Video Marketing is More Effective that’s a fact!
But why is that?
Well let’s get some stats for video positioning online:
- 5 Billion videos are watched on YouTube every day.
- 80% of the global internet traffic is videos.
- 90% of online consumers prefer video description over a written one.
- Search engines prioritize video in their algorithms.
- Video played on mobile devices will be shared 92% of the time.
Taking this into account, you can conclude, video marketing is more effective.
What makes Video marketing more effective?
“A picture is worth a thousand words”, how many pictures does one video contain? In a 1 min video you can see approximately 3000 frames or in other words, pictures, that sums up to 3,000,000 words for 1 minute video.
Now let’s be serious. Where would you find someone who is ready to read 3 million words of marketing content? On the other hand you probably watched a 1 min ad in the last you tube video you clicked on.
That sounds amazing! Think of the amount of content you can give in just a couple of seconds, that is an online marketer dream come through!
If only it was that easy! Wait but it is :-).
Video marketing is more effective
When done correctly video marketing is more effective by over 76%, Here are a few tips to help you start, if you already have a video marketing channel the same tips will help you improve the result and make things easier.
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- Content – Content is the mindset guiding you, the content should be interesting, easy to understand and to the point, yes you can squeeze a lot of content into a short video but you should remember because of digital blindness you have 3-5 second to intrigue that interest
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- Platform – Nowadays you can see a world is packed with video marketing, from the street billboards, elevators, public transportation continuing to the online world in social media and side players in most websites. Create your video to fit the platform, locky for you, you can use 1 video and adjust the ratio to fit several platforms. The only rule is fit the platform stantarts.
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- The first frame – Most video players present the first frame while waiting for the page to finish loading, most users scroll on before the video starts playing. Use the first image to intrigue interest for the target audience, enough to stop scrolling for the video to start.
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- 3 – 5 second – Think back to the last time you scrolled through stories on instagram or facebook, you are going from one friend story to another, in between you will get some ads, well that is the business model of these platforms, once you came across such an ad, how long did you watch till you decide you should keep scrolling? The first 3-5 second should filter your target audience from the rest, a simple tip that can help is, show the solution to the problem, your target audience will be familiar with that problem, and if it is the right solution they will definitely keep watching.
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- Simple – “Keep It Stupid Simple” never was so true, when you are using video marketing you should think where the costumer meets your content? What is his state of mind? To avoid complication and never-ending brainstorming loops, just KISS it. Think on the simplest way to present your content. (Pro Tip: use a random person in your target audience and ask what he can understand from your video, if you need to explain ANYTHING you should fix that section).
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- Muted video – Due to user settings and platform intrusive policies, must video play without sound, take that into account when planning your next marketing video. You should make sure your target audience can understand your added value without any sound but, remember sound is important, if a viewer unmute the video and it is still silent the viewer will probably think that’s a bug and skip your video.
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- Up to 7 words – video marketing is more effective but, text is a big part of that success, use on screen text to better explain your point, it is important not to overdo it, you are making a video not a PowerPoint presentation use text to emphasize and to keep the viewer focused on the idea, good practice – keep the number of words on each frame up to 7, that will be enough to deliver a message without overalmine the viewer.
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- Show don’t tell – If you had a professional fiction writing training you probably heard that phrase a few thousand times But, you can use it as a guiding line for video making as well. And it is simpler than you think, here is an example that will help you understand. In this example you need to create a marketing video to explain your product benefit, what most will do, record a 45 second clip explaining why their product is better, what you should do is show the product in use and show its benefits. This principle applies to services marketing if you can’t show your service in action, show the results of using your service or even better use an existing client as a reference.
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- CTA – Call To Action – well, CTA become a cliche in marketing education, You will expect by now, inserting call to action in every marketing aspect should be a second nature for most of us but, still CTA need to be discussed, when planning your next video think about the journey you want your audience to go through, remember, every marketing tool is just a part of the journey from audience to a customer. When planning your CTA try to visualise the entire journey, what action your audience needs to do to continue toward the next step of the journey. Buy Now, Sign up, Register or leave details, CTA should be easy to use, accessible, and clear. Don’t know if you accomplish these 3 golden rules of CTA? Find a random person in your niche audience and just ask what action he is driven to do by your video? and will he do it?
Bottom line, Video Marketing is more effective, and marketers should use video marketing as a main tool for getting their content out as fast and wide as possible.
Don’t overthink it just start creating your video, explanatory, awareness or even product and service direct sale, your first try will put you on the track for finding the right approach to your target audience.
Like any other skill in life, video creation will become easier but, to get there you should start with your first, if you still doubt it think, how many times a movie director retakes a scene or how many times a screenwriter edited his script.
If you want to start and don’t know how? Get your smartphone and record yourself. Try to to improvise a marketing clip. Now, watch the clip and write a script for your second try.
If you follow these simple steps, you will probably be satisfied with the results for some of you that will be enough for publishing for the rest try some simple video editing and insert some animation or text.
You can use most video editing apps pre-installed in any smartphone for more features, you can Google some free video editing apps or, you get a paid app and become a video marketing pro within seconds.
Now, you ask yourself why I should take advice for an article about video marketing?
Sometimes it is just easier to consume content when it’s written. Take for example a list of video marketing guidelines to help you check while creating a video clip. Will a list be more accessible as a video you need to explore back and forward just to find one of the guidelines presented?
Or, will it be easier to scroll up and down an article or print it just to use as a hard copy checklist?
Video Marketing is more effective, and it is one of the most powerful tools any marketer can use, creating video can be easy and you will add complexity as you are gaining experience.
Keep it fun and simple, the secret is trying again and again with each try you will improve your video making skills and every experience counts so start shooting.
