Today, videos have become the big center of any self-respecting marketing strategy.
You may already know the numbers:
- Mobile video consumption doubles every year and already generates more than 12 times more engagement than traditional content
- A Hubspot study showed that 72% of customers would prefer to learn about a product or service through video.
- An Biteable's experiment suggest that video ads could generate up to 5 times more clicks than simple texts
So, at Checksub we finally thought about implementing videos in our marketing actions.
We know what you're gonna say :
"You're talking to video creators and you haven't used video yet! "
Well, yeah... :roll: :lol: But after much research and experimentation, we praticed this kind of content with relative success.
We learned a lot about how to make a concrete video marketing strategy. So we'll share here with you our findings. Follow our lead!
What are the objectives of your video marketing strategy?
A video marketing strategy can help achieve many different objectives and be measured through various metrics. So you need to know what key objective you need to work on. Here are 4 common types of goals so you can decide for yourself.
Brand Awareness
Videos are first and foremost a very effective way to increase visibility. Through short advertising videos or engaging organic content, you attract the attention of a new audience to your brand and product. You can use them on social networks, on your blog, or even in prospecting emails.
Types of videos to make :
- Short videos for product presentation or promotion
- Brand content and storytelling
- Educating videos that discuss issues related to your product
- Creative videos triggering emotions for your product
The metrics to be measured here are :
- click rates on the video
- time watched
- click rates on the banner
If you need traffic to your site, we advise you to focus on this goal.
Engaging Visitors
Attracting visitors to your site is one thing, getting them interested in the value of your products is another. Sometimes you get a lot of traffic, but little engagement. Visitors don't understand your value or don't buy into your brand identity.
In this case, the idea is to create videos that show the value of your products head-on.
Through this type of video :
- Product demonstration
- Tutorials
- Video storytelling
- Customer Testimonial
The metrics to be measured here are :
- Time watched
- conversion rates - the proportion of viewers who try your product
If you want to retain more prospects already engaged with your brand, prioritize this objective.
Closing More Deals
This is not widely known, but using a video format can also boost the chances of purchase and subscription. It can reduce the indecision of already engaged customers. By interacting with your customers' deliberations, videos will accelerate their decision.
Here are a few types of video to do this:
- Pricing promotion video
- Video announcing new features
- More aggressive video comparison with competitors
The metrics to consider :
- conversion rates
- purchase rate
If you are struggling to increase the revenue of your existing customers or to win deals with your prospects, opt for this objective.
Increasing Fidelity and Referral
One last reason to make videos is to keep existing customers and get them talking about your brand. Customer relationships are long term and it can be hard to keep them passionate about your brand. Videos are the format to turn your customers into committed fans.
The types of videos that fulfill this goal :
- Socially Engaged Videos
- Announcement videos
- Behind the scenes videos, presenting the company from the inside
- Creative Videos
The metrics to look at:
- Sharing rate
- Engagement rate (comments and likes on social media)
- Conversion rate
If you want to permanently establish your branding in the market, keep this goal in mind.
How to choose the subject of your content marketing plan?
Defining your target
The results of your video content depend a lot on the target you are aiming at. The expectations of your audience define how you will speak to them.
You need therefore to have enough information about them :
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Interests
- Favorite social channels
- Sector
- Functional role
- Favorite video content
Fill out this questionnaire by conducting quantitative or qualitative surveys among your brand's most enthusiastic audience, but also among prospects who have just heard about you.
Depending on their answers, you will get a more precise idea of their personality and their taste for video content.
Considering the value of your video
From that, you can start to think about the theme and issues of your content. The idea is to create content that brings immediate and contextual value to their problems. You should therefore start from their personal experience.
But it doesn't stop there. You must also know how to dig a little deeper into the subject to display a specialized and precise expertise on a problem.
For example, here is a list of possible general topics and a specific problem related to them:
- Marketing: how to increase the traffic of your website through web design?
- Sales and prospecting: how to increase the number of leads through social network tools?
