Video marketing within business is on the rise thanks to technological improvements and the availability of social platforms. Videos can be an amazing marketing tool and platforms available such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube mean large target audiences can be reached, night and day from anywhere.
The use of these platforms should play a key role in any video marketing strategy today. In the past, this outreach could only be achieved via national television adverts during breaks in key programs.
The accessibility of these platforms, and the ability for anyone with a smartphone to shoot their own videos, means that consumers and businesses can quickly distribute feedback and marketing videos to a targeted wide audience without the high cost of promoting your piece of content.
You can also reuse your recorded content across social media platforms and rely upon social sharing to help spread your footage – it’s why marketing teams love this medium and you don’t need a high budget to create them either for maximum impact.
Why Use Video Marketing?
Video marketing is not going away anytime soon. According to projections it is only set to grow.
- 97% of marketers claim that videos help customers understand products.
With so many choices now available on the Internet, consumers no longer need to be ‘sold to’. All they need is a quick Internet search to find the best product they can afford. “How To” videos go a long way in showing a close-up of any product before it’s purchased and help build trust. This is also where content marketing and search engine optimisation go a long way in reaching new audiences.
- Video search is on the rise.
Another reason why video marketing is so successful today is that search engines value your videos. They are viewed as high quality content (even if the end production us low), and the amount of hits your video receives online boosts its credibility further in a search engine’s eyes. It’s why the strangest things can go viral. As long as your videos are optimised for the right keywords with a detailed meta description and a catchy title, you can’t go wrong. You can create all types of video content which is why it’s becoming a key search metric today.
Technology has meant we can create all forms of films inexpensively in a variety of different ways. The ability to educate people on anything and rely upon others to create videos about you within your online community, can easily catch people’s attention and build your brand. Video helps you stand out and is a great medium for storytelling and a is a vital marketing tool.
- Personal videos get the attention.
Providing personal empathetic video content feels to customers like you are offering face-to-face interaction. It helps build trust and makes you real. It’s why many of us will watch behind-the-scenes videos of how movies and products are made. Of course, this also offers marketers the opportunity to provide time-focused and time-sensitive promotions using Instagram Stories and Reels along with Facebook Live. These are great tools to capture attention at the right time. You will often see them posted all over online communities. We’ve all seen a viral video and gone what the heck? But it got our attention and that’s the power of video marketing.
- Videos build confidence to buy.
According to Wyzol, 90% of consumers claim seeing a video will help them in their purchasing decisions and 74% who see an explainer video will purchase there and then. This can lead to huge returns. They go on to say that this boosts conversion 80%. This does make sense, because embedding them on your website keeps people on it, meaning they are now more likely to navigate deeper into your website content. This will bring down your bounce rate and improve your SEO too, all from a professional video. A customer testimonial in this format also goes a long way today in the mind of the buyer.
Further Insights
- According to Forbes, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it via moving imagery, compared to just 10% retention if it’s related via text format – doubling down on your marketing efforts!
- 54% of online marketers state that video gets the most results across social media platforms, yet it only makes up 4%, 11% and 5% of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter’s content.
- Animoto report that 93% of businesses using motion picture have noticed that it has landed them new customers and increased their sales funnel.
- Consumers are watching videos online on average for 84 minutes a day and it will soon exceed 100 minutes.
- 86% of video marketers state that using video on their website has increased their leads over using text content alone.
- 93% of marketers say they’ve landed a new customer thanks to a video posted on social media.
- In another study, the Aberdeen group reported that 66% of businesses that used video achieved 65% more qualified leads per year and that video marketers achieve a 54% increase in brand awareness too!
What is Video Marketing and Why Should You Use It?
Whenever you use a video for:
- Promoting your business,
- Telling a story,
- Educating your audience,
- Explaining your product or service,
- Or you’re simply leaving a short message,
you are using a form of video marketing to engage your audience.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a business, not-for-profit or just trying to get your story out there, video is the most powerful, engaging medium when used in the right way. It is also popular with Internet users with the content being shared quickly.
