In today’s article, we will talk more about how to put together a video that will give your marketing the punch it needs.

Begin with asking why

Always start any content marketing campaign by thinking about what you would like to achieve. This is no different with video marketing. Just because it is popular and everyone else is doing it, does not mean that you have to immediately jump on the bandwagon just to compete. Quality content always trumps quantity, so before you get too caught up in the excitement, take the time to think about the goals and objectives you have for your video.

There are many ways in which you can use video marketing for your small business, the point is to think strategically about your business goals for the video. Do you want to create awareness, educate your audience, drive web traffic, launch a product? Whatever your goal is, make sure that your editorial copy, footage and call-to-action match this goal.

Also consider whether this video would be part of a series or if you intend to make a follow-up. This would help you structure your story and edit your video for maximum impact.

Tell a compelling story

The big advantage of video over other forms of content is that it can tell a great story that is visually engaging. Video has an incredible emotive power, so use that to your advantage. All good stories have an intriguing beginning that makes us want to hear more, a compelling middle that keeps our attention throughout, and a powerful ending that makes us think about and remember the entire message.

The most obvious stories you can tell are about your brand – how you got started, what you stand for, where you are heading – but you can also tell great stories about your team and how you work or how your product is produced. Client stories are a great way for people to make an emotional connection to your product or service.

Whatever story you decide to tell, spend time on the introduction. Make sure that you grab your audience’s attention in the first five seconds of your video. It should let your audience know what the video is about and make them want to continue to watch to the end.

Andrew Stanton, writer of ‘Toy Story’ and producer of ‘Wall-E’, sums it up perfectly in his TED Talk: “It’s making a promise to you that this story will lead somewhere that’s worth your time. And that’s what all good stories should do at the beginning, is they should give you a promise.”

Add value

Andrew Stanton also talks about what he refers to as the “greatest story commandment”: “’Make me care’ – please, emotionally, intellectually, aesthetically, just make me care.” Tell stories that are relevant to your audience and that would add value to them. Take the time to understand your ideal audience and what kind of stories would appeal to them.

Does the end result of your video solve a problem they may have or give them a competitive edge? If people can see the benefit of watching your video, they will share it more easily with others.

Think about the popularity of how-to videos. Not only does it solve the viewer’s problem, it also shows off the company’s knowledge and expertise.

Consider your other media assets

What other media assets do you already have that you can work into your video? Photos, existing short video clips, images from your company profile, visually appealing presentation slides, existing user guides – all these assets can help you get your message across and keep your brand identity consistent.

Remember that not all videos have to be made up of footage alone. You can put together slideshows, animations, infographics and many other formats using your existing media assets.

Work from a script

I always propose working from a script – even if is just a general outline. This will help you to formulate the story you want to tell, as well as indicate what type of footage or other media assets you would need to bring the story to life.

The script will guide you and your marketing team in how to communicate your message and get your viewers to take the desired action. When writing your script, remember the points above about telling a compelling story and keep in mind that people have limited attention spans. Keep your message short and simple and make it clear what you want your audience to do after having watched the video.

Add a clear call-to-action

A call-to-action is the specific action you want your audience to take. This could be subscribing to your YouTube channel or your email list; browsing through your catalogue or sharing, liking or commenting on your video.

YouTube offers Call-to-action Overlays or you can simply verbally request the desired action at the end of the video. Display your CTA visually and prominently. Just don’t let your video simply fade to black at the end without prompting your audience to take some action. You will be missing a golden opportunity to convert them into leads.

Set up your budget

Make sure that you have the budget to produce a quality video. You don’t have to create a Hollywood masterpiece, but do consider investing in professional voice-overs and quality video equipment. You can outsource the shooting and production or do it in-house, but don’t skimp on the quality.

Some other factors you would need to consider is digitising footage, music and image royalties, transport, accommodation, actors and PPC costs. If you work from a script, you should have a good idea of what kind of footage you would need and how long it would take. Would you need to travel off-site for the footage? Would you need to bring in actors? How will you promote your video?

These are all important considerations before you embark on your video campaign. Make sure that you can realistically produce the vision you have on the budget you have.

Create a stand-out title

Just like with a blog post, you need to grab your audience’s attention with your headline. Try to include keywords naturally, because this will help your video show up in search results. Just don’t overdo it. Keyword stuffing is never a good tactic.

Don’t use click-bait or misleading headlines. This is a sure-fire way to turn your audience off and to damage your brand. Deliver what you promise in your headline.

Limit your headline to a maximum of 66 characters as Google truncates longer titles when delivering search results.

Show your brand personality

Don’t be afraid to let your brand’s personality shine through. It makes your company more human and relatable. Be true to your brand and be authentic and you have a much better chance of appealing to and connecting with your ideal audience on an emotional level.

Your unique personality is what makes your company stand out from all the other similar companies using video marketing to get the attention of your market. Think about your own buying behaviour. How many times have you made a purchasing decision simply because you connected to the brand’s personality?

You can show off your brand personality through your editing style or by giving people a behind-the-scenes look at how you work or how your product is produced. Humour can also go a long way toward humanising your brand. Just make sure it is appropriate for your intended audience.

Use real people that represent your target audience

Authenticity is a key element in today’s marketing. Thankfully, the days of eye candy or unrealistic characters are over. If you want to connect with your audience, focus on using real people that reflect your audience demographic.

When possible and practical, try recording in your real business environment and use your own employees or your actual clients in the video. While you want to produce a good quality video, it shouldn’t be over-polished. Keep it as real and relatable as possible.

I love this video created by Chatbooks. While the video features actors, it still speaks to most busy moms, recognising their daily struggles with a great sense of humour.

Pay attention to SEO

Don’t forget to optimise your videos for search engines. Fill in the metadata information that describes what your video is about and allows search engines to index it accordingly. Keep the title under 66 characters and choose the best thumbnail. Also make sure that your video filename is something recognisable and relevant as this is another way to describe your content to search engines.

You can also make use of transcripts – a text-based version of your video. This also helps search engines identify and discover your content.

Make it mobile friendly

More and more people are accessing content – and particularly video content – on their mobile phones or tablets, so it is important to make sure that your video is mobile friendly. When creating your video, think about its size and the time it might take to download. There is nothing worse than trying to watch a video that takes forever to download.

Also consider the rise of video sharing on Facebook. Many Facebook users have video content muted by default, so consider adding subtitles to supplement the audio. This way people can watch your video without needing to turn on the sound first.

If you embed your videos into your website, make sure that your video player is responsive – meaning that it will adjust its size according the size of the medium it is watched on. Again, consider its download size and the length of the video.

Promote and market

Once again, the same goes for video marketing as for all other content – promote, promote, promote. Don’t just upload your video to YouTube and hope for the best. Embed your videos on your own site as well and promote it further through social media channels. You can also promote your video through your email list or your email newsletter.

Always make sure that your embedding or sharing options are enabled for your videos. If people like your content, help them spread the word by embedding it on their sites or sharing it with their followers.

Engage with your viewers

Allow your audience to comment on your videos and reply to those comments in a polite and engaging manner. Put some time aside each day to respond to some of the comments. Even if you don’t get to all of them, people will see that you are willing to be engaged. Just be careful of the trolls and don’t let them draw you into a public spat that will embarrass you and your brand.

You can also engage with your viewers on their own channels. Show your willingness to watch their content and engage with them on it and they will be more likely to return the favour.

You don’t have to wait for someone else to comment on your video. Open the discussion yourself by asking a question of your viewers that is relevant to the video itself.

Thank those who share your video and reward your most active contributors. Perhaps you can offer some freebies or just a fun gift. Try to encourage interaction as much as possible. It is a great way to learn about your audience and what kind of content appeals to them.

Review your performance

Review how each of your videos have performed. Most video hosts such as YouTube, Wistia and Vimeo offers analytics to help you track the performance of your videos. You can also use Google Analytics.

The kind of things you would want to look at are the obvious ones such as how many views, shares and likes your video received, but you should also look at who watched your videos. This can give you valuable insights on your leads and what kind of content they are interested in.

You might also want to analyse how many times a person watched your video and for how long they watched it. The amount of times they watched the video gives a good indication of their interest in the content and if you are creating content aligned to the sales funnel, you can also get a glimpse of where they are in the sales funnel.

The duration for which they watched can give you some insights in their level of interest or whether you may need to make some changes to how you structure your content. Perhaps you need a punchier introduction or perhaps your middle is sagging a bit.

You would also want to know how many people clicked on your call-to-action. This will also help you to discover how effective your call-to-action is and whether your content is appealing enough to encourage viewers to take the desired action.

Video is one of the fastest-growing and most engaging forms of content available and it is suitable and affordable to any business. The trick is to produce quality content that is relevant to your audience and authentic to your brand. With this cheat sheet in hand, there is nothing stopping you from creating great video content!