- Health and lifestyle: how to eat in order to fill its deficiencies in micronutrients?
- Personal development: how to reduce distractions at work and increase gross productivity?
- Content creation: how to create engaging video content for Snapchat
- …etc
From these topics, you can derive content ideas that can be refined and developed into a series and video episodes.
Writing the script
You may now move on to the writing phase.
The first thing to know is that you may avoid improvisation, although more natural and genuine, if you want to make a precise effect to your audience.
That's why writing an accurate and complete script of what you're going to say, the scenes you're going to show, and the shots you're going to shoot is essential.
In planning your video, the structure is very important and will define whether or not you grab the attention of the audience. Here is well-structured storytelling:
- Introduction: start with a statement, information, or question that affects your viewer's current concerns. Emote it with a big picture.
- Making the point: keep their attention by going deeper into the problem or issue. Use lively staging, a story told by an engaging presenter, or by illustrating your point with dynamic and informative animations. Always emphasize efficiency and brevity over length. If you want to get to the heart of the matter, do it through stories or examples.
- Ending: after having gone through the problem, propose a solution that is perfectly suited to the situation.
- Conclusion: end your content with a clear call to action. Better yet, ask them a personal question related to the topic: what do you think of this solution? Has it ever happened to you before? Do you have other ideas for solving this problem?
There are also several other details to keep in mind in this step:
- Go to the point quickly, in the first ten seconds of your video
- Use language that really speaks to your audience (formal or informal).
- If you use a presenter, they must have expressive body language.
- If you vary the scenes, think about how they are edited and cut in time. Always keep a narrative continuity
To give you inspiration, Here are examples of content that can wreak havoc on the net.
Video strategy: 6 successful formats of content
The Trailer
Announce a new product or news relating to your company. Adopt the codes of the trailer: a subtle unveiling of your new product, catchy and dramatic music, smart use of suspense. Give your ad an epic look.
Apple is really good at using these codes in new product announcement videos. With the video "the only thing that's changed", Apple beat its own sales record by mastering the art of trailer;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUrkQxyOTKg
The fun or creative video
Surprise your audience with conceptual or humorous videos that are out of the ordinary. Call upon artists and designers who will propose new creations in line with your brand. In a short format, present an original product concept or play with your brand identity. Make your audience laugh by invoking social experiences and engaging the audience. Go as far as using the codes of internet memes and video cat.
One of the best example of viral creative video is Blendtec's challenge to blend everything :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUnFP0IU4gpnmcLnVzDLUtfw&v=3OmpnfL5PCw&feature=emb_title
The educational video animation
It is not easy to make video content that is both educational and engaging. But there are now many tools to convey information interactively. Colorful, dynamic, original, and unexpected visual animations keep the viewer's curiosity alive. They allow telling a story while educating them.
Canva are really good at playing with this format :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7QZCQkHYZ0
"Behind the scene"
Who has never dreamed of discovering the back kitchen of their favorite company? Cultivate the fascination for your workplace by shooting it in a mysterious way. Reveal the habits and events that punctuate your days and make you unique. Give a human touch to your report by letting inspiring employees talk about them.
Google is an essential reference for this technique. Hundreds of media features have been made on their unique work environment and highly secret and protected web servers :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBe6XUFvtRY
The fan or guest star interview
To expand your brand's horizon, nothing is better than inviting personalities or loyal, passionate customers. Welcome them in a relaxed setting and let them talk about why they care about your brand. Create debate by addressing broader societal and political issues without getting into polemics. Give your fans the marketing experience from the inside.
FirstWeFeast is a web media that promote different kind of spicy food by featuring stars and celebrities in some hot contests.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF2QwHnk3EE
The brand commitment video
Today, consumers have never been more concerned about social and environmental purposes. Make a strong plea on a cause that matters deeply to your brand. Describe concrete actions to achieve this mission and call your audience to action as well. Make a documentary on a topical issue or organize a campaign to challenge social representations.