Anyone with Internet access can watch your productions, and once they are created you can use them across numerous marketing channels.
Video marketing helps frame your story and once you have it clear in your mind you can tell that story ten times over online. It provides a picture in people’s minds of what you do. They are easy to digest and shareable across multiple platforms. For this, they justify any high level of investment relating to time and potential costs for this reason alone.
What Are the Benefits of Video Marketing?
With video marketing now easier than ever, companies who embrace the approach are finding the following to be true:
Video Engages All Types of Buyer
Many customers (unless they’re really interested), will not spend ages reading long blog posts (just like this one!).
What they will do is watch a short clip because they’re easy to consume and they can skip to the parts they like. They can then go deeper into the topic if they want to.
This means that video can motivate all kinds of potential customers like never before.
Video Builds Trust
Video will help you build relationships. It helps build emotion around your product and services and it’s why YouTubers have become so prolific. With some still sceptical about purchasing online with the fear of fraud ever present, video goes a long way in providing confidence, especially when viewing a product in use before you buy from the comfort of your own home. It impacts many people’s buying decisions.
A Greater Return on Investment
Despite the time it takes to create a video along with the editing and potential costs, they do provide a great long-term investment. This is because they can be reused throughout the business and can immediately engage customers and even people who wish to work for you.
Your videos don’t have to be perfect either. The design and delivery matter less than the content itself, and the worst thing you can do is fail to explain a product or service properly. So don’t worry so much about creating an amazing video or how it looks and focus more on the content and you will see a return quickly.
You can, of course, keep using it across all your social channels too and as we have discussed, any video gets the most traction and conversion for social media posts.
Viewable on Mobile Devices from Anywhere
With 5.34billion people now using mobile devices and YouTube (one of the most popular video hosting platforms) reporting mobile video consumption growing 100% year on year, people are enjoying watching and consuming videos on the go.
The growth of 5G networks has also meant that we can now access videos whenever we want and wherever we might be waiting. This means you can watch dynamic videos or social content videos without buffering.
Search Engines Give You a Boost
Embedding a video on your website keeps people on there for longer. Moovly found that you are 54% more likely to show up on the first page of Google if you have a video embedded in your content. Given that Google owns YouTube they are not going to penalise the use of their own product and are only going to positively endorse your site if you use their tools.
You can also optimise your meta content for your video providing a link back to your website as well. It all goes to help boost your website and the time people spend on your website, which sends a signal to search engines like Google that it must be valuable in relation to your targetted keyword.
To bring websites to life, many use background videos on their website headers to bring content alive and to grab the visitor’s attention. This means a beautiful, well-crafted video can be used in multiple ways across any website. You could use this technique on your website to show action shots, satisfied customers or just a strategic beautiful shot across a landscape for effect.
The Different Types of Videos You Can Create with Examples
The versatility of this form of content means it is a vital ingredient today in your content marketing strategy. You can use it in so many ways once you have your story and purpose clear, along with the outcome you’d like to achieve.
Here are some types of videos and even styles of video you can create to support your video strategy:
The Promotional Film
This helps push your product, service or business out into the world without over-explaining exactly how everything works. The idea is to keep these as short as possible and to ‘hook’ your audience so that they wish to know more and then ultimately contact you.
The Educational ‘How To’ Video
These are short videos with the aim of educating your clients or prospects. They are usually between 2-5 minutes long but depending on the content could last up to 15 minutes or longer. They are often used in-house to inform teams or to support customers using your products or services. You’ve most likely come across them in the form of a demo video.
97% of businesses reported that they use this format to inform customers either how to use their products or to help them understand their business better. The best format is the ‘How To’ video. I bet at one time or another, you have also gone looking for a how-to on YouTube and have been pleasantly surprised at the advice given, which helped you in some way. They work really well.
Your Story
This is a great way to introduce your business or your mission. This type of online video content can use classic storytelling elements such as characters, conflict and solutions.
