Video evolves fast, and for organizations wanting to create premium content for their brand, can be a big investment of time and money. A quick search about video yields millions of voices talking about the ubiquity and importance of video. Add to that the fact that we are constantly watching videos on all our devices all the time, and honestly, it’s a lot of pressure. It can be a bit like hearing about the wonders of flight, and the benefits of flying, and being forced to learn to fly a Boeing 747 by next week.
We’re here to tell you that you’re doing great, and that video can help you be even greater. Read on to find out more about video and how you can use it to amplify your marketing efforts.
What is video marketing?
Video marketing, simply put, is using video to engage with your audience. That audience could be potential customers, current clients, or employees. The videos could be anything from 15-second social media posts to brand videos to explainers. The point is to start, deepen, and nurture the relationships you have with your customers and people. And because video is such an engaging medium, it’s perfect for creating that engagement across all facets of your marketing.
Why is video marketing important for your business?
If there used to be good reasons to be on the fence about using video for your organization’s marketing, those reasons have been swallowed up by the explosion of video the last few years. It’s everywhere. It’s high-budget, low-budget, professional, homemade, and everybody’s watching all of it. But ubiquity isn’t enough of a reason to use video, so here’s a few of the best reasons to jump in with both feet.
When it comes to engagement, video is untouchable
People are estimated to be watching 19 hours of video per week in 2022, compared to 10.5 just four years ago in 2018. Why? Mostly smartphones plus the pandemic. And that trend isn’t going to slow down. But people aren’t just watching a ton of videos, they prefer them. 72% said they would rather learn about a product or service by video. Engagement was tested by Biteable, who found that in comparison to a text ad on Facebook, the Facebook video ad got 480% more clicks, was 497% cheaper per click, and cost 280% less per lead.
People learn and retain more information with video
Viewers reportedly retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when reading it in the text. And 80% of users can recall a video ad they viewed in the past 30 days. Put together, these stats indicate that not only are people more likely to remember your message if it’s in video form, but they will remember it for a long time, a crucial element of the sales cycle.
Video boosts your SEO efforts
Adding video to a website does two things, it increases page quality and time spent on the page. Both of which get rewarded. Plus, videos now appear in a majority of Google keyword searches, so a video on your website will help you get noticed in a search. And posting it to Youtube means your video is on the second biggest search engine on the internet. One study found that video drives a 157% increase in organic traffic from search engine result pages (SERPs).
Video gives your sales efforts a shot of adrenaline
Renderforest Survey found that Videos help businesses increase brand awareness by 70%. In another study, 83% of video marketers said that video helps them generate leads. And Unbounce found that a video on your landing page can boost your conversion rate by up to 80%. In other words, video is an effective tool at every point in the consumer journey!
Need a hand with your company marketing video?
We can move your brand forward with video. Get a quote from a top video production company in the Bay Area
How to create a video marketing strategy
Video is effective at every stage of the customer journey, so how do you know where to start? Where should you spend those marketing dollars and how will you measure success? Do these six things to define your video strategy and head confidently into your next video project.
Step 1 — Identify your biggest needs
Unless you’ve already integrated video into all of your various channels, platforms, and along the entire customer journey, you’re going to want to figure out your optimal next step. Is brand awareness your organization’s most urgent need? Do you have a big product launch coming up? Or do you want to increase SEO? Video can be a big commitment, so making sure you’ve identified your biggest needs and targets will help you get the most bang for your buck.
Step 2 — Locate your audience
Does a marketing video on TikTok make a sound if no one’s there to watch it? Knowing who your audience is and where they consume content the most is crucial to your video marketing efforts. Research ahead of time to determine where your videos will have the greatest engagement.
Step 3 — Rally the team
Once you’ve figured out your targets, it’s time to rally the team! Figure out which internal stakeholders should have a voice in the video conversation, and determine your goals, budget, and direction.
Step 4 — Determine goals and metrics
Whether a video “works” is entirely dependent on how you’re using it and what metrics you’re using to evaluate effectiveness. For instance, a video that’s made to increase brand awareness doesn’t need to spike your conversion numbers right away. But an explainer video that’s intended to be seen further down the funnel should. Make sure everyone has clarity on the goals on what the video should do and determine accurate ways of measuring the video’s success beforehand.
Step 5 — Set a rough budget and timeline
A word to the wise, it’s never too early to start planning a video. If you have an event next year, for example, you’ll want to establish a relationship with a video production company 3-6 months in advance. And getting a rough idea of the budget is critical to making sure you accomplish your goals. Of course, have we created a national broadcast commercial from start to finish in 17 days? Yes, 100%. We stay flexible for our clients, but you can avoid the production process feeling like a Formula One race by getting ahead of the game.
