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In recent years, videos have been making inroads in digital marketing, emerging as a powerful promotional tool for businesses to promote their wares in an exciting and engaging way.
Though when it comes to video marketing, there’s some pretty definitive ‘rules’ businesses should stick to in order to get their videos right. Get them wrong and marketing videos can be more hindering to a company than profiting.
Fortunately, if you’re a business looking to embark on an effective video marketing strategy, you’re in the right place, as Small Business Trends explores 25 tips for creating marketing videos.
Tips for Creating Marketing Videos
- Tell a Story: Use video to appeal to customers’ needs and desires.
- Make Sure the Introduction Stands Out: Engage viewers within the first 10 seconds.
- Create a Stimulating Title: Craft a title that is both captivating and SEO-friendly.
- Focus on the Mission and Less on the Product: Prioritize the product’s mission over its features.
- Don’t Be Boring: Ensure your videos are exciting and engaging.
- Get a Little Bit Risqué!: A touch of edginess can increase page views if done right.
- Make it Mobile Friendly: Ensure videos are optimized for mobile viewing.
- Think About SEO: Use a well-written description and relevant keywords to boost video SEO.
- Include Your URL in the Video: Showcase your website address for added exposure.
- Educate Your Audience: Offer informative content, such as advice or tips.
- Make the Video More Atmospheric with Music: Choose music that complements the message and mood of the video.
- Use Video Content Generated by Customers: Showcase real customer experiences and testimonials.
- Include a Call to Action: Guide viewers on what to do after watching.
- Take Viewers Behind the Scenes: Offer a behind-the-scenes look into your brand or business.
- Include Tutorial Videos: Provide helpful tutorials relevant to your niche.
- Keep Them Short: Shorter videos often have a better engagement rate.
- Use a Professional Voice: Opt for clear and professional narration or dialogue.
- Use Micro-Video Apps: Consider using apps that create short, shareable videos for social platforms.
- Pose Questions: Encourage viewer engagement and conversation.
- Don’t Be Preoccupied with Perfection: Aim for authenticity over flawless execution.
- But Don’t Forget Production Quality: Ensure the video is produced to a high standard.
- Use Videos to Help You Create Your Own Effective Video Marketing Strategy: Learn from successful viral videos.
- Build Hype Around the Launch of the Video: Promote the video’s release across platforms.
- Provide Some Humor: A touch of humor can make your video more relatable and engaging.
- Embed a Video in Landing Pages: Strategically place your video to boost conversion rates.
Now that we’ve outlined these essential tips, let’s delve deeper into each one to better understand how you can effectively implement them in your video marketing strategy.
Tell a Story
Instead of being overtly salesy, an effective video tells a story. As the Digital Marketing Institute notes, businesses should utilize the emotive power of video by appealing to their customer’s needs and desires.
Make Sure the Introduction Stands Out
A little like how we are unlikely to click on an email if we’re not inspired by the subject line, an incredible one fifth of viewers click off a video within 10 seconds if they’re not interested in what they see.
With this in mind, the introduction of the video is vitally important and should be made inspiring, entertaining and informative, to hook the viewer and encourage them to view the whole of the video.
Create a Stimulating Title
Crafting a compelling title is paramount in the world of digital content. The title is, in essence, the gateway to your content.
If it isn’t captivating, chances are it might get overlooked. Your video’s title not only needs to grab a viewer’s fleeting attention but also convey the essence of what lies within.
A strategic choice of words, especially relevant keywords, can significantly enhance the discoverability of your video. When potential viewers search for content related to your video’s topic on search engines, a well-chosen title can ensure yours is what they click on.
Focus on the Mission and Less on the Product
Instead of being overtly focused on the product and all its benefits, channel the message of the video into the mission of the product. Dove, for example, are hailed are being experts in creating emotional viral videos that focus less on their product and more on their mission.
Don’t Be Boring
Who wants to watch a boring video? It goes without saying, if you want your business’s video marketing campaign to be successful, create exciting and inspiring videos that can never be considered boring.
Get a Little Bit Risqué!
In the world of online content, sometimes it’s necessary to break away from the conventional to get noticed. Although it’s essential to maintain the dignity and credibility of your brand, a dash of audacity, when executed thoughtfully, can make your content memorable.
As Inc. emphasizes, there’s a fine line between attention-grabbing and off-putting. The secret lies in finding the sweet spot, where you push boundaries just enough to pique interest without compromising your brand’s integrity.
Make it Mobile Friendly
With more and more people using mobile devices to get online, it’s imperative corporate videos are mobile friendly. In fact, according to YouTube, mobile video consumption increases 100% every year! Marketing videos therefore need to be able to be downloaded and enjoyed on mobile devices. 
Think About SEO
In today’s digital age, merely creating great video content isn’t enough; ensuring it’s discoverable is equally crucial. Google, the search engine giant, has an affinity for video content, especially when it’s optimized correctly.
When crafting a video marketing strategy, integrating Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques can elevate your content’s reach.
An SEO-driven approach involves more than just the video; it encompasses a well-articulated description, peppered with keywords pertinent to your content. This ensures that your video isn’t lost in the vast expanse of the internet and reaches those who would value it most.
Include Your URL in the Video
In the digital realm, visibility directly translates to more traffic and potential business. By integrating your website address or URL into your video content, you create a direct portal to your brand’s universe.
This simple inclusion acts as an invitation, beckoning viewers to delve deeper into what your company offers. When they see your URL, viewers know exactly where to head next if what they’re watching resonates with them, leading to enhanced web traffic and potential conversions.
