With every social media platform now focusing their attention on video content, it is more important than ever that businesses get behind video marketing for their brands. Fortunately, this push comes at a time when creating video content is as cost-effective and easy to do as ever; most people have the ability to film high quality, 4K video on their smartphones, placing the power of video right at their fingertips.
Why is video so important?
Video content is the second most popular content type on social media for boosting engagement. For marketers, it holds huge potential for brands to start a conversation and build interactive audiences that connect with the business on a level that goes beyond simply following them and occasionally catching a glimpse of them on their timelines.
Of course, we all know that social media platforms get to write the playbook when it comes to what content gets prioritised, and whilst some channels such as YouTube and TikTok have always been about video, the likes of Facebook and Instagram are now placing a greater focus on video content. Why? Think about your own habits – how much time can you spend simply watching the videos that get recommended to you on your feed? Engaging video keeps people on social media for longer, which serves the platforms and the brands that use them as marketing channels extremely well.
SEO takes a similar view on video too, with web pages that feature video seen as being higher quality pages thanks to the increased time visitors spend on them thanks to video.
How does video marketing help businesses?
Aside from how favourably it is treated by the platforms it is posted on, video content holds a lot of potential benefits for brands and businesses wanting to harness its power. For one, it is well-suited to the methods in which we are most likely to consume information today, i.e. it appeals to mobile users.
More than 75% of all videos are played on mobile devices (eMarketer). It makes sense – for the most part we don’t actively seek out most of the videos we watch; they crop up when we’re scrolling social media, or they’re shared with us via people we know, and with the in-platform video player tools available on most social media apps, it is a content type that is super accessible at all times. Pairing that potential with high-quality, engaging material is sure to get your brand in front of a wider audience.
But video isn’t just a tool for reaching new people. It can be used at all stages throughout the customer journey, from brand awareness and acquisition all the way through to retention. As a customer service device, video is a great way to educate and provide value beyond the sale of a product or service.
Types of videos you can use to kickstart video marketing for your business:
Brand videos
Brand videos typically form the launchpad for further video content for most businesses. They tend to be created as one part of a wider campaign for increased brand awareness. These videos usually introduce their products and services, as well as showcasing the missions and values of a brand in a way that will attract their target audience.
Event videos
In a similar vein to brand videos sit event videos. If you’re organising a meet-up, exhibition or out-and-out conference, an event highlights video is a really great way to give prospective attendees a feel for what it might be like ahead of buying tickets and booking their spots on the register. Sprinkling a few interviews from visitors and speakers amongst the visuals can really back up the whole, ‘you HAVE to be here,’ angle too.
Explainer videos
Sometimes, people don’t buy into a product or service simply because they don’t know they need it. Explainer videos are a good way to remedy this issue. They take an individual representative of your ideal client, and place them into a narrative where they experience all of the problems and challenges that you know your target audience faces, whilst positioning your brand and what it provides as the solution.
Animation
Explainer videos can be delivered via live-action video, or they can be animated. The beauty of animation is it enables you to demonstrate harder-to-grasp concepts that may need strong visuals to help drive home your points. Whether you’re trying to explain an abstract product or service, or are perhaps at a point where a tangible deliverable doesn’t exist in order to feature in a video, animation is a viable option.
Product demos
Product demos are some of the best-value videos you can produce from a marketing perspective as they can feature at multiple stages of your buyer’s journey. On the one hand, they are a great tool to have on landing pages where people can purchase your products, as they make a strong case for why people need said product, and already start to provide some educational value given the fact they show people how to use that product in a way that will provide them with their desired outcome.
However, they also make a very handy guide to refer back to long after the purchase has been completed. Having those kinds of videos on your website, or maybe even as part of an aftercare package upon purchase, gives people great customer service right at their fingertips whenever they may need it, empowering them to trouble-shoot basic challenges themselves.
How-to videos
Alongside product demos, you can also use how-to videos. These aren’t quite as product-specific as demo videos, but are a good way of teaching your audience something new on topics related to your business and services. They also provide people with valuable information that might be able to help them ahead of making a purchase, so that when the time comes for them to take that next step, you already have that connection where they know you as someone who has helped them.
Expert interviews
Value-added content is definitely the route you should look to go down in relation to much of your content marketing, and an educational plus very engaging way of doing this is to conduct interviews with experts. These experts could be people within your organisation who specialise in certain topics that your audience are interested in, or they could be industry thought leaders if you wanted to branch out a little.
Whatever approach you take, these types of videos will help to position you and your brand as an authority on the given topic; people will trust you as the source of information on anything to do with that subject, directly or indirectly. Plus, it’s the kind of video that invites conversation, so is really great when it comes to building an engaged audience that will shout about you to others.
Case studies, customer stories and testimonials
Almost all of the videos mentioned above will show your audience that you can talk the talk, but your most skeptical prospective customers will always question if you can walk the walk unless you can provide proof that you and your services can be the solution that you claim to be. That’s where case studies, customer stories and testimonials come in.
Nobody is more trusted during the buying process than an existing customer; someone who has been in the shoes of every other prospective client, taken the steps you’ve guided them on and seen the results. These are stories that are so valuable to have regardless of format, but when put to video they take on another dimension that forms a deeper, more authentic connection that ultimately pushes the people watching them in the direction you want them to go.
Live videos
Going live is a concept that can be a little daunting for a lot of people because it’s a real-time through-the-keyhole peep into the behind-the-scenes area of your business. But these are just a few of the reasons why it is such an effective form of video to work with. Add to that the fact that social media channels like Instagram and Facebook notify users when someone they follow is ‘live’, and it’s not hard to see why more of us should look to utilise the feature.
KC Creative 