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Video marketing is dominating the marketing news lately and more. As social media, YouTube, and video search increase their reach, more and more consumers are learning about products and brands via video marketing. Small business owners, interested in this growing medium, are asking themselves how to make an impression with video marketing. Video marketing used to be a “nice to have” for marketing, but impressive video marketing is now a necessity, not a luxury. After all, it’s now the number one way consumers learn about products they go on to purchase. Failing to invest in video marketing is a huge missed opportunity for many small businesses.
However, video marketing is a broad term and covers a variety of video tactics. The sheer number of videos online means that while more and more video content is being digested, audience attention spans are falling. If you don’t make a lasting and powerful call to action in the first 5 seconds of a video, your audience will likely not finish the video in question.
It’s critical that your videos are engaging enough to keep your audience’s attention past the first few seconds, but that can be easier said than done. If you’re unsure how to use video marketing to make quick and lasting impressions on your audience, read on!
Know Your Audience
It can be tempting to get out the storyboard and camera and hit the ground running! After all, shooting videos can be fun! However, it’s important to remember that video marketing isn’t just an end to itself… it’s a tactic intended to make an impact on a particular audience. That sounds simple enough, but the fact that you’re targeting a particular audience needs to be front and center as you plan. The audience can’t be an afterthought… they need to be your focal point. Know your audience and you are able to more effectively reach them with your video marketing.
- Who Is Your Audience?
- What Are They Interested In?
- Why Should They Care About Your Video?
- What Action Do You Want The Audience To Take After Viewing Your Video?
Be Brief & Direct
This can vary a lot from video to video. What might be brief for a TikTok might come across as rushed and forced on a doctor’s homepage. However, as a general rule of thumb, it is better to keep your video brief. Two minutes is likely the maximum for a website, although there are certainly use cases where a longer video might make sense. (Think a marketing webinar or an informational YouTube series.)
Still, even with longer videos, being direct is a good practice. A ten minute YouTube video on a legal question or medical ethics issue might be a longer use-case for a video, but the most effective videos will still summarize these mammoth topics effectively and without filler. Brevity is a good trait for video marketing; keep your videos as succinct as possible. Trust us; your audience will thank you.
Think About Where This Will Be Shared
The vector for your video is in some ways just as important as the content. Some small business owners look to repurpose the videos they produce from one channel to another. This is a perfectly valid way of reusing video content, but it usually does require some editing. It’s just not possible to take one video and put it on YouTube, Tiktok, your website and social media without minor tweaks.
If you know the main channel of dissemination prior to storyboarding, you are able to be more impactful and strategic with your time. That’s not to say that you can’t trim down a long industry roundtable to share on TikTok and social media, but be prepared to deal with the channel-specifics.
It’s also worth remembering that just because your video could be shared via a certain channel, doesn’t mean it should be. For example, if you’re a craft winery, your video content about new bottles and specials likely isn’t a good fit for LinkedIn, but it’s probably a great fit for social media. Inversely, if you’re a business law firm, your content is probably a much better fit for LinkedIn than TikTok. Keep your promotion plan in mind as you develop your marketing videos.
Find A Brand Voice
An irreverent and charismatic tone could be great for a local vineyard. Our business law firm, however, probably wants to portray their business as a serious and erudite group of professionals. The tone that our vineyard uses to advertise a wine-tasting festival is likely not going to work for our law firm. The right brand voice can make or break your business outreach. This is good marketing advice writ large, but it’s especially pertinent to video marketing. If your videos don’t align with the tone of the medium and the voice that your audience expects, they’re likely to keep scrolling.
Let Clients Or Products Do The Work For You
If you don’t have the resources to plan and script a video, your clients and products can be a great way to fill a blank space. Client testimonials and product demos are great ways to streamline the production process, but they are also amazing ways to show that your brand is the real deal! As video becomes more and more common in internet marketing, savvy brands need to find ways to cut through the chatter and grab the attention of their audiences faster. Videos that demonstrate ‘social proof’ are great ways of doing this. Every business owner thinks their brand is special; let a client testimonial or product demo prove that to your audience.
We recommend….
- Testimonial Videos
- Product Demos
- Client Interviews
- Location Opening Videos
Offer Something Of Value
No one is interested in your brand for their health. (Unless you literally are a doctor!) Keep your audience’s needs at the heart of your video. That sounds like a given, but it can be easy to forget about what your audience expects when trying to fit your brand’s story and value props into your video. Your audience is much likelier to finish your video if your video offers something of value, not just promotional material or a laugh.
That’s where your expertise comes in. The more authoritative your video content is, the more your audience is incentivized to keep engaged. Quick and punchy calls to action might work for short videos, but the longer the video gets, the more informative your content needs to be.
Your industry expertise is a great way to offer value. Your audience is interested in how your knowledge can benefit them. Showcase this in these sorts of video formats!
- Webinars
- Industry Roundtables
- Industry FAQs
- Topical Lectures
Maintain Quality
The best writing, storyboarding, setting and brand voice can’t redeem a shaky hand or poor audio quality. That doesn’t necessarily mean that every video you produce needs to look like a Hollywood production, but there are certain baseline levels of video quality that you need to hit. You might have the best content in your video, but your audience will keep scrolling if your video is filled with harsh sounds or poor lighting.
Pay close attention to…
- Lighting
- Sound Quality
- Stability Of View
- Sluggish Video Plays
- No Sound
- Video Distortion
- Black Screen While Playing
- QuickTime Errors
Your Video Marketing Partner
Do you need to maximize your video marketing? JSL Marketing & Web Design is here to help you reach new heights! We’re an award-winning marketing agency, based in Dallas, TX and we’re ready to talk shop!
Our commitment to telling your story is what separates us from the rest. Our team of video marketing experts will work with you to uncover what makes your brand different and how you need to communicate that to the broader public. Your brand is your story; let us help you tell it.
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