2018 is the year of video.
But, wait. That sounds a bit familiar, doesn't it?
Well, that's because pretty much every recent year has been considered the "year of video." Because video is one of the most popular types of content and every business should put an emphasis on video marketing in their digital marketing strategy.
Think about your Facebook news feed for a minute. Each time you scroll down, what is nearly four out of every five posts?
It's a video!
People love watching videos, and Facebook loves showing videos in their algorithm. It's really a win-win.
So how do you get started with video marketing? Here are a few techniques to really ramp up your video strategy.
1. Go live.
One of the easiest types of video to take is live video.
Once you forget all of the stomach flutters that can come with doing live video, think about it: all you need to do is open your Facebook app and hit Go Live. And then you talk.
There are several different ways to use live video in your business. You can show behind the scenes, use it as an informational session to teach your audience something, demonstrate how to use your product, and more. And you can use your smartphone or your desktop computer to easily capture the video.
A good video doesn't always have to be a big production. Ease yourself into video marketing by putting together a "script" (you don't want to read word-for-word on live camera--just give yourself some lines to follow) and doing a live broadcast on your Facebook Page.
2. Tell a story.
Videos that focus only on making sales aren't going to resonate well with your audience. Instead, you should be focusing on telling a story. Tell viewers about your brand mission, talk about the backstory of your company, create an advertorial on the life of someone who doesn't have your product and how terrible it is, then talk about how great it becomes once they buy your product.
You can still keep videos business-centric without creating a straight up advertisement. Focus on telling the story rather than making the sale.
3. Hook your audience.
When creating a video for your digital marketing, you have three seconds to really grab your viewer before they scroll past your video.
Use this knowledge to your advantage and create a hook within the first few seconds that reels your viewer in and makes them want to watch your video. There are a few different ways to do this.
First, always be sure to add an interesting and informative thumbnail to your video on both Facebook and YouTube. Although videos autoplay on most platforms now, having that thumbnail still helps when people are searching for videos or viewing your video library. You could also try giving a preview of the content viewers can expect to see in the video.
4. Include captions.
Most people watch videos as they scroll through their Facebook feeds. They might be at work, on the bus or train, around friends and family, and not in a place where they can play the sound and listen to your video.
Be mindful of this and always include captions for the dialogue in your videos. You can easily add these into your Facebook and YouTube video editor so that you don't alienate anyone in your audience from being able to watch your content.
5. Throw CTAs in throughout your video.
Keep this in mind for live video and created video. When you're live, you constantly want to be reintroducing yourself for new viewers joining the broadcast as well as throwing in calls to action for where they can learn more or take the action you're talking about.
When creating video, you also want to include quick calls to action to contact your business, purchase a product, and more. On YouTube, you're even able to create cards with links directly on your video so people can easily click over to your sales page.
6. Collaborate with influencers and experts in your industry.
You want your business to be a trusted name in your industry, yes? One of the best ways to do that is by collaborating with or interviewing a big influencer or big name within your industry. Working with a name or face that everybody knows helps position your business as a brand they can trust.
People trust peer recommendations infinitely more than just business advertisements, so capitalize on that. Look into microinfluencers within your community as well. These are influencers on a much smaller scale that are also much cheaper to work with. Influencers can appear within your videos or create their own content for your business or your product/service.
You can also interview well-known experts in your industry within a live video or created video. It's incredibly easy to invite someone to join your live broadcast, so you don't even have to gather in the same location to interview someone via video anymore.
7. Pin down a video marketing budget.
Live video is the cheapest and easiest form of video to create. Like we said above, all you need is something to film and a smartphone or computer to film it with.
There are also a ton of different smartphone video editing apps so that you can create short social videos directly with your smartphone without paying anything more than $0.99 for the app.
However, if you really want to invest in video marketing for your business, you need to start thinking about a budget. You'll need to buy the proper equipment, invest in quality video editing software like Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, or Adobe After Effects.
Options
The old adage was that a photo was worth a 1,000 words, and video is worth a 1,000 photos. So, if you don't know how to get started and are looking for some options, using a "newer" cell phone is one option. Many of our clients at one point or another hire one of their relatives or a friend that have good equipment and some editing software, the "I know a guy" is a great way to get started, but it is tough to maintain if you want to take this seriously.
For consistency of frequency, quality and promotion it is really best to outsource the process to an organization that does this for a career. There are also facilities in larger cities that have "green" room studios set up that are relatively inexpensive. And, of course, many of today's digital marketing agencies have staff available. In fact, a couple of days ago on one of those rare sunny days here in Seattle we took our crew out to a local business and shot some great drone video shots.
Are you ready to get started with video in your digital marketing strategy? We'd love to help! We can discuss the specific strategies that would be beneficial for your business. Contact us to get started.
Written By: David Carpenter