Keep it to under 5 minutes you can easily inform people what you’re all about. If you’re after brand loyalty or want to show how you’re different, these are great videos to have! They are often used in the sales process and feature heavily in content marketing campaigns. They really help raise your business profile and support all your branding efforts.
The Customer Use Case Story
What better than to hear from the horse’s mouth how great your business or product is?
These act like mini testimonials, but they also manage to convey feelings and context from your clients and those who use your services. It’s much warmer than using plain text and an image.
These can also be used as social videos too across your other digital marketing channels, reaching a wider audience in the process. Narrative videos such as these help build a story and provide actual video content others can relate to.
Training Videos
These are best used to walk clients through using your product and are often used within software companies to train clients remotely.
A quick watch of a video and generally you’ll be up to speed on how to perform a specific task or process, or how to use or configure a product.
They’re also great for when you launch new features and need to educate your client base quickly.
They can also be used as internal training videos too – after all, your staff need to know how to use your products too! A wide collection of videos can create a video library which you can use again and again if you keep the content evergreen.
In this format you can also create:
- Company culture videos,
- Animated videos,
- Instructional videos,
- Product update videos,
- Maybe a webinar about understanding video and business processes.
They can all be used with an internal audience and can be accessed from mobile devices too. Some companies even use them as part of their company vetting procedures to see if candidates are a good fit or not, especially in service teams.
Students have also started creating what’s known as study videos. They will record themselves recording their revision notes and it works as if you are then teaching yourself your notes to remember them. Different, but it shows you the medium is so flexible depending on your outcomes required.
Personalised Clips and Messaging
These are proving to be ever more popular. They’re a bit like a video selfie where you record a video for a client and personalise it to them as if you’re there.
Let’s say you want to communicate how happy you are for them, you can use a video recording or as we like to call them ‘Videomail’ to leave that personal touch in their inbox. It won’t go unnoticed.
It all helps build that personal connection. Some companies are now adopting these as video business cards accessible from QR codes and after-sales follow-ups.
To take the concept of these videos further, people (even at OJE Technology), are using them to create video voicemails. Rather than write out an email, for example, to add greater context and explanation, it’s sometimes easier to just do it on video. We found they worked really well to catch up with people. It’s often easier to convey context and emotion than when it’s just plain text.
They are also known as asynchronous videos especially if a video message comes back. A bit like communication via chat apps, there is often a slight delay in response, only this time it’s through video. They can also act as a kind of video log, which is also known as Vlogging.
Live Action Movies and Explainers
Lights, cameras action!
These product-in-action videos happen in real time and are often bundled into webinars or live streams. You get to interact with your audience with a live stream and live in the moment as you explain how to use a product or take like question and answer sessions.
It’s a great way to grow your outreach at scale and personalise your service offerings.
This video format is proving popular with online seminars and product videos, especially if they are done as a video series. They also address common questions which are raised and are then reused in support content too.
The growth of podcasting (audio chats), has now seen the natural progression of podcast videos. The interesting thing here is how companies are using the content to repurpose across their platforms. You’re recording the audio – why not rig up some cameras and capture the live interview too?
It’s what you now see on the radio and all the major podcast shows. It’s a hit and adds another level of authentication – a video verification process to some degree. Be sure to make a decision before your video shoot on whether you will provide a portrait feed video or a landscape video as this will determine the viewer’s experience of the live event.
Testimonials and Product Reviews
The newest and growing form of video for business comes in the form of video clips recorded by customers in the form of a video review. Also known as testimonial videos, this type of video is often recorded on their phone or camera and captures their user experiences.
It is not necessarily a high video production which adds to the authenticity and power of video – because it shows real people and actual customers.
A video testimonial adds greater context to the review and they are popping up all over the web and are boosting the popularity of video content.
You will often see product reviews online which re-enforce your product in a use case scenario. This all acts as a form of confirmation of your thinking as you seek further information. This type of video can also be created by your customers themselves.
How to Get Started with Video Marketing
The good news is if you already have a smartphone or camera, you can get started right away. You don’t need to use expensive equipment or invest heavily to record different types of content. You also don’t need to hire a high-end production company either.
