So you've come round to the idea that you want to start implementing video into your marketing or brand strategy... Great... but what does that actually mean?
Videos. What are my options?
This article will do its best to flesh out some of the main kinds of video production available to you and the reasons why you may, or may not want to consider them for your business.
Homepage Banner Videos
These generally sit at the top of your homepage, or indeed any page, and silently loop. They're basically a moving background, generally not very long and consist of strong, relevant imagery that supports the nature of what you're offering on the page.
Creative banners, be they video or animation are fantastic for grabbing your audience and creating a captivating first impression. They're visually really appealing for your customer, but they also allow you to convey a lot of information about yourselves very quickly and clearly. Without any effort from your customer you can let them know instantly whether your brand is luxurious or quirky, sophisticated or fun, or even display your product or the feeling your service delivers to your customer.
Furthermore, if you're already having other video content shot of a decent enough quality then more often than not you can use shots from that other shoot to cut together into a banner and get more bang for your buck!
About Us Videos
Depending on the structure and size of your company, the market you operate in and the sorts of products and services you're slingin' this will take a variety of forms... but simply put this is a video that tells your customer who you are.
The factors above really decide the tone and level of intimacy that your version of this video will take. If you're a founder owned and operated design company for instance then your personality as the designer and subsequent connection you have with your customer/product would call for a far more open and intimate video than if you're a huge multinational construction firm, in which case your video will likely carry more gravitas and feel more corporate.
Either way you're telling your customers about yourself in an engaging and easy to consume fashion, which is great!
The reason video as a medium works so well for this over just words and pictures is that it gives you a chance to use a wide range of signifiers all at the same time. Tone of voice, pacing, music choice, eye contact/human connection, any many more. Videos are also stories at the ned of the day, and a well crafted video will draw people in and keep them hooked until you get across everything need.
Explainer Videos
An explainer video can be used to explain and clarify all sorts of things, but work best on paged dedicated to specific products or services.
Let's say you're a training company and offer a variety of different courses on your website. Although the page you have for each course will contain all the relevant information, instead of forcing your potential customers to sift through it all to find what they need, it's a great idea to pop a short video at the top of the page that goes through all the relevant information they might be looking for.
Human beings are naturally lazy. And I do't mean that in a bad way, it's just true. If you get up to walk across the room your body doesn't expend any more energy doing so than it needs to; and this applies mentally as well as physically. We love efficiency and everyone understands that a video is a more efficient way to intake information.
So this is an easy one... why are explainers great? Because you're giving your customer what they want and delivering your product or service pitch in the best way possible.
Television Commercials / TV Ads
We all know what a TV ad is. And although you may have heard rumours of them being "a thing of the past" with the rise of streamers and on-demand platforms, this could not be further from the truth.
In actual fact, you may have noticed the streaming giants bringing advertising back in a serious way recently, and the truth is they're more effective now than ever before.
When you watch something via a subscription platform (and this is true even when watching regular TV these days) they know a lot about you, both from the information you put in when you signed up, but also from your past activity on their platform.
The ads you get shown are therefore far more targeted to you than ever before. There's a reason why if you're retired you get ads for river cruises and if you have young kids you're inundated with ads for toys and trips to Legoland!
Now of course TV ads cost a fair whack of cash, not just to make but to air, and there are a number of hoops to jump through before you can just pop something on the tele. But if you're a company of a certain size and have the budget to go for some serious impact TV ads could be the way to go.
What are the benefits? First and foremost, let's face it, if you have an ad on the TV you look like a serious player. They're great for building brand recognition and familiarity, working really well in conjunction with broader campaigns across other channels, as when they see you come across their YouTube feed they will already have had a positive interaction with you. A short TV campaign can also perfect if you're looking to drive traffic to your location prior to a specific time of year, like school holiday or Christmas perhaps.
Truth be told, if you're reading this its unlikely you're in the marketing department for Tesco or Direct Line, but instead maybe you're a medium company doing quite well, or a brand new product that's making waves and considering bumping your reputation up a notch. Well TV commercials could be something to look at, and Plucky Films would be a great place to start with as we wont charge you nearly what the major ad agencies will just for producing you a mind map and some buzzwords.
So if you're interested in a friendly chat about this stuff, do get in touch.
Social Media Videos/Content
How long is a piece of string? How big is space? What does a social media video look like? These are all questions that anyone worth their salt will take some time to answer.
