With the attention span of online users getting smaller each day, mobile devices taking the lead in the competition for screen time and more brands fighting for attention online, video has moved from an added element of a marketing strategy to an imperative piece of your content creation. Luckily, there are online tools that guide business owners, marketing gurus and social media managers from creation to execution with ease. So … lights, camera, action. Or should we say drag, drop and publish.
Because your definition of a “conversion” is up to you, the metrics to measure here can vary. Generally, a strong video will have a high percentage of clicks, calls, signups, or sales. A strong video may also lead to more interaction with your brand, meaning your video has maintained the viewer’s attention, but they may need just a little more information before making their decision.
Testimonial videos are one of the strongest types of videos Extended Article11 Powerful Customer Testimonial Videos Done RightPicture This You’re a small business owner and you’re trying to nurture your leads into becoming customers. You’ve already attracted an audience, engaged them on… Read More you can make; they show past or current satisfied customers talking about their positive experience using your product or service.
As you craft your story, keep in mind the people who will need to approve your video (your manager, your company’s founder, your marketing department, etc.) and the time it takes to implement their feedback. Sudden changes in scripting, messaging, goals, and more can throw your whole production off-kilter. But still, these changes are all too common. Take a look at our creative guide that’ll help you manage creative feedback from everyone on your team.
As you’re planning your entire production, from creative ideation to actual video distribution, you should have a timeline to stick to. You should actually have multiple — overall timeline, production timeline, distribution timeline, and more. Your timeline serves as your guiding light, keeping you aware of how much you’ve done and what’s left to do.
No matter what your video is about, publishing it on your blog is a must. Home to informative, educational content, as well as more brand-specific marketing content, visitors will expect your blog to host any and all relevant product news you have to share. Better yet, if someone is browsing your blog, they’re ready to commit time to your content. What better way to engage them than video?
Reading your article, I’m amazed at the statistics you mentioned. I didn’t realize the impact a single video could have on a business. Marketing will always bring more traffic to your site but having videos does even more so. It’s impressive that when seeing a video of a product, 74% of those people will buy what they watched. I’ll be sure to tell me friends with business about this article so they can boost their customer viewings!
Tripods range tremendously in price, and the quality of your tripod should depend on the level of camera and lens you have. If you're shooting with your phone, you can get by with a table mount like the Arkon Tripod Mount or a full-size tripod like the Acuvar 50” Aluminum Tripod. For a DSLR, Manfrotto makes a variety of trustworthy tripods starting with the Manfrotto BeFree and increasing in quality and price from there.
With the attention span of online users getting smaller each day, mobile devices taking the lead in the competition for screen time and more brands fighting for attention online, video has moved from an added element of a marketing strategy to an imperative piece of your content creation. Luckily, there are online tools that guide business owners, marketing gurus and social media managers from creation to execution with ease. So … lights, camera, action. Or should we say drag, drop and publish.
With an agency, you shouldn’t worry too much about these details. At Lemonlight, we schedule a creative call to review your ideas and give you feedback based on what we’ve seen work. We also provide new concepts and any direction you might need. But agreeing on a creative direction is crucial — your creative will be what communicates your branding and what will dictate how memorable your brand video is.
Before you start filming, set a music budget and research your local copyright laws. Copyright law can be very difficult to decipher, especially when you're dealing with digital content. Bottom line: Most music isn't free. If you use another artist's music without permission or proper licensing, you risk video removal and legal action. In order to avoid copyright infringement, you'll need to find royalty free tunes or pay a composer to create an original score. Royalty free songs aren't free to use; they're quality songs available for a single flat fee. This means you don't have to worry about paying additional licensing fees or royalties in the future. YouTube, Pond5, and PremiumBeat are all great sites to find royalty free music.
It’s time to nurture your prospective leads! If your audience has made it this far down the marketing funnel, your marketing efforts are paying off. Nurturing is one of the harder stages, but luckily, it’s quick and easy to measure. If you’ve done a successful job nurturing, you’ll see it in conversions. What those conversions are are up to you — you might want sales, social shares, contact information, you name it. But the completing of a desired action means your video is accomplishing exactly what you want it to.
Thanks to developments in tech tools, it’s easier than ever to create a fun video at little to no cost. Businesses can use their own smartphone cameras or sign up for a service that creates animated explainer videos. But it’s still important to carefully craft a strategy for your video-marketing activities to maximize your reach. Here are five things your video marketing strategy should include.
By creating information-dense, accessible, easy-to-interact-with video content, brands can develop a substantial online following and promote customer recall. For an example of a company that’s done this particularly well, consider Headspace, a meditation app that became a $250 million business. The app offers multiple levels of meditation, employing gamification to increase engagement. Users must complete and master each meditation level before advancing. Most sessions are in video format, beautifully crafted with illustrations and layouts true to the brand. It is elegant, consistent and engaging, heavily relying on video.