Of course, professional equipment will improve the quality of the recording, but as we discussed above, pay attention to aspects of the content in the video, which is far more important than the production quality of the video, to begin with. This also largely depends on your customer base as well and the video types they like to watch.
Here’s how you can get going with your video:
Start with Your Why
As yourself the question – why are you creating this video? This will help you develop a script and develop video ideas, allowing you to storyboard each frame so you create the ideal outcome. If you don’t start here, you will lose focus and quickly give up. Worse, you’ll spend triple the time developing the video and in the end, still, feel unsatisfied with the end result.
Make sure you get your point across quickly too and keep the content simple to understand. You can always refer them to your website for deeper insights.
Collect Your Equipment
Take a look at the equipment you have to create your video. Will you be using your smartphone, require company cameras or microphones or will you just be creating a video from stock videos?
If you’re doing recordings, then you want to make sure you invest in a decent microphone. You can of course use this afterwards on video calls and other types of recording you may need to do. Internal microphones on laptops are never good enough really, and your phone can have additional microphones added to them to improve their quality too. You can also add audio effects later such as EQ and noise cancellation and noise cleaning and removal where appropriate.
Depending on the video you are creating you may need to invest in a better camera. Cameras on high-end phones today are phenomenal so you might just need to get a stand to place it on as you talk or record. You may wish to invest in a professional camera but today’s phones will mostly cover small businesses’ needs and will get you started.
You may also need to supplement your video with imagery and stock videos, so it’s a good idea to review your stock video collection too. If you don’t have any, then professional marketing companies will have you covered. Find out more here.
Review Your Lighting
Make sure if you are recording your own videos that you have adequate lighting in place. Traditionally, three-point lighting is used. This involves setting up three lights placed around the object you are recording. This will ensure there are no shadows, especially if you are recording product videos.
Build a Space
If you are creating product videos, explainer videos or conducting a video interview, you need a space to make this look professional. You only have to see the effort news studios take to ensure their guests are properly lit and heard with attractive eye-pleasing backdrops. You don’t need to go this far, but unless you’re showing off your stock cupboard, don’t record in a dingy dark unappealing place.
You can just keep it simple with a background curtain, plain wall, or simple objects. If you want to go the whole hog, invest in a white box.
Train and Prepare
Don’t just record straight away. Plan and prepare your recording making sure you have rehearsed your lines. This will give you and your team more confidence and ensure that your video fits the allotted time limits set.
If someone isn’t too confident in front of the camera, do some takes and see how it looks. You might be talking too quickly, not getting your point across or genuinely look terrified (which won’t instil confidence in your business or service). Practice though makes perfect!
You can also use this time to practice any recording shots you wish to take against your storyboard with your production team. See if it works in the real world vs what was conceptually considered. Sometimes this helps simplify the recording process too.
Create Your Show
Once you are happy, go ahead and shoot to create your video. Don’t forget to keep multiple cameras running (if you have them) as sometimes the outtakes or what’s known as B-roll cameras can add additional effects and authenticity to the video.
You see this a lot in interviews where they are talking over other scenes and then it crops back to their face in the interview. You also see the interview from different angles. This can all be achieved via steps in the pre-editing process and adds a touch of professionalism.
Make sure you take your time post-production, it can make all the difference.
In the world of cloud computing and online video makers, you now have an abundance of options for how to create your company marketing videos.
There are video creators such as Camtasia and there are the old favourites used by media companies such as Adobe. But an interesting new entrant is InVideo.
With this video editing software you can create content from blogs and stock videos and its aim is to speed up the video creation process.
Despite taking time to build, they all play a key role today in your marketing strategy. Any business with video marketing in the mix is always going to outperform companies that don’t use it.
Best Practices in Video Marketing
It’s always best to follow best practices when creating marketing videos. This means you don’t have to learn from scratch but can learn from others what works and what doesn’t.