Social media is a huge and ever expanding area of content creation and takes many forms. Depending on what platform you intend to put stuff out on you will be creating very different looking material. Short form, long form, on-trend, advertising, entertaining, offer driven, influencer based, personal brand vs corporate brand... the list goes on.
The keys to success here are as follows:
Know who your customer is and where they "hang out". If you're selling B2B for instance, then LinkedIn is probably a pretty good place to start. Whereas if you're selling theme park tickets you'd do far better on Tiktok or Snapchat (where kids and families spend their digital time). Identifying the right platforms to create for is your first step to success.
Create natively to the platform. Once you've identified what platforms to post on you must make sure what you create and publish actually fits the vibe expected there. Posting horizontal videos to instagram is not going to make you many friends as everybody uses their phone to consume their content. Whereas YouTube videos are, by and large, traditional 16:9 horizontal aspect ratio (though their newer "Shorts" are vertical) because people go to Youtube aren't generally death-scrolling but go there to actually watch something and so turn their screen to the side. These idiosyncrasies of each platform or numerous, but getting your head around what they are will ensure you fit in with your environment when you're there.
Be consistent. You'll notice from your own social media perusing that posts are here this second and gone the next. It's a high churn rate and it only takes a short amount of time with no activity for you to slip away into obscurity. Any social media strategy requires regular posting of good quality content for A LONG TIME before you will start to see the benefit.
Be open and share a part of yourself. This is a tricky one because people who aren't necessarily naturally drawn to posting their lives on social media for all the world to see, but who own a business and realise the need to show up in this space can really struggle. But what really works on most socials is not necessarily polished, corporate, highly edited sorts of video... its honesty. Its a way of letting the world see that you are human and fallible and approachable. Now that's not to say that what you see out there isn't contrived and fake... most of it is... but it's made to look like it isn't. And whether you really bare all or just make it look like you're heart is on your sleeve, finding a way to lower your defences and let the world in will endear an audience to your content and start building the trust and familiarity that you're looking for in the long run.
You don't need me to tell you that good social media video content is good for business because we all know it is, but if you fancy chatting about how you could get yours going then you know where to find us!
Content Marketing Videos
This is really a side note to the previous section, and I've covered it in much more detail in a previous article, but I thought I'd just touch upon it here.
"Content Marketing" is the act of creating content with very very very little, if any, semblance of selling anything. You just make content that either entertains of educates people, for free, and ask nothing for it in return.
Now this could easily sound bonkers and a waste of time. BUT... what this does, over time, is create the impression that you are an expert in your field. If what you're putting out there is valuable information, people will watch it and you will build a following in your niche.
If then, someone who watches your stuff is ever in the market for your products or services, they will more than likely go to the person they think highly of and they've received lots of free content off before... you.
And if someone has no idea who you are, but lands on your website and sees that you have a YT channel that has followers and engagement and your content clearly displays that you know how many beans make five, they are more likely to call you than your competitor who doesn't.
Again, this is a long term strategy that needs a degree of trust in the process from the beginning but if you can stick at it it can pay massive dividends in the future!
Video Direct Messaging
This one you may not have heard of, but is actually a great way of grabbing potential customers attention.
Email is a pretty tricky gig when it comes to cold leads. We all get hundreds a day and can smell a cold marketing outreach a mile away. They generally feel mass produced and impersonal (even if they have put your name at the top of their template) and so generally get ignored.
Well, have you considered sending those customers you'd love to win, a video message?
Set up a camera, or even just your phone, and record a little video message introducing yourself and your company and say how much you'd love to meet with them to discus how you can help.
It's different, it's outside the box and it's certainly personal. Give it a go with 5 - 10 clients you're super keen to get a meeting with and see what return you get. You might be surprised!
Video Testimonials
Testimonials are such an effective way to build trust with your customers and no better way than with a video.
Now obviously this isn't always possible, and it does rely in your customers agreeing to appear on film. But if you're anything like us then you can build some pretty strong relationships with your best customers and, as long as it isn't too much trouble, you might be able to grab them for 10 minutes on camera just to get their feedback from the horses' mouth so to speak.
Not only does this show potential customers that your previous clients love working with you, but they they are willing to go out their way to appear on camera saying so just adds to the impact.
So there you go...
... something for you to think about when exploring your own use of video within your business, and if you can think of any more, or want to discuss in more detail how you might put some of these in to practice, send us a message and we'll help you out!
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