One of the best examples of committed videos is Always's #LikeaGirl very successful campaign to reveal gender differences in society:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs
How to choose the right video marketing software?
Do you now have a clear idea of the content you want to create? It's time to find the tool to make the creation process efficient and adaptable.
Video editors: The essentials
Imovie
Available free of charge on all Macs, Iphones and Ipads, Apple's iMovie application is an ergonomic tool that will allow you to easily edit your video, including managing shots, time codes, adding music, improving quality, reducing background noise, etc.
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Movie Maker is Window's official video editor, as easy to use as it is to use, capable of creating video content with basic editing features.
Wondershare Filmora
Filmora is a paid application between $34.99 (per year) and $49.99 (lifetime) per person and $99.98 (lifetime) for businesses. It also includes essential features for editing, effects production and video editing. It is particularly effective for quick and easy editing.
Adobe Premiere
Adobe Premiere is the essential video editing tool for professionals. With a customizable interface and many advanced features, it is considered the industry standard. It's often used by film editors.
It supports high-quality clips, and offers built-in, advanced color correction tools that set it apart from less expensive or free options such as iMovie.
Online Video Editors
Wevideo
Wevideo is a powerful video editing tool adapted to all uses. Whether you want to create videos for personal, professional or educational purposes, its comprehensive software will guide you through the editing process and is designed for video creators who like to manage their work from start to finish. It's almost a professional tool, but in any case, it has many uses and features. We recommend it if you want to create different video formats.
Biteable
Biteable is the video tool specially designed to increase your sales and videos of your marketing campaigns. It is the ally of the marketing and sales teams of growing companies. It will help you create more colorful and aggressive product presentations, sales pitches and marketing emails, giving you a competitive edge. If it is also intended for more informal uses, it will do the job in most situations.
Moovly
Moovly is the tool par excellence for professional and educational visual animations. It is aimed at company employees who want a fast and reliable tool to publish and broadcast their video. The tool is effective for creating marketing content (such as product presentations) as well as brightening up your meetings or creating tutorials for users. Moovly is especially useful for creating highly interactive and clear educational videos.
Animoto
Animoto is a user-friendly solution for creating social media videos. Thanks to its simple and clear interface, you can quickly choose a template and add images and animated text. It is aimed at content creators and social media professionals who want to do the job by themselves and do it well. The tool is easy to use and offers great customization possibilities, if you want to manage completely your content strategy.
Producing video: 10 basic pieces of advice
Now that you have the tools, you need to use them to their full potential. To do this, you need to know how to shots sequences that can be properly assembled together.
Here are 10 tips when shooting your video :
- You can film with your smartphone, but be aware that the vertical format only works for Snapchat, Tiktok, and Instagram IGT TV. Use the landscape mode, which allows you to film in width.
- Stabilize your camera with a tripod or shoot by bending your knees to have a stable focus.
- Don't forget to adjust the focus. Either by focusing on the main object and leaving the background blurred when only one person is speaking. Or by focusing on the whole environment without distinction for scenes with several people.
- Think about finding the best light ratio in the exposure triangle: shutter speed - ISO - aperture but also white balance.
- For sound, use a tie mike, shotgun microphone, or professional audio recorder. The sound from the smartphone or camera may have a lot of echoes.
- Favor simple and warm decor.
- When shooting, take as many takes as possible to avoid continuity problems during editing. Make a lot of cuts to get the most out of your footage.
- Avoid "uuuuhm'' in videos. Better a blank than a rather noisy tic.
- Vary the points of view to give dynamism to the video.
- Think about the harmony of the composition of each of your holds. Make sure to arrange the objects and the characters to have an overall beauty.
The best platforms for Video Marketing
Did you realize the video of your dream? You may now adapt it to the platform that will host your content. To increase its visibility, you need to know the ranking rules of their algorithm and the typical audience that regularly consume their content. Here is some information that can guide you.
Youtube
Youtube is obviously the king of video platforms. You just have to know that it is the second search tool after Google! You can use it to create regular content for platform visitors or simply to host your videos and share them on your site.