Images sourced from:

https://pixabay.com/

http://www.freepik.com/

Sources:
https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6205-video-marketing-tips.html#sthash.rNtVCh65.dpuf

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/150471?hl=en

https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/08/24/12-video-seo-tips-to-improve-your-rankings/

http://tubularinsights.com/10-ways-engaging-viewers-youtube/

https://www.vidyard.com/blog/video-marketing-analytics-you-need-to-succeed/

https://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/15072-video-marketing-cheat-sheet-part1.html

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/make-a-marketing-video

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6205-video-marketing-tips.html

https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/05/tips-for-creating-marketing-videos.html

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/6-video-marketing-tips-to-maximize-your-impact/

The post The Small Business Cheat Sheet to Video Marketing appeared first on CapriComm.

Introduce Yourself

Create a short introductory video that tells people who you are, what you do and how you can help them. You can use live-action format, infographics or animations, but be sure to tailor your message to appeal to your target audience.

A great example is that of Hubspot.

The video highlights in under three minutes who their target market is (marketers), what problem their target market faces (the limited results of outbound marketing and the challenges of managing inbound marketing) and how Hubspot solves this problem (through their integrated software). Using a combination of live-action, animation and infographics, they get their message across simply and clearly.

Share Your Vision and Values

You may ask yourself whether customers actually care about your company’s vision and values. In a recent article from Harvard Business Review, the authors asserted that values build relationships – that people feel engaged with a company when they feel they have the same values as that company. This influences how we make the final buying decision.

Zappos understands this and markets its core values extensively.

The video features Zappo employees explaining the values and how it affects their work and interactions, both on and off the job. It becomes clear that the values are an integral part of how the company is run and what is important to them. They may be a company selling shoes online, but they are fun, hip, creative and approachable. And their values are all about making life better for their customers.

Tell a Compelling Story

In How To Make Your Small Business Content Stand Out, we talked about telling stories and thinking about ways that you can create a story around your product or service. Video is a great way to do this, as this example from RAM Trucks shows:

The company understands who their customers are – people who live rugged lives or those who aspire to do so. Except for one or two shots of the product, the company barely mentions itself. Instead it tells the story of its customer and pays homage to their lifestyle and values. And with over 22 million views on YouTube, the ad has certainly resonated with people.

Another approach is that taken by Founders Brewing Company who tell their own story of producing the beers that they do today.

It’s a very human story about a business finding its own identity and working from a place of passion. This is a story that most people can identify with – the struggle of an underdog who came back fighting and won.

Show How Your Product or Service Works

According the Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing 2016 Survey, 74% of users who watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service subsequently bought it and 77% of consumers said that they were convinced to buy a product after watching a video about it.

Product Demonstrations or Explainer Videos shows potential customers how to use your product and ideally should show how user friendly it is or how it would make their lives easier.

Look at how PadMapper explains how its product works.

It relies on animations to explain in very simple terms how its product works and how it makes it easier for customers to find the perfect apartment. The video is fun and makes use of appropriate humour to make its point in less than a minute.

Another great is example is from Australian company Oscillate Cat Containment Systems.

It is a pretty straightforward video, making the case for cat containment and presenting its solution to the problem many cat owners face. The video shows customers just how easy it is to install and how effective it is in keeping their beloved cats safe.

Introduce a New Product or Service

In addition to showing how an existing product or service works, you can also use the power of video to introduce new products or services  offerings to your customers. The Guitar Centre uses video to introduce their new products, such as this one:

You can also use a series of teasers to build anticipation before the actual launch. This helps to keep your content fresh and your brand top of mind even during those normally quiet periods before a launch.

Woolworths recently used a series of videos to build up to the launch of its StyleBySA collection – beginning with an announcement of the launch date and following that up with progressively more detailed videos about each designer and the different styles available.

Promote a Charity or Community Project

You can show your support for a local charity or community project by making a video about the project and your involvement in it. Not only will it give your brand a more human touch, but it would also help spread the news about worthwhile causes.

For Mandela Day, travel company Go2Africa, made a short video about one of their local charities, The Carpenter’s Haven.

The video focuses primarily on the charity and the work that it does and only briefly covers the company’s contribution. It shows a genuine interest in making a difference and to gain recognition for a local charity. They also included details about the charity and a link to its website on their YouTube channel.