For example, assume that viewers will watch your video without sound. This means you either need to make the video flow seamlessly without explanation, or use subtitles over the top post-production.
This alone will help engagement online.
Social Media Best Practice
When it comes to social media videos keep them short and sweet. People have short attention spans. Make sure that your video grabs the attention and explains what your video is about in the first 8-10 seconds.
Given that most social media is consumed on a mobile device, you also need to make sure that your video works across multiple screen sizes to cater for the different sizes and shapes of phone screens. This means sticking to standard video resolutions and that any text you use on top of the video fits across the platform you are posting on.
Here’s some further help on creating video content for the different social platforms:
YouTube
Your videos on YouTube can be as long as you like, but make sure you keep them informative and relevant to your audience. You should also use a catchy title and clever thumbnail graphic for your videos too.
Make sure you include your keywords and potential keyword searches in the video title, link to your website in the meta description, include all relevant tags and use cards to end videos properly too. You should also create chapters so that users can skip to the most relevant sections to increase the value of your video. It means viewers don’t need to watch the entire video and can jump to what interests them most. You should also make sure you categorise the video properly too, relevant to your subject topic.
Aim for videos to be 6-8 minutes in length, or for educational videos, these can be up to 20-30 minutes in length.
The key to traction on YouTube is to keep posting. You would be surprised how things might seem quiet and then bam, a video 12 months later hits a trend and jumps up the algorithm. It’s amazing what traction you can achieve on YouTube even with just a short two-minute video and some beautiful visuals.
Since 2016 Facebook has had a dedicated video tab on its platform. This has helped increase video attention on the platform. It would also appear that using video gives users greater reach within Facebook newsfeeds.
Brand videos that remain light-hearted, honest and short perform best as do product guides and how-to videos.
Where you can it’s also best practice to upload your videos directly onto the Facebook platform as user actions are also considered by their algorithms.
For Facebook, keep your videos to less than one minute in length.
Instagram is pushing videos now more than ever. At the core of their platform is the focus on video and social selling. To get the most traction, offer your viewers something of value. You should also make sure your videos are full of your personality too.
- Instagram Reels: Keep these to 15-30 seconds long in length and make sure your text is all timed properly and fits the screen. You should also use visual effects such as filters on these videos too to get attention.
- Instagram Stories: These are 15-second video clips of longer videos. The good news is you can also post these to your profile to get maximum value.
- Instagram Video: These videos can be up to 60 minutes in length and they now offer live video too. It’s where influencers flock to promote their content and you can also collaborate with other users too.
TikTok
With over 1 billion active users, TikTok has really taken off. Trending content is of high priority to the algorithm on TikTok and Gen Z teens lap it up. It’s a great space to advertise and jump in on what’s happening with the younger audiences.
Keep these videos to between 20 and 35 seconds.
Video view on Twitter has increased to 95% since 2020 and the years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the nature of Twitter, short videos are key so keep them short when you use them for promoting your blog posts.
Ideally, you want to keep Twitter videos between 5-15 seconds.
You can use Twitter for personal videos, event recordings, short quick interviews for comments and promotion of existing video content.
You can also pin videos to your profile and use them to promote your brand by adding your logo on all videos.
With Pinterest, you can assist potential clients with their shopping and how they create their collections. Video on Pinterest takes things to the next level of engagement. You can use it to promote your blogs, and products and even curate other videos to show your services in context.
With a bit more time, keep your videos short but sweet, anything up to 5-60 seconds.
LinkedIn is generally used as a more professional social platform. It is generally still used for job finding and networking, so the audience is slightly different to the other users on different channels. So keep in mind a business-to-business relationship.
It is a great medium for knowledge sharing and connecting with others, so you can use it to promote your skillsets and capabilities to many. Promote your news, employee stories and latest product updates to get traction with other businesses. You can also create educational videos to promote your technology for example or how your product or service offers greater value.
The maximum video length is 10 minutes so use it wisely and keep it professional. Livestreams can be even longer.
