First off why are videos so important to marketing your brand? Well, YouTube is the second largest search engine, only trailing Google. Videos are also appearing near the top of search results on a growing number of search terms. More people are going there to find content, to learn, and to discover new things. A recent study by Animoto shows that 75% of millennials watch video on social media daily. Another study shows that social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined. While Cisco is predicting that 82% of all consumer web traffic will be video by 2020. If you aren’t taking advantage of video content yet, you need to begin thinking about incorporating it into your overall content marketing and social media strategies.
Have Great Content
Your content, any content, needs to add value. It always starts there. So what kind of content you create really just comes down to this; think about what your prospects want to know about you. How will your services address their pain points? How do your products stand out from the competition? I’m sure your prospects have lots of different types of questions about different things. These are all video ideas that you can create and then your customers or your clients can think about as they get to learn more about you. The more value you can add to your niche the more successful you’ll be. Pick a few topics and answer those questions; this is going to be the best place to start when your marketing team is brainstorming video ideas.
Discover What Is Out There
Once you’ve assembled a list of different topic ideas that you would like to create videos for, go to YouTube and use the search bar to see the autofill suggestions all around the topic you would like to start making videos for. when you start typing something into the YouTube search bar, it will show you the top five different search terms related to what you just typed in. Those suggestions are all video topic ideas that you can create videos for. Use these suggested phrases as the title of your video as well as in the content of your video description. Doing this will help your video rank higher on Google when somebody searches those phrases and help you get seen.
Consider Video Quality
Your videos should start with a good script, well-thought-out overlays and copyright cleared music, but you also need to be able to see and hear it right. Any video that you do produce has to be produced at a certain level of quality. It doesn’t have to be Hollywood amazing, it just needs to be good enough for everyone to see and listen to. If your video content is good, you are going to see good engagement and watch rates. But if they can’t really hear you clearly, or if the editing is too fast, or they can’t see you clearly, that’s obviously going to hurt you, even if you do have great content. Think about the technical quality of your video in addition to the message you put in it.
Start With Text
If you have ever watched a video on social media networks other than YouTube, you are aware that sound is usually muted (unless you turned your audio settings on). That is why it is important to start your videos with a five-second easer, just a quick little intro of what the video is about. Think about the standard YouTube ad. There’s that five seconds skip button that shows up whenever an in-stream ad displays. You need to get your message out within 5 seconds so that people hopefully stay on and watch the rest of your message. This is also effective if you plan on posting your video on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Users are scrolling through their feeds at a pretty good pace, so you want to get your key message out within the first 5 seconds of your video. If they’re interested enough in what you have to say at the beginning of the video, they’re going to pause for a minute and watch the rest of your video. Keep that real quick teaser within the first five seconds of the video.
Always Introduce Your Brand
After that little 5 second teaser or text, the next frame should show a quick demo reel about your business, your product, or service. It doesn’t have to go into too many details; create something short and sweet. Something along the lines of “ABC GOLD is an Exploration and Mining company with operations in the Yukon. This year, we have produced 85,000 ounces of Gold, and are set to hit our target of 120,000 ounces. Today, we’ll be talking about our flagship property, the YUKON Mine”. The point of this section is to use it like a mini commercial within your video. This will help a casual viewer understand who you are beyond the content of your video. It will help your identity as a brand. Whatever you do come up with, keep it short – between 5 and 20 seconds is good enough to get your message across, while providing them with a quick look at what your business is about.
Add Time Stamps To Long YouTube Videos
Have you ever watched a really long YouTube video when the segment you really wanted to see was several minutes into the video? So have I. But if you really want to take your user experience to the next level, you can add links to the most interesting parts of your video in the description. This is achieved by adding “#t=*m*s” code at the end of your YouTube video link. So if your video content is broken up in 3, 5, or 10 parts, adding a list of key points will help your viewers find what it is exactly what they are looking for with a simple click. If you are using time-stamps, make sure this is mentioned somewhere at the start of the video, after the quick teaser and introduction to your company and content.
Include A Call To Action
Content without purpose is simply stuff. The internet has enough stuff. That is why you should always include a call-to-action. Now, it will take some time for you to get it right. Not everyone will respond to your offer on their first, second, or even third watch. You also need to decide whether this will be included as a mid-roll call-to-action or at the end. It really depends but after you publish a few videos, looking at the analytics panel will give you a better sense of where is the best place to add a call-to-action. Are most viewers dropping off near the middle? Then it makes little sense to add a call-to-action at the end of your videos as there is not a high enough percentage of viewers sticking around that long.
Ask Them To Follow You Elsewhere
At the end of the video, thank people for watching it and ask the audience to follow elsewhere. You should also ask them to like, retweet, comment, mention a friend, subscribe to your YouTube Channel and turn on notifications, and share your video – depending on where you are sharing your video content. Adding that last little message out there will only help you build a following so don’t be afraid to ask for it.
Start Making Great Videos
Video marketing is without a doubt one of the fastest growing and exciting aspects of digital marketing. That said, video marketing happens to be one of the most labour intensive. Between researching topics, writing scripts that convert, filming and editing, uploading and optimizing them for the web is going to take you a lot of time. Even more, if you plan on running video ads on YouTube, Social Media or other display networks. Thankfully, you don’t have to go at it alone. At RBL Communications, we have more than 10 years of experience of video production for publicly traded companies. From quick breakdowns of key points from your latest press release to explainer videos for a new product to long-form video content like presentations, contact us to discuss your video marketing needs. Our in-house specialist is Google AdWords video certified and would be happy to tell you more about the benefits of using video as part of your overall marketing initiatives. Are you looking for more great tips on video marketing? Check out our recent article on increasing your Facebook video’s watch time.