Educate Your Audience
The Digital Marketing Institute has always stressed the immense power of education in marketing. People are naturally inclined to content that adds value to their lives, be it in the form of knowledge, insights, or skills.
While promotional content has its place, videos that are rich in information, advice, and actionable tips often fare better in terms of engagement and recall.
By adopting an educational approach, you position your brand as a thought leader in your industry, someone viewers can trust and turn to for genuine expertise.
Make the Video More Atmospheric with Music
Music is a powerful tool on video content, evoking a myriad of emotions. Don’t be afraid to use music in your video that fits the mood of the message and crafts a more exciting and emotive video.
Use Video Content Generated by Customers
There’s no testimonial more authentic than a genuine customer sharing their personal experience with your product or service. Such content comes with a raw, unscripted flavor that’s hard to replicate with staged promotional videos.
When prospective clients see real people, just like them, vouching for your product, it builds trust. It’s a testament to the fact that your offerings provide genuine value, meeting and possibly even exceeding expectations.
This strategy not only showcases your product but also highlights the community of satisfied customers that stand by it.
Include a Call to Action
Similar to how all blog posts and content should have a call to action at the end, which invites the reader to take further action, such as signing up to a newsletter, or visiting a website, so too should a marketing video.
Ask yourself, what do you want viewers to do when they’ve watched the video and then encourage them to do so without being overtly salesy.
Take Viewers Behind the Scenes
Consumers love to get up close to a brand and video marketing offers the perfect opportunity to take customers behind the scenes and into your business’s ‘natural surroundings.’
Include Tutorial Videos
Posting tutorials that are relevant to your niche is a great way to connect and engage with customers. Tutorials shouldn’t give away all your industry secrets, but should be enough to entice the viewer with informative and useful content, leaving them wanting to learn more.
Keep Them Short
Online viewers often don’t have much time to spare before they’re off looking on a new site and at a new video. In this sense, shorter marketing videos can tend to work better than long ones. As Helen Klein Ross told Kiss Metrics:
“The less you say, the more likely people are to remember.”
Use a Professional Voice
Words spoken with clarity and professionalism will always come out better in a corporate video than an amateur speaker, whose lack of experience speaking on the camera is obvious.
With this in mind, it might be a good idea to have an employee that is experienced on speaking in front of the camera record for the video, or even think about calling in a professional.
Use Micro-Video Apps
Along with all this talk of keeping videos short for the viewer, it’s also true shorter content is a better format for most social platforms. As Forbes notes, short, concise content triumphs over longer forms of content, particularly on social media channels.
Video marketers should consider using micro-video apps, which shorten videos to less than 10 seconds, so they’re ideal of sharing on the likes of Instagram and Twitter.
Pose Questions
Engaging with your audience is the key to building a loyal and active community around your content. One of the most effective ways to foster this engagement is by encouraging dialogue.
By incorporating questions into your video, you invite viewers to actively participate and share their thoughts. This interactive approach makes viewers feel valued, heard, and a part of a larger conversation.
Furthermore, when viewers take the time to answer in the comments, it not only provides you with valuable feedback but also boosts the video’s visibility in platform algorithms.
This strategy nurtures a two-way communication channel, transforming passive viewers into active participants and, potentially, brand advocates.
Don’t Be Preoccupied with Perfection
Videos for marketing purposes aren’t Hollywood movies and nobody expects perfection. Whilst you want the video to look professional, don’t become too obsessed with perfection that on the 50th take you still haven’t got in right.
But Don’t Forget Production Quality
That said, it’s important a marketing video is produced professionally. From the camera work to lighting, edited to voice overs, it might be a good idea to call upon the expertise of a professional video production company to ensure the video is produced in a high quality.
Use Videos to Help You Create Your Own Effective Video Marketing Strategy
Head to the likes of YouTube to see how businesses are already building videos that have managed to go viral.
Featuring the likes of Coca-Cola, these ‘10 Epic Viral Marketing Videos’ on YouTube will give you some pointers on how some of the biggest and well-known brands are producing a video designed to go viral.
Build Hype Around the Launch of the Video
Instead of just going ahead and launching your video, build hype around the video by promoting its launch date on your website, blog and social media channels.
Provide Some Humor
Not all corporate videos need to be serious. On the contrary, some humour can work well in generating more interest in your video. Vidyard gives an example of a humorous marketing video that proved hugely successful — a parody by cloud invoicing provider Taulia of the award-winning commercial series ‘Get Rid of Cable’ by Direct TV. As Vidyard writes:
“The video not only delivers a laugh, but this kind of humorous take on B2B solution can really get your customers feeling connected with your brand and help you stand out in what can be a stuffy market.”
Embed a Video in Landing Pages
Think strategically about where you are going to place your marketing video. Statistics show that embedding videos in landing pages can raise conversion rates by as much as 80 percent.
Effective Video Marketing: Do’s and Don’ts
For those diving into video marketing, understanding the best practices and pitfalls is crucial. Here’s a quick comparison to keep you on track:
| Do’s | Don’ts |
|---|---|
| Create an engaging introduction | Make a lengthy and uninteresting intro |
| Utilize music to enhance atmosphere | Use irrelevant or overly distracting music |
| Prioritize SEO | Ignore important keywords and SEO practices |
| Provide educational content for viewers | Offer content with no added value |
| Include a clear Call to Action | Leave viewers with no direction post-watching |
With video forecast to claim more than 80 percent of all web traffic by 2019 and 90 percent of customers reporting that product videos help them make purchasing decisions, it is imperative companies create videos that resonate with their audience and ultimately help sell their services and products.
Related reading: Small Business Guide to Video Marketing
Making Video Photo via Shutterstock
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