Real-Time Live Videos
Whilst not a platform as such live video is on offer and it’s growing in popularity. People want to know what people are doing right now. To help, just start a live video. You can easily do this via Facebook and Instagram using their video streaming services.
According to Statista, 30% of viewers prefer watching live video feeds.
When you run a live video, just make sure you’re prepared and at least in a safe environment. You also need to check you have the right video and sound setup too for a professional broadcast.
If you choose to run a live video session then:
- Make sure to respond to live comments as they happen on your feed.
- Keep your viewers engaged by answering their questions.
- Make sure you have a valid reason for doing the live session with a catchy title.
- Make sure to see what your engagement was after the session to see if you can improve on it next time.
Distribution Methods: How to Get Your Video Out There
Some videos will have been developed for the specific platform such as Facebook or Instagram videos. But if you can, try to keep your video distribution as wide as possible.
Here are some ideas of how you can increase your audience demographics and reach:
Embed Your Video on Your Website
You can embed your high-quality video on your homepage, blog posts, and product pages and use it to grow your search engine optimisation and website engagement. This is a great way to keep people coming back to your site, especially if you publish videos frequently.
Email Marketing
You can link your videos via your email marketing channels too. This is a way of diverting your audience to the content you need. Conversion can increase by 300% when you add a video to your emails too. Don’t forget to send your video to current customers too, it keeps them informed about what you’re up to.
Post to Social Media Channels
This goes without saying, but make sure you post your video posts to your social media channels via organic posts to get the widest amount of traction. Just follow the best practice for each platform as outlined in this blog. This of course includes YouTube.
Don’t forget to add your visual elements to your posts to get maximum traction too. You should also think about these in your video pre-production steps.
Use Them in Adverts
You can naturally include your videos in-banner video advertising (also known as video ads) and supplement the by creating catchy gifs or eye-catching titles. This can be in the form of an awareness video or promoting a high-quality content piece and used in your search ads.
A strong video goes a long way in getting attention via paid marketing and maximises your distribution efforts. You can make use of an organic posting to immediate fans, but paid advertising can further target demographics who may not have heard of you before.
Use Your Videos at Events
When you do a tradeshow or meeting, why not have your videos running on arrival? You can also use your videos as people walk into your offices whilst they are waiting. It works great for providing a professional welcome and reinforces what you have to offer.
Put a Link in Your Email Signature
Why not add a link to your video in your email signature? After all, we all send and receive more emails than ever, so use it to your advantage.
What Video Marketing Success Looks Like
How do you know if your video has been successful? Well, it depends on your video goals.
Sometimes it can be difficult to tell. For example, if it only takes your best buyer to see one video of yours for them to place a large order, then it’s been a raving success, but there are other ways you can tell too:
Views: Check your video view count to see how often it’s been seen and where in the world. If it’s low don’t be disheartened. In the noisy world of the Internet, every view is from a real person, so look behind the numbers. You can also check your view-through rate which is whether people click through to your video from the medium you have embedded it upon.
Play Percentage: Check how much of your video was watched (also known as your completion rate). If you have low views but a high play percentage then you are targeting the right people. High views and high play rates and you’re golden.
Shares and Likes: Check how many shares and likes your videos get online. This can give valuable feedback on whether your audience is liking and engaging with what you are putting out there.
Click-Through Rates and Conversion Rates: How many clicked through from your video onto your website or for further information? This can be a great indicator of whether your strategy has worked. If your video is asking viewers to take action, then see if your conversion rate increases by tweaking your calls to action.
Review Your Bounce Rates: Just like your completed play percentage, check whether people are landing on your video and then jumping off. This can be a key indicator of how engaging your video is. Don’t worry too much about advanced analytics initially, just focus on creating videos consistently and frequently.
Summary
In conclusion, video marketing is an incredibly powerful tool that can help businesses of all sizes to reach new customers and achieve their goals.
When used correctly, it can be a highly effective way to connect with your target audience and deliver your message in a way that is both engaging and memorable.
If you’re not already using video marketing, we urge you to give it a try – you won’t be disappointed!
