Video content possesses many benefits for brands and businesses when used as a marketing tool. It can reach wider audiences and generate greater revenues thanks to its engaging, dynamic nature.
Despite the obvious advantages, however, making videos relevant to your audience and putting them out into the world can be a daunting prospect. Video production seems like a lot to take on, especially for marketers and business owners who plan on undertaking the task themselves.
The good thing is the positives are overwhelming, and the challenges that may arise are manageable provided you anticipate and prepare for them.
BENEFIT: Video content massively improves your brand’s online presence
SEO and social media platforms both place huge emphasis on video. Whether a web page features a video or not has a direct impact on search engine rankings, with Google actively prioritising pages that do contain videos over those that don’t. The reason for this is that video content keeps people on web pages for longer, making the page more valuable in terms of information and user experience.
Social media is also becoming more focused on video. More platforms are emerging which are dedicated to video content first and foremost, with other channels such as Facebook and Instagram making video more of a priority within their existing framework.
CHALLENGE TO CONSIDER: Consistency
As with all forms of content marketing, consistency is key. With video, because the process of creation can seem like such a sizeable undertaking, a lot of people can get put off before they’ve even started, whilst others try to work towards unrealistic goals and become discouraged when they don’t achieve what they set out to.
There are a lot of things that could prevent brands from showing up with consistent video content – time, ideas and confidence are just a few. The secret to combatting any challenges relating to consistency is having a strategy that works towards realistic, achievable goals; something that will keep you focused on your end-game whilst anticipating anything that might crop up so that you can work on a solution to overcome it.
BENEFIT: Video content is easily repurposed
Part of the solution to tackling consistency-related challenges is planning and having content ready to go ahead of time. Whilst it’s tempting to want every piece of content you put out there to be 100% original, it a lot of work to undertake. There is absolutely nothing wrong with repurposing content, and video lends itself to this practise very nicely.
Long-form videos can be chopped and trimmed into smaller, more bitesized chunks that you can repost across social channels; key points can be extracted and converted in animated graphics through sites such as Canva, and you can take transcripts of videos and turn them into blog posts – something that is an even greater idea when you consider that some people still prefer text over videos, so that they can consume information at their own pace.
This repurposing value also makes the promotion of videos much easier, as the materials lie within the content that you’re already creating
CHALLENGE TO CONSIDER: Time and budget
Video production can be perceived as being expensive when businesses are looking to outsource, but it is worth considering what the real cost of doing it yourself could be – especially if creating video content is a new venture for you and your business. Making a video can be a time-consuming process from start to finish, and the hours can very easily wrack up if you fail to plan effectively.
However, even with a fail-safe strategy in place, you need to think about what the initial investment that acquiring new tools and software and learning how to use them could entail. DIY video production is a good thing! But these are just some points to bear in mind before you take the plunge to be sure that your video marketing strategy suits you.
BENEFIT: Decision makers watch video
Whatever your chosen method for creating your brand’s video content is, it is best to view whatever time and money is required as an investment, because that is exactly what it is. Video is watched by the people who make decisions. 75% of managers watch content related to their work every week, and 54% of senior executives share the videos they see with their colleagues. These are people who spend a lot of time staring at text on pages and words on screens – video is some welcome respite!
Pair this with the knowledge that some industries are so convinced that they are not suited to video that, for the most part, they simply don’t use it at all, it’s not hard to find gaps just begging to be filled. Educating and providing value suits every industry, and these are principles that are well-suited to video, which gives you a perfect opportunity to stand out.
CHALLENGE TO CONSIDER: Not sure where to start
Video content is a big subject to get your head wrapped around, and when you’re approaching it for the first time it can be difficult to know where to get started. In the beginning, treat it like you would any other marketing endeavour – identify your ideal clients and the problems they have that you can solve, but instead of diving straight into a big promotional campaign for your products and services, think about what information you can provide that will help your audience to educate and help themselves.
This kind of evergreen, value-added content is great for businesses and brands to put themselves out into the world. It gets people – your audience – used to you showing up, and starts to work on that ‘know, like, trust’ element that builds relationships and will eventually lead to conversions.
However, it is also worth noting that action inspires action, and if getting started with video marketing was the biggest obstacle you needed to overcome in order to actually get the content out there, videos that showcase your knowledge and expertise about topics within your industry really are the best way to get going.
KC Creative 