 – Tell a story.
As mentioned above, storytelling is extremely powerful. It’s attention-grabbing and elicits emotion, inviting your audience into the narrative. This leaves a longer impression of your brand message.
Tip #3 – Tailor your video to suit each marketing channel.
Use a variety of short clips and long form video content in your marketing. It’s important to be intentional about where you upload your videos. For example, long form video content like interviews, webinars, and keynotes get better engagement on Youtube, while short video clips are more suitable for PPC advertising and platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok.
Tip #4 – Add your own subtitles.
We’ve all laughed at a goofy, misspelled word in the subtitles at one point or another. Adding your own subtitles offers control over spelling and grammatical correctness, your video’s visual appeal, and viewer accessibility. Some people have hearing loss while others prefer watching videos with the sound off, and you don’t want to exclude them from your audience.
Tip #5 – Make your videos mobile-friendly.
We’re all using a myriad of electronic devices these days: often at the same time (When was the last time you scrolled through Twitter on your phone while watching a movie on your laptop?). Your video should be adaptable to a vertical or portrait orientation for mobile viewing, as not doing so puts off a large chunk of your online audience. You can take advantage of these filming video for mobile best practices.
Tip #6 – Make it authentic.
In today’s age of digitalized interactions, people are looking to form real connections. Creating your video in a way that stays true to your values attracts customers who share those values.
Ideas to get you started
Because video content is versatile, it can be used at any stage of the buyer’s journey. You could use PPC video ads to attract new viewers to your website, product demos and customer testimonials to prompt leads to convert, and personalized live videos to retain customer loyalty.
Other examples of video marketing content:
- “How to” tutorials
- Recorded interviews with an industry expert or guest
- Webinars or online courses
- Virtual keynotes
- Live videos like Q&A sessions and personalized messages
Final Note
There’s so much video marketing, so it’s worth considering your strategy. The momentum driven by video marketing engagement doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon in 2022, so now’s the time to get out your iPhone camera and get creative. And remember—have fun with it!
