Video marketing is now an integral part of any marketing strategy, whether you are a B2B service provider or a B2C FMCG organisation. This blog isn’t about proving the popularity of video, neither will it try to convince you to try video. You can find those answers here.
Instead, I’m going to focus on some of the key hidden gems we’ve picked up over the last 10 years of creating, shooting, distributing and testing 1000s of videos, across dozens of industries, with 100s of brands.
Size matters
The length of your video definitely matters… the quickest way to think about this is a billboard vs a whitepaper.
A billboard is pretty straight to the point. No one spends more than a few seconds looking at a billboard. This is top-of-the-funnel marketing.
A whitepaper is very comprehensive. It takes a long time to read, and no one really reads one unless they are truly interested in the subject matter. This is mid-to-bottom-of-the-funnel marketing.
Your must apply the same principle to your video marketing. Create short, punchy videos for brand awareness at the top of the funnel, but balance that with longer, more educational and informative videos as you get lower down the funnel. Your prospect is more likely to give you more time, the more interested they are in your product. There is, however a catch; which leads us to the next point.
The attention myth
Simon Sinek and his mates will tell you that all of us millennials and Gen Z’ers have the attention spans of gnats. But the truth is, longer videos perform phenomenally well.
Just look at YouTube, which is the new TV. YouTube videos are much longer than what we would typically create for marketing. 10minutes+ is pretty standard, and the engagement rates are through the roof. Want proof? Do you know how much the average Youtuber is earning? That wouldn’t happen if engagement dropped after the first 15 seconds.
The real reason that so much longer content gets ignored is simply because it’s not good enough. There is so much choice, and so many things vying for our attention, that we actively choose the content which resonates the strongest with us.
This means if you are going to make long content, make it bloody brilliant or cut it down!
High frequency, high results
No one thinks that posting one story on Instagram is going to drive sales for the next quarter. No one writes one blog and thinks they’ve done enough demand generation for the summer. No; as marketers we understand that the volume of content we produce, publish and distribute needs to be high. However, when it comes to video, that principle seems to jump out of the window.
My reasoning for this is that one video can be a lot more expensive that a tweet. But the trick is to leverage your video in more ways through repurposing the content (and, of course, by signing up to one of our incredible video retainers so that you can get a sonic boom of a bang for your buck).
Managing your budget, by managing your shoot dates, is crucial if you want to make a big impact. Releasing six videos consistently will have a significantly larger impact on your marketing than releasing two videos. Essentially, the total is greater than the sum of it’s parts. Wow, I might write a self help book now?
Video in email
Lastly, put more videos in emails! Put videos in your onboarding emails, put them in your follow up emails, put them in your automated email trails, email a video to prospects, clients, suppliers, employees.
Use video to engage and communicate, instead of writing boring ‘telephone voice’ emails that have less personality than a Tesco’s own cheese sandwich with no mayo. No one wants to be a Tesco’s own cheese sandwich with no mayo. There’s no doodle poll to organise a lunch party to go and get a round of Tesco’s own cheese sandwiches with no mayo. Check out our guide on Vidyard if you want to create your own kick ass videos for email.
One last secret…
There’s lots of tips and tricks behind creating incredibly powerful video marketing – but the truth is, you probably know them all. As a skilled marketer, you just have to use your existing knowledge of sales and marketing principles and apply them to the script, the video, and the storyboard.
It may take more discipline in video, because there are so many moving parts… but we all know the number one secret of marketing: don’t forget to you’re talking to a human.
If you want to chat to us about a potential video project, we’d love to help you get some cracking results – just get in touch here to get started.