Step 6 — Find the right partner
You’ve done everything on your end, the team’s ready to go, you’ve got your goals in hand. You search for video production companies in your area and … it’s overwhelming. Who do you trust? Who will do a great job and really capture your vision? Without going into detail, know that it’s important to trust your gut, find a company that you really connect with, whose style you love, and do some low-grade online stalking beforehand.
Types of marketing videos
There are likely as many different types of marketing videos as there are different marketing strategies. Here are some of the categories we think about when we approach videos with our clients most often.
Product Videos
There’s a huge range of creative ways to highlight your product or service, but the one thing these videos have in common is that the whole goal is to market a single offering in a compelling way.
Examples:
Narwal —
LARQ —
Poshmark —
Campaign Videos
Use a campaign video to highlight a specific product, service, or event that’s happening soon or for a limited time. Or, use video as an effective tool for a specific marketing campaign.
Examples:
Brand Videos
Brand videos focus less on specific products or services and aim to create awareness about the brand and its unique story.
Examples:
Event Videos
Whether it’s a speaker intro, a hype video to kick off an event, or video that runs in the background at a display, there are numerous ways to use video at your next event.
Examples:
Explainer Videos
The goal of these videos is to give viewers a deeper-than-surface-level understanding of your product or service at the same time you’re making a compelling case to buy.
Examples:
Animated Videos
Animation can be used to give a video a unique visual style, demonstrate things that would otherwise be hard to do in the real world, display information, or add energy to a live-action video.
Examples:
Testimonial Videos
Customer or employee testimonials can be an effective way to market your product or company. It adds credibility and authenticity to your brand in a way that’s both genuine and compelling.
Examples:
Recruiting Videos
Showcase your work culture, brand vision, and entice future employees to apply to your organization.
Examples:
Background Videos
Background videos mostly live on your website, such as a web header, and let you show so much more than a static image in the same space.
Examples:
Demo Videos
Even further down the funnel than explainer videos, demo videos walk viewers through a demonstration and explanation of how to use a particular product.
Examples:
Lifestyle Videos
The aim of a lifestyle video is simply to show how your life could improve with a certain product or service. Normally without narration or text of any kind, they are visually-rich communicators of your offering’s best use cases.
Examples:
Behind the Scenes Videos
Take your customers behind the scenes of a video shoot, event, store, or anything else you can dream of. It allows your organization to be more authentic and transparent by letting viewers get a special glimpse into how your company works.
Examples:
Need a hand with your company marketing video?
We can move your brand forward with video. Get a quote from a top video production company in the Bay Area
How to produce a video for your business
Once you’ve developed your video strategy, it’s time to partner up and produce the video. Here’s the process we use to create stellar videos with our clients.
Step 1 — Strategize
In our first meeting(s), we love to hear everything about who you are, what your goals are, and what your current video strategy is. Then, we can talk through the production process and how we can help deliver the video you’re looking for.
Step 2 — Concept
Once we have a sense of the high-level strategy, we get brainstorming. We’ll bounce around a bunch of ideas, until we have several unique concepts for you to choose from. We’ll show you the concepts, discuss what you like and what you don’t, then you can pick the direction you think works best.
Step 3 — Script
From that conceptual direction we’ll craft a fully-formed script so you know exactly what we’re planning to create. This is where we’ll want to nail down the exact language of all talent, narration, and on-screen text. And we’ll make sure to agree on the visual direction we’re taking as well.
Step 4 — Prepare (Pre-Production)
A plan is great, but there’s a unique art that comes with the pre-production phase. Based on our script we need to find where we’ll shoot the video, craft the art direction, find the best talent and get auditions, build sets if needed, secure permits, hire our crew and the list goes on. We’ll make sure you, the client, gets input on the important stuff like locations and talent.
Step 5 — Produce
Finally, we set the whole thing into motion. Shoot day(s) might be long, but everything happens very quickly, and feels like a dance of controlled chaos. We’re setting up gear, rehearsing, getting shots, adjusting lighting, changing direction, moving to other locations and so much more. As the client, you get to be on site if you want, helping make real-time decisions that will influence the final product.
Step 6 — Edit (Post-Production)
We take all the footage we’ve captured and edit it down to the video we want. Along the way we add sound design, narration, color, motion graphics, animations, music, and whatever else the video needs. We’ll send you drafts along the way to show progress and get feedback.
Step 7 — Deliver
The final video is now yours! You’ll get the final version along with any shorter cuts and different aspect ratios we agreed to. From here, you’re ready to distribute the video and watch it do its magic.
Final thoughts
Video Production is a big undertaking, but honestly, we think it’s the most fun and rewarding process in the marketing world.
This guide is just a start. If you want to explore more about video, hit us up with all your questions, we’d love to hear from you. And if you’re ready to produce something incredible together, we’d love to hear about your big ideas.