What works: The style of successful content on Youtube consists of rather short videos, often very visual and with a few effects, which let the influencers speak for themselves.
Format : High resolution 720p(1280 x 720 16:9) or 1080p HD(1920 x 1080 16: 9) to be preferred.
Facebook hosts an overwhelming amount of video content, including creative, humorous and personal content. It is the queen platform for content sharing, so it feeds more viral content.
What works: The native video format is favored by Facebook's algorithms. They give more reach and organic growth to video content adapted to the feed.
Facebook also has tools for targeting ads to very detailed profiles of potential customers. They take into account personal interests, locations, website visitors and much more are all available as targeting options.
Format: the 1:1 format outperforms landscape videos by 30-35%.
-High resolution 720p(1280 x 720 16:9) or 1080p HD(1920 x 1080 16: 9)
Instagram is the ideal place to publish aesthetic and artistic videos.
Since Instagram introduced video in 2013, videos have flourished on the platform and a growing number of influencers are using videos on their Instagram Stories.
With the launch of IGTV, there is also a fad for this social video format.
What works posts that match harmoniously videos to photos. They have varied and relevant hashtags that increase engagement by 12%.
Instagram Stories may provide a behind-the-scenes look at how your posts are created and an invitation to take a look.
Format : Use the "square" or 1:1 format. Studies show that it costs 33% less to hire someone with a square video (source)
Snapchat
Snapchat has invented the new model of engaging vertical mobile video. Whether through visual animations, selfie interviews, or captured at the moment, it is the platform for youth marketing.
It's a platform where advertising formats are gaining momentum. Snapchat users are currently watching an incredible 10 billion videos a day on the platform, and brands are becoming more and more interested.
What works: natural, spontaneous, and genuine content. Varied content that is either entertaining, funny or involves an influencer, or is entertaining and animated. The 1st snap is particularly important, it must hold attention so that users watch others.
Format: recorded in a vertical moving format.
LinkedIn also sees the growing dominance of branded videos, advertisements and educational visual content.
What works: short videos under 1.5m, which announce company news, discuss topics of debate or current affairs, or provide value to users. Native video also brings a major advantage.
Format: from 256×144 to 4096×2304
Twitter is less known as a video platform. Yet Twitter continues to promote new ways to share videos. Users love this kind of content, especially when they are more personal and relational with the audience.
What works personal video content that interact with the audience. Videos that are funny and tell a story. Videos that are simply entertaining also work. These are usually very short (140-second limit).
Format :MP4 and MOV, 512mb
TikTok
A brand new platform, it's the gathering place for the very young Z generation, fans of creative content. It is already more popular than Facebook and Instagram in the world, and is the cradle of tomorrow's users
What works: content that is visually appealing and fun. The platform ignores more serious and formal content. Music and dance clips dominate the algorithm and are the most successful. The interaction with users and the frequency of use of your community are also to be taken into account.
Format: mainly mobile.
The Challenge of Sound-Off Video Watching
Before publishing your content, not so fast! There is another advice we want to give you.
The majority of videos are watched without sound on the internet. Indeed, nearly 85% of videos are watched without sound on social networks. You may adopt some ground rules:
- Create clear and readable subtitles.
- Translate the different languages by adapting to the different understandings of each nationality.
- Correctly implement subtitles in the video so that they are accessible to as many people as possible.
Actually, at Checksub, we have been working for 4 years on an automatic subtitling tool that is best suited to the work of video creators and marketers. Our solution brings together the best technologies available on the market:
- the best speech recognition and automatic translation APIs to analyze your video.
- A powerful and very easy to use online subtitle editor
- A collaborative platform for working with translators, clients and other partners
The process is simple:
- Upload your video
- Indicate the original language and the languages you may want to obtain (there are 128 languages in all).
- Check the result
- Export the written transcript file and do whatever you want with it.
After all the hard work I put into this post, I let you try it for yourself! :lol:
