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Video has existed since the late 1800s. However, it is in the last couple of decades that videos have gained immense popularity. With high smartphone penetration, digital videos have taken the world by storm. Today, businesses of all sizes are looking to explore the potential of video. This is true for brands across genres and industry areas.
A look at the recent video marketing statistics shows that 86% of businesses use videos. While many more brands are expected to use video in the coming days, those who leverage video will increase their focus on the medium. A whopping 93% of video marketing professionals are satisfied with the ROI that they get on video.
However, in such a competitive scene, you need to strategize the video content and focus on the quality. Here are nine tips for a successful video-making strategy.
Focus on Stories
The traditional video advertising scene was where brands rented out space in TV or print media. With the advent of social media, videos reach the audience directly. In such a situation, promotional content competes with entertaining ones instead of interrupting it. Understand that people will watch your videos only if it adds value to their lives.
A look at the most successful promotional videos would reveal that they focussed on the stories and not the sales. The better the storytelling, the higher are the chances of striking a chord with the viewer. Take into account your viewer demographics and their digital taste while working on the storytelling.
Cast a Good First Impression
The attention span of the average individual is 8.5 seconds. To cater to the interests of people who are casually scrolling through their feeds, you need to entice them in the first few seconds. Use an online video editor with an intro maker to create visually appealing content that will attract the viewer into watching the rest of the video.
You can use the first few seconds to front-load the best parts of the content. The use of brand colors and logos will also help to foster brand recall and improve the organizational reach.
Create a Thumbnail
Platforms like Facebook and YouTube encourage the use of thumbnails to accompany the video. Invest your efforts in creating an attractive thumbnail that gets the viewer excited about the video. Plan your thumbnail image to reflect the video theme. Ideally, it should be a high-quality image where the subject is visible.
Thumbnails are a great way to welcome the audience and begin a story. If you want to add textual matter to your thumbnail, make sure that it is in clearly legible fonts. You cannot afford to ignore a high-quality thumbnail. This gives a significant boost to the play rates.
Target Relevant Audiences in Facebook
Facebook is an incredible content distribution platform for your videos. To make the most of this channel, you must target every video that you post. That way, you can ensure that the video is attractive to every member of the audience.
Facebook allows video targeting based on the viewer’s age, gender, location, and languages are spoken. These days, you can target viewers based on their digital interests as well. To target your video post, click on the target option in the Facebook composer screen. Choose an appropriate target group from the list of options in the popup.
Cater to Changing Viewing Habits
Recent studies show that 85% of Facebook users have their devices on silent while viewing videos. To cater to such an audience, you can work on a compelling story that does not have dialogues. Enticing visuals with subtitles and captions will give the viewer a context of the story. Alternatively, you can take the traditional path and rely on text-heavy descriptions to compliment the video.
Add Music to the Video
While it is a good practice to ensure that your video is complete even without the sound, adding background scores will win you brownie points. These help to give context to the video and make the viewer more receptive to your brand message.
Ideally, you must select music that complements the video theme. For example, dramatic music can the viewer focus on a sentence. While using music, try to restrict yourself to choosing from a royalty-free service provider. You will then have the copyright to the music that you use and can avoid unnecessary legal hassles.
Include Call-to-actions(CTAs)
CTAs are an effective way of telling your viewers what you expect of them. This may be a request to check out another video, subscribe to your channel, comment to share your video. Traditionally, CTAs were placed post-roll and restricted to reiterating the message of the video.
These days, content creators enjoy getting creative on the video and placing the CTA anywhere between the start and the very end. That way, brands focus on portraying the CTA at points when the viewer is likely to be most engrossed. Some content creators even place their CTA pre-roll to the core video content.
Optimize the Video
Google has an average of 3.5 billion searches every day with a good fraction of them restricted to video searches. To make the most of such an interested crowd, you need to optimize the content for the search engines. Start by identifying keywords that compliment your video. Incorporate these in your video title and description. The description should give a written trailer of the things in store in the video.
Collaborate With Influencers
Influencer collaborations are a sure-shot path to video marketing success. The key to successful campaigns is identifying famous people who resonate with your target group. Then, pitch collaboration ideas to such people. As you cannot expect influencers to be ready at your beck and call, it is a safe approach to reach out to multiple collaborators. Initially, you can request them for short collab clips. Over time, as your relationship strengthens, you can expect full-time collaborations.
Modern video marketing centers around the authenticity of the content. These days, consumers are more likely to be influenced by the words of their peers. That is why influencer marketing, testimonial videos, and other forms of word-of-mouth videos are getting popular.
As a brand, you need to recognize the intense competition of the present times. It is only when your videos are a class apart will the viewers consider your offerings. That is why you must plan your content and edit it to perfection. The use of an appropriate video editing tool will take you closer to the destination.
At the end of the day, every editing journey is unique. It is for you to decide what works for your brand and then plan your video marketing journey.
