Video marketing is growing. Today, brands are launching million-dollar video marketing campaigns on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and other video-friendly platforms.
The age of the static ad is over. The age of the 5-second, 15-second, or 3-minute video advertisement has already begun.
If your brand wants to stay ahead of the competition, then you need an effective video marketing campaign. Today, we’re explaining some of the best tips and strategies your business can use to launch its first video marketing campaign.
Start By Researching Your Competitors
Your competitors have already launched video marketing campaigns. That’s a good and bad thing.
The good news is that your competitors have already done the hard work for you. The bad news is that they’re years ahead of you.
Check how your competitors are marketing to customers online. Ask questions like this:
- What is the ideal video length for my industry?
- What kinds of videos work best? What is the style and tone of these videos?
- Are my competitors aiming for a professional audience? Or are the videos more casual?
- What kind of trends are rising and falling within the industry?
- Which video format works best? Are competitors creating story-driven videos? Or are they emphasizing cost savings and value with a commercial advertising video?
Your competitors may have already done the heavy lifting when answering these questions. If you can answer these questions, you’re well on your way to creating an effective video marketing campaign.
What Do You Want Viewers To Get From Your Video?
Some business video marketing campaigns try to do it all. They try to advertise products and services. They emphasize good value and low prices. They describe the tone of the company and tell a story.
It’s hard to pack all of this into a single video.
Instead, focus on exactly what you want viewers to get from your video. Some video marketing campaigns aren’t designed to sell products or services or tell viewers about your Thanksgiving sale or Fourth of July sale. Some video marketing campaigns tell your brand’s story and encourage viewers to take a closer look.
Consider creating a video where you share your brand’s story with the world. Explain how your brand is having a positive impact on your customers or your community.
Some of the best video marketing campaigns mention the brand only subtly. You might see the brand’s logos and products displayed at various times throughout the advertisement followed by a company name and logo at the end of the video. This encourages customers to take a closer look at your brand. It changes the way customers perceive your brand.
Of course, story-driven videos aren’t the right choice for every brand. Sometimes, your customers don’t care about your story at all. They care about your products and your low prices.
Sit down and discuss what your viewers should get from your video. Then, create a video that hammers that point – and only that point – home.
Choose Your Distribution Platform
There are dozens of major platforms where you can launch a video advertising campaign. You can take a “shotgun” approach and spread your video across every major platform. Or, you can take a targeted approach and identify the platform your customers are actually on.
The targeted approach works better.
There are no hard and fast rules governing which platform should host which type of video content. Social media platforms are changing every day. User demographics are constantly shifting. The same users on Snapchat today aren’t the same users on Snapchat three years ago. Today’s Snapchat audience is older. The same can be said about Facebook.
Identify where your customers are spending the most time. Are they on Facebook? Snapchat? YouTube? Instagram?
This is where competitor analysis can come into play. Check where your competitors are spending their marketing budgets. Which platforms have the most potential customers scrolling through? If you can identify that platform, then you’ve just made it significantly easier to launch an effective video marketing campaign.
Mobile Versus Desktop Video Viewers
Most internet users are viewing the web on mobile devices. Of those mobile viewers, 80% are watching videos without sound. Most of them are also watching your videos vertically.
You need to take these things into account when creating an effective video marketing campaign.
Include a mobile-optimized vertical video, for example. If someone has to flip their phone around to watch your video ad as they’re tapping through their Instagram stories, then they’re going to skip your ad.
And, since most viewers watch videos with the sound off, make sure you include subtitles. People are checking their mobile devices on public transportation and in offices. They don’t want the sound of a noisy advertisement blaring from their speakers.
Recognize That Video Isn’t The Ultimate Solution: It Should Be One Tool In Your Swiss Army Knife
Video advertising engagements are up. People are paying more attention to video advertisements than ever before.
However, don’t let that fool you into thinking that you should go “all in” on video marketing. Like any marketing campaign, video marketing should be one tool in your Swiss Army Knife of marketing.
Remember: your customers might not be on video-heavy platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Your video marketing campaign might get lots of engagement but few real conversions. Grow your video marketing strategy – but don’t ignore your other marketing tools at the same time.