In an age of ubiquitous viral photos and videos, 2017 is the veritable heyday of marketing through entertainment. Today, businesses are competing not only with big enterprises but with individuals who have mastered the art of personal marketing. All of which have turned the field of online marketing into a battleground and even surpassing their contenders in their ability to own this particular area.
Truth be told, web marketing evolves at neck-breaking speeds alongside the web’s own growth. It’s difficult to stay abreast and to follow best practices – and video marketing is certainly a challenge of its own. But there’s no need to worry because we’ve got you covered! From doubts about going viral to qualms about budgeting concerns, we’ve listed down six tips on how you can successfully add it into your online presence and make it an important part of your content marketing strategy.
Personality is the key
Your video should be representative of everything your business has to offer. While some videos can be heavily targeted towards virality and encouraging visitors to make a purchase, that shouldn’t be the only goal. Videos make a perfect fit to developing your market’s confidence with your brand. It should be used to raise awareness, teach customers how to use your products or strengthen your online image. If you put the personality that drives your business front and center, you have the opportunity to get people as excited about your business as you are.
Your title matters, so is the length
Just like a headline to a blog post, a video title can pull powerful traffic. It should grab your viewers’ attention and remember to use appropriate keywords. The right SEO allows more likely to show up on search when people are searching for a topic related to yours.
Length is also extremely vital, as is the case with everything else. Given the attention span of people, you need to create an impact in the first 10 seconds, otherwise you’re already losing the battle. Keep your content short and sweet.
It Shouldn’t Be A Sales Pitch
Take the time to think about your ideal viewer and what would appeal to them. Of course, the whole point is to market your brand, products and services online but you need to make sure you come above all the sales clutter surfacing the web. Be informative and relevant. Videos are a great avenue to convey complex information to your customers. For example, visually demonstrating how your customers can use your products can be far more effective that to try to explain it by written word alone. Your video should be able to identify a problem, discuss a solution and keep your viewers entertained.
Make every centavo count
Off the bat, decide whether you can actually afford to hire a professional production team. These experts can surely create videos that can catapult your brand to making a great impression on the minds of your audience. The down side is, it can be a bit pricey. If you’re working on a budget and you’re afraid about spending thousands on this, rest assured, you don’t need to. Videos are now considered a cost-effective solution to getting in front of the masses in a format people are responding well to. It’s all about being resourceful. Today, if you have a smartphone, you can make your own marketing video. A one-minute video highlighting the things that make your businesses cool and unique could be your best customer acquisition tool.
Go Beyond YouTube
The great thing about video is that it can be effective across a lot of online channels. YouTube is now one of the largest video sharing websites owned by the world’s largest search engine – Google. Needless to say, it’s a powerful platform but you shouldn’t stop there. Posting it there gives you the tools to embed the content, make sure that your video is also available on your website, Facebook page and all of your other social media accounts. There’s the popularity of Facebook Live, Snapchat and Instagram Stories – real-time video platforms and capabilities that you should not ignore in today’s business marketing landscape. Also, share-ability is the key! Remember to make it easy for your viewers to spread the word too.
Finally, add a Call-to-Action
Getting more people to like, comment and share your posts has been an increasing challenge for business owners. The good news is, video has been a shining beacon of hope where you can create even more engagement.
Take advantage of your video’s potential, you have to know how to use it. Never miss the opportunity to ask your viewers to take some type of action at the end of your video. You can ask them to sign up for your newsletter, go to a specific website, leave a comment about your video or visit your blog.
Making marketing videos for your business requires creativity, understanding your customers and a touch of your brand personality. The cocktail of these components makes it possible to create real miracles of advertising at minimal cost. If you’ve got all three, ask yourself, what’s taking you back on taking advantage of the incredible power of video?
Sources:
White, J. (2015, September 6) Tips To Get More From Your Video Marketing (Small Businesses). Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tips-get-more-from-your-video-marketing-small-businesses-jules-white
Agbata Jnr., C. (2012, September 14) Tips for Successful Online Video Makreting. Retrieved from http://nigeria.smetoolkit.org/blog/nigeria/2012/09/online-video-marketing/
Lobel, B. (2016, March 10) How to market your hair salon. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.co.uk/how-to-market-your-small-hair-salon-2509996/