Showcase an Event

Video does not need to be all about work. Why not show your customers your fun side by putting together a highlights video of your company events? Or perhaps give feedback about an important conference you attended to show how your company keeps up to date with the latest trends in your industry?

A great example comes from Hubspot who posts short clips on the annual Inbound Conference.

The video gives a good overview of what the conference was about and the key talk topics around Inbound Marketing that year. Although Hubspot has the advantage of getting great footage, you can produce something similar using still photographs, quotes that resonated with you or even a video of your own thoughts about the event.

Let Your Customers Speak

Customer testimonials provide social proof that your product or service does what your marketing promises it does. People feel a lot more comfortable buying from you if they can see that others have tried it and it has worked for them. In fact, according to the 2013 B2B Content Marketing Trends Report, customer testimonials are considered the most effective content marketing tactics.

GreatSoft, a software development company, uses video testimonials from their clients to prove how great their product is. You can check out their videos on their Facebook page.

Highlight Success Stories

You can take the standard customer testimonial further by delving deeper into customer success stories that illustrate how your product or service has helped them. South African software company Everlytic and Inbound software company Hubspot uses this approach very effectively.

In both cases the companies produced a variety of customer success stories from a wide range of industries to show that their software can be applied in almost any type of company. The videos explain what challenge the customer experienced and how that challenge was solved by using the companies’ products.

Launch a Competition

Holding a competition is a great way to get more people to interact with your brand. It also gives you the opportunity to engage with customers and learn more about them. You can use video the announce the competition, give an overview of the rules and conditions, and build some excitement around the prize.

Estates Gazette and Cluttons from the UK used video to market their competition – The Next Big Thing. The great thing about this particular competition is that its objective was to the benefit of the industry in which they work by advancing innovative problem-solving to real challenges in the property market.

Give a Peek Behind the Scenes

Giving your customers a behind the scenes look is a great way to humanise your product or service. They get to see how you work and what goes into delivering a quality product or service. It also gives you the chance to show your passion and commitment to your work.

You can make it even more interesting by creating a series of ‘A Day in the Life’, featuring different departments or staff members who all contribute to your product or service.

The Intercontinental Hotel Group created such a series.

Each video focuses on a specific employee, show us a little about their personal lives and talk about the important contribution they make to the Group.

Host a Vlog or Webinar

Instead of a standard blog, show off your expertise by putting together a vlog (video blog) or webinar (an online seminar attended exclusively by an online audience) about a topic that relates to your industry, product or service and would be relevant to your target customers. You can use either live-action video, animation, presentation slides or a combination of all of them. Vlogs or webinars is another great opportunity to engage with you customers.

Hubspot uses the format in their Google Hangouts series.

These types of video are typically a longer format. For a shorter option, you can do a news round-up style of video, such as that created by Socialbakers.

Celebrate Special Occasions

Special occasions such as Christmas, Easter, Spring, or even your company’s anniversary year is a great opportunity to get people’s attention. You can use this time to offer special deals or discounts or simply show how you and your team celebrate the event together.

Ezypay gets all their staff involved in making a fun Christmas message that shows the personality behind the brand.

Showcase a Project With Time-lapse Videos

If your work involves long-term projects where project management and progress forms an important part of your business model, then a time-lapse video is a great way to show this off. You can do this using still photography, videos or a combination of the two to show how a project comes to fruition.

The time-lapse video created by Dixon Landscapes gives a good overview of how the company transforms an ordinary garden into something spectacular.

Thank Your Customers

Finally, take the time to thank your customers for their support. You don’t have to wait until the end of the year or for a special occasion. Thanking your customers recognises their contribution to your company’s success.

Constant Contact managed to thank each one of their clients in a two-minute video.

A nice nod to the people who supported your business and helped your company to grow and improve.

There are many more ways in which you can use video to promote your business. The important thing is to make it relevant and interesting and to keep your company top of mind. The investment you make in video marketing will be well worth it. Research has shown that including a video on a landing page can increase conversion by 80% (EyeView); that 51.9% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI (Adobe) and that marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users (VidYard).

Video is compelling, interesting and infinitely shareable and its role in today’s marketing is only set to grow. Make sure that your company does not get left behind.

Sources:

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/2017-year-of-video-marketing

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/09/16/5-ways-to-use-video-marketing-for-small-business-growth/2/#7d5aaf3466ee

http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2016/29791/21-video-marketing-ideas-for-small-business-budgets-infographic

https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics-2016.html

Image source:

Designed by Rocketpixel / Freepik

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