Here, your main goal will likely be to attract new customers who are in the first stage of product research. You’ll want to show off not only the beauty of your product, but its utility and necessity. You’ll also want to highlight what makes your product better than the rest — since these new visitors are still doing research, you’ll want to make sure your product video sets you apart from your competition.
Finally, consider adding intro and outro music. Intro and outro music, or bookends, can serve as a theme for your content. These are a great choice if you don't need music throughout your entire video. Bookend music can help set the tone for your video, naturally split your content into chapters, and leave your viewers feeling they had a complete experience.
Now comes the script writing, the search for the perfect agency, the video review and edits, and celebrating finally having a beautiful, well-crafted video you can be proud of. The entire production process should take about two months with the right partner, but be sure to plan more time than you need for each of the following individual production stages so you don’t fall behind.
#OverheardAtCoSchedule covers the things we talk about behind the scenes at CoSchedule. It's what you'd hear if you joined us for a cup of coffee—ranging from how we've made the transition from customer support to customer success to the framework we use to choose the next features to build into CoSchedule. It's culture combined with growth techniques in immediately actionable takeaways.
YouTube is also (surprise, surprise!) highly addicting. 83% of viewers prefer YouTube over any other video platform. Once viewers are on the platform, they usually stick around to watch another video … or 20. This can make it difficult to drive traffic back to your site from the platform. Despite these barriers, YouTube is a great platform for hosting videos and growing your audience.
Opinions vary greatly among sound engineers on the best method and equipment for recording audio with a DSLR. You've likely seen many videos that use a lavalier microphone — the small piece that clips below the collar of the talent's shirt. Lavaliers come in both wired and wireless options. However, lavaliers can be a bit obtrusive both for the talent (who has to have a wire threaded down his or her shirt) and for the viewer (who has to see a microphone for the whole video).
Social sharing is one of the simplest forms of earned distribution. It often happens organically, but you can encourage social shares by getting the ball rolling. Set up a schedule to post your video content from your corporate and personal accounts on every social channel you’re active on. Send a private message to friends and family to do the same. If you know anyone in a related field or industry, make sure they share your content, too! Though it’s not the best method, you can even incentivize shares by creating a contest or giveaway through an app like Rafflecopter.
It’s time to nurture your prospective leads! If your audience has made it this far down the marketing funnel, your marketing efforts are paying off. Nurturing is one of the harder stages, but luckily, it’s quick and easy to measure. If you’ve done a successful job nurturing, you’ll see it in conversions. What those conversions are are up to you — you might want sales, social shares, contact information, you name it. But the completing of a desired action means your video is accomplishing exactly what you want it to.
A big part of what’ll dictate which analytics platform you should use will depend on your budget. If your company is super data rich and every department is highly dependent on accurate reporting, you might already invest in a robust paid platform that can meet your video needs. If not, there are tons of free tools you can use that are just as good as some of the bigger, paid-for options.
Mini-documentaries Extended ArticleAnatomy of a Mini-Doc: What It Is and How to Knock It Out of the Park“Documentary” used to be a dirty word to the average viewer. Normally educational, often stodgy, and more than a little cheesy, documentaries were the… Read More are less about your brand’s visual aesthetics and focus more on expressing your company’s core value or mission statement in a documentary-style format. This is usually accomplished through interviews with key company representatives, like founders, employees, or satisfied customers.Client: RFK - School for the Visual Arts & Humanities (LAUSD) To make a big impression, it’s important your mini-doc keeps it short and sweet. You want to highlight excellent sound bites that tell viewers exactly who you are, all while maintaining their attention. While feature-length documentaries have enough time to develop a full, three-act story, mini-docs don’t. They have to establish their story by quickly answering three crucial questions: what, why, and how. What is the focus of this video? Why should the viewer care about this? How does your subject work? This helps you get key pieces of information to your audience in a fun and interesting way.
Make sure to track your reach, clicks and sales for each ad and consider A/B testing one element of your video or caption and then run it again. Needls Co-Founder Michael Koral points out that, “by testing two videos against each other, you can isolate what messaging does the best for you (and at a larger scale because more eyes will be on your content) to see what provides the best engagement and ROI from their advertising.” As you create more and more videos you will be able to track your business trends and what wins your audience over.
What you need are deep insights into your audience. To find them you'll need to run surveys, conduct interviews and sift through data. Start by gathering basic information like demographics, then move onto more detailed considerations of personality and preferences. Be sure to get to the root of what your audience need, what they want, and which problems you can help them with.
Posting your video on social platforms is also basically required, though the social channels you choose may differ depending on where your audience is most active. You’ll also want to think about posting your video natively; most social platforms give native videos preference over video links from other sources. Post your video natively where you can, and keep an eye on your platform-specific data.
Because your definition of a “conversion” is up to you, the metrics to measure here can vary. Generally, a strong video will have a high percentage of clicks, calls, signups, or sales. A strong video may also lead to more interaction with your brand, meaning your video has maintained the viewer’s attention, but they may need just a little more information before making their decision.
