So you know by now that video is taking the internet by storm, and the move online by businesses and consumers alike has been accelerated by the pandemic.
We’re also entering challenging times business wise too, so businesses are needing to sharpen up their marketing to make sure they’re reaching the right people at the right time. And video can be a huge part of this, whatever the size of your business, you too could leverage the power of video marketing.
Hear four incredible video marketing tips that will get you creating effective video and serving and engaging your audience, turning them from browsers into buyers through the power of video.
1 – Tell a story, don’t be salesy
So what should your videos be about? If you want your video to be watched, it needs to offer some kind of genuine value to the viewer.
Videos that are purely focused on a brand or driving sales are really likely to just be ignored. One key aspect of effective video is telling a cohesive and concise story. In fact, research suggests that nearly 80% of people prefer brands that tell stories as part of their marketing. Instead of being overtly salesy, make the most of the emotive power of video by appealing to your consumer’s needs and wants.
When you engage in audience’s emotions, your content becomes much more compelling and engaging because you’re connecting with your viewers on a more fundamental level. So rather than simply introducing your company, your mission and your products, look for ways in which you can weave stories and narrative into your videos.
Effective videos are those that educate the viewers about a topic of their interest in the form of a story. The better you get at telling stories, the more your viewers are going to relate to your brand, and understand your product or service offerings. One way of looking at this could be, rather than producing an out now sales video about a product, approach it from your audience’s point of view. Rather than a flashy video with graphics whizzing around everywhere, listing features and benefits, you could tell a simple story about how the product has helped one of your existing clients. This approach humanises things, it adds a narrative, it also adds a why, a reason your audience might need or want the product or service as they’ve seen how it can help.
So when you’re creating video, my advice would be, think about how you can transform your film into more of a narrative piece. You’ll get much more buy in from the audience. And over time, it will engender a feeling that you’re not just a pushy sales company wanting to shift stock, you’re interested in actually helping people with what you offer.
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2 – Less is more
When it comes to creating successful video, you must bring your story to life quickly. You need to tell people why it’s worth them investing their time in watching your content, and that’s a critical point, people are busy. As video creators, we need to never forget that it’s people’s choice to stop what they’re doing and watch our content. And for that time, were being trusted by the audience that we’ll deliver value, we’ll make it worth their while, so don’t abuse that trust.
In the opening 10 to 15 seconds, you need to give absolute clarity as to what your video is about, and to give the viewer confidence that what they’re about to watch is gonna be worth their time. One of the best ways to grab attention is with a hook at the start of your video. You’re potentially award-winning three-minute video is worth nothing if you don’t hook people within the first 10 to 15 seconds.
A hook is a really quick preview of what’s coming up in the video. You really only have a few seconds to hook someone in, so you must use that time wisely. Answer your audience’s common subconscious question, “Well, what’s in it for me?” or WIFFM. So display an end result underlying your video’s value. We’re gonna tell you how to go from this to this. For example, introduce a problem and promise a solution, or state a surprising or unusual fact, sparking curiosity is a great way of drawing people into a video.
Also, you can use the words what if or imagine. Also, keep the video crisp, clear, and leave a lasting impact in their mind. The idea is to get to the point early on in the video and eliminate any unnecessary fluff. The first few seconds are critical for grabbing the attention of the viewers and drawing them in. And if you quickly get to the main value, it’s much more likely, the audience will stay with you throughout the video.
3 – Optimise videos with SEO content
Video content is consumed at a really massive scale now, worldwide, and Google understands that. Making marketing videos with an SEO friendly perspective, drives more traffic to it in the long term, and helps build more audience.
One of the best things you can do before uploading your video to sharing sites is to host a video on your own domain. It’s important also to enable embedding on your video, as this will help you increase the likelihood of receiving inbound marketing links.
Now, while text-based content such as blog posts, white papers and case studies are tailor-made for achieving high rankings on Google, there’s a lot you can do to get your video content ranking up there as well. Also, the thing to remember is YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google, so optimising your video content for the top two search engines can take your video marketing ROI to a whole new level.
When it comes to video for SEO, descriptions are everything. Why? Including well-crafted descriptions allows Google search spiders to understand what’s your video content includes, and make sure video content accessible to those who rely on screen readers. Ensure that your videos are tagged with relevant keywords and fully explained with fleshed out descriptions and unique titles. Keep this rule in mind, if it has a box, it has a purpose. Google needs you to fill it out to help you rank.
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4 – Don’t forget calls to action
Most of your marketing content should have a call to action, and video is no different. Customers might enjoy your video, but if they’ve got no idea what to do after they’ve watched it, you’re missing a massive opportunity. Adding a call to action is simple and can spark conversions that may never have otherwise happened. This is your chance to guide them to perform some desired action such as, for example, browse your product catalogue, start a free trial, subscribe, or consume more of your video content and such like.
If you want someone to visit your website or follow you on social media, let them know. If you want to get your video content shared, ask your audience to like, share and subscribe, for example.
Whatever you want the outcome to be, tell your audience about it. It needn’t be restricted to voiceover or being directly asked by the presenter either, you can include graphics in your videos that give your website address or encourage viewers to engage more.
A lot of marketers tend to place their call to action at the end of their videos, when the video would typically fade to black. This is an excellent place for a call to action of video content, but don’t limit yourself just to throwing in a tag at the end of a beautifully made video and calling it a day.
Many marketers have found great success with including another call to action somewhere in the middle of the video when the viewer is engaged with their content. But be careful with mid-roll CTA, however, you don’t want to interrupt the flow of the video and annoy your viewer. If you’re gonna do a mid-roll CTA, make sure that it either fits in naturally and doesn’t completely derail the flow of the video.
So there you have it, four awesome video marketing tips for your business. I hope that gets your grey matter engaged, and ideas starting to sprout. And now you can take your video marketing to the next level.