The online marketing game is constantly changing and so should your strategy and efforts. If written content was the main focus of all businesses until recently, right now the trend is to shift more towards video type of content. You don’t have to take my word on it. Take a look at this study over here. Videos will represent 69% of all internet traffic by the end of 2017 and that percent will increase to 80% by 2019.

If you take a minute and really think about it, it makes a ton of sense. Mobile internet speeds are through the roof and everybody has this little device in their back pocket, which is just as powerful as a mid-range notebook, if not even more powerful. That’s why all major platforms are focusing more on pushing video content – Facebook, Instagram, and Periscope (Twitter), not to mention YouTube. That’s a trend anyone in their right mind should follow.

The truth is that video is much easier and fun to consume by the end user if you put it next to any other type of content. Watching videos online has never been so convenient – you can watch them anywhere at any time  – and that is just the beginning. You want to jump on this train early on. Every 10 year old seems to be vlogging this days, yet many business and start-ups are not doing videos. Why is that?

Well, one reason is that creating video content is not as easy as other types of content. You need to film, you need an actor, you need a video editing guy, you need equipment, and so on and so forth. I’ll give you that; it is more difficult to create videos, but it’s the future.

Here are a handful of actionable tips to step up your online marketing by using video content.

#1 Get started already

First and foremost, you need to start doing it. Your first video is not going to be great. That’s the blunt truth. But if you are not in the video marketing game yet, you need to start now. So stop wasting time on it because you are either over-thinking it or simply just trying to get everything spot on right from the start.

Instead, just get it over with, have it posted as soon as possible and start connecting with your audience. That’s what your primary goal should be – engaging with you audience. You will have plenty of time later on to work on things such as video production and video editing.

So, get your feet wet with creating video content and using it for marketing purposes regardless of how your very first video looks. I mean, look at how the first videos of all major YouTubers looked? Everybody has to start somewhere.

#2 Use the right video on the right platform

Each platform has its own kind of audience and style. For example, YouTube works more like a search engine and people often go on YouTube to watch videos that answer a question they have. So, if you plan on posting on YouTube, your videos should be highly informational and answer a question people have. That type of video works great on YouTube.

But the same kind of video will perform extremely poorly on Facebook. Even though the video may be great and may provide tons of useful information, that’s not why people are on Facebook. You are most likely a Facebook user, right? You know that most of the time you go on Facebook is just to kill time and maybe distract yourself for work.

On Facebook people engage really well with video content that is funny and entertaining to watch. They are not going on Facebook to learn about something new or have a question answered.

As such, your video production strategy and video editing flow should match the type of platform you plan on using. Don’t just record something and shove the same video on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. It doesn’t work like that. Yeah, I know that creating a video for each platform will increase production costs, but the overall return of investment will actually be higher if you set up your campaign right.

#3 Show, instead of just tell

The great thing about video content for businesses is that it allows you to show rather than tell. With video, you have the power to demonstrate something properly and that is why 64% of viewers are more likely to buy after watching a product video.

Make sure to include in your video plenty of supplemental footage (B-roll) showcasing your products, services, maybe your offices, your headquarters, or anything else that adds more credibility to your business and what it is that you are offering.

GoPro does a great job at this in one of their most recent promo video for the new GoPro 6.

Instead of simply outlining the specs of the new camera they display a nicely edited video reel of the shots you can film with this camera.

#4 Keep it short

Marketing videos should be short and to the point. You literally have just a few seconds to grab users attention (especially if you are doing Facebook videos), so you need to nail it right from the very beginning. As per the findings of this study, the average attention span of humans is down to 8 seconds.

Generally speaking, you want to keep your marketing video under 2 minutes, so be concise about your message. Nobody really cares about your company profile or your achievements. They simply want to see what you can do for them. Show them how you can solve their problem or answer their question.

#5 Add text or subtitles

Most people will watch videos without sound. That’s how platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, work – videos are muted by default. Thus,if you want to get your message across, make sure to include text titles or pop-ups right from the very start.

If it matches the style of your video, maybe add something like kinetic-typography or any other kind of text animation that are flashy and grab people’s attention. If you are into video editing, Adobe After Effects works great for creating awesome text overlays for your videos.

Here’s a great example of a video which relies solely on text to communicate the message to the viewers.

#6 Call-to-action

Obviously you want to have a clear and concise call-to-action. Usually this is added at the very end of the video where you tell your viewers to click a link, subscribe, or like your page. The problem that arises with video marketing is that a very small percentage of all viewers will actually watch the video until the very end.

What’s why having your call-to-action at the very end of the video is not the optimal approach. What is optimal nowadays is to include your call to action immediately after your intro. That will boost conversion rates significantly as your call-to-action message will be received by a much higher number of people.

There are situations though in which it is not possible to place your call-to-action message at the very beginning. This sucks, but if that’s the case, you need to do all you can to hold onto your viewers until the end of the video.

One easy way of making your audience stick until the end of the video is to offer an incentive, such as a discount code, which can pop-up on the screen at any moment (and that moment will be towards the end of the video), or any other kind of incentive that will keep them watching.

#7 Metrics

Measuring the performance of your video is not just about views and conversion rates. If you really want to dig into the metrics and see what works and what doesn’t, you want to take a closer look at audience retention rates.

Take this metric and compare it across different demographics, different platforms, and different types of video content. This is a trial and error process. Test different stuff and learn what works best for your type of audience. Other metrics that are particularly important for videos are the engagement metrics, such as likes, shares, comments, or subscribers gained.

Over to you

That’s it guys and gals –  actionable tips to boost your video marketing right away. Please use these tips more as guidelines rather than strict rules. Video production and video marketing is more about being creative than following rules.

 

About the Author

Cristian Baratiak is a freelance videographer and founder of Veedyou Media – a video editing company handling the post-production end of things for business and individuals in various verticals. When he’s not busy editing videos he likes to put together short slow-mo films.

 

 

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