Introduction to Video Marketing Business
A picture is worth a thousand words; then a video would be several million words! Mankind was surprised and shocked to see moving pictures for the first time in Paris in 1896 with ‘Lumiere’s Arrival of the Train,’ It still has the power to attract audiences much more effectively than text and images. With videos becoming more popular than motion pictures due to their universal reach, the video marketing business is becoming more effective thanks to the social sharing platforms of Facebook and YouTube.
Here are some amazing video marketing business statistics from a survey:
- Video accounts for over 50% of mobile phone traffic.
- Viewers watch more than ¾ of a video/.
- 78% of people watch videos online every week.
- 55% of people watch videos online every day.
- 59% of senior executives prefer video over text ads if both are shown on the same page or topic.
Convincing enough to try out video marketing business, isn’t it? A few channels are available to post your videos, including your own website, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, with the latter being the best-targeted marketing options. The Newsfeed of Facebook gives more priority to video over other forms of content, which could be why they have more reach than text and photos.
Tips for Successful Video Marketing Business
Here are some tips to help marketers to get the best from the video marketing business and improve the video marketing business:
1. Identify the target group and objective
At the outset, it is important to identify the target group, whether it is men, women, or boys –their age group, income, and social levels, among others. The next is to identify the objective- to create awareness about a new product or brand. Is it to the subscriber for email newsletters or to drive traffic to a website or blog? The form of narrative, images, and video will have to satisfy our objective and target audience.
For example, an automated car wash video marketing business services outlet can create a video with two men parking the side of their car by the side, one car looking stunning, the other looking dusty, with one asking the other, “How old is your car?” “Five years old,” replies the other. “But how come it looks brand new?” The proud car owner says I owe it all to ‘24 hour Carwash’. Or if the product is a residential flat, the housewarming ceremony can be shown showing the interiors and with testimonials of the owners creating some human interest in the ad.
2. Specify the target audience in the video marketing business
Unlike mass media advertising, social media and search engine-based promotions enable the marketer to specify the audience in the Ad Set on Facebook. It could be segmented by age, likes, hobbies, language, interests, gender (men, women), and location. This enables the marketer to customize the campaigns and analyze the conversion rates or responses from the particular target group. For example, an explainer video company can customize its ads to target individuals interested in creating videos or animations, ensuring its message connects effectively with the right audience. A video translator can also play a crucial role by translating video content into different languages, making it accessible to a broader audience.
On YouTube, you can place your ad in any of the videos irrespective of the topic, but that wouldn’t bring any desired result as users may skip the ad after a few seconds to see the video they opted for. If the product is a new sports shoe, it makes sense to put it before a sports event video, aerobics or fitness video, or a video on jogging. Ads for ergonomically designed chairs that can free you from back pain can be put before videos examining back pain’s health aspects. Ads for jazz or drum training can be put before albums that feature Western music or rock music as the audience is most likely to have people who are interested in learning new musical instruments.
Targeting is another way of reducing ad spend and getting a better return on investment (ROI). One way of narrowing down the target is to select the campaign to be seen by those who like the FB page.
3. Content should be appealing, not look like an Ad
People are already bombarded with mass media advertisements through print and electronic media (Television and Radio). Hence it makes sense to put emphasis on what content must go into video ads. One of the tested methods of attracting the audience is asking: Are you looking for an affordable home? Is hair fall making you scary? Or is back pain torture for you?
Question headlines always evoke reader interest in newspapers and magazines. Likewise, questions may help create curiosity in the mind of the consumer. Humor, wit, fun, and animation can make the video interesting and likely to get shared more. Moreover, video ads need not appear like an advertisement pushing a brand or product hard, according to Neil Patel, a content and social media marketing specialist. For a mosquito repellent ad, it could be an animation of two mosquitoes talking to each other and how they were carried away by fogging on the street but landing up in a reception place full of people to quench their bloodthirst.
One of the biggest success stories in the video marketing business is Unilever’s Dove soap campaign which attracted 114 million views on YouTube. It was done in 25 languages and reached 110 nations. The campaign had its fair share of critics as it tried to change the perception of women about themselves.
Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches showed that women often perceive themselves poorly, as seen in a trained FBI artist’s portraits. This campaign won the Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes Lions.
Go Pro’s Fireman Saves Kitten was a video featuring unedited rushes of firefighter Cory Kalnick rescuing an unconscious cat. He filmed it using GoPro’s HD Hero 3 camera tied to his helmet. The video attracted 1.5 million views on YouTube. There was no direct promotion of GoPro’s high-definition personal camera, but the human interest generated by the unedited video film was enough to catapult the brand to greater heights.
Recommended courses
4. Know the technical or get professional help
One disadvantage of video advertising is that you may be unable to do it alone. However, tech-savvy content and marketing people can use some free tools such as Videohance or Splice for editing videos. You can add photos and use effects such as wipes, slow motion, cuts, etc. On Facebook, you can use the Power Editor to make headlines and descriptions for the ad, providing additional, special, attention-grabbing characters.
Suppose your video involves voice, animation, and text matter and involves actors and shooting in different locales. In that case, getting help from freelance videographers and the post-production team is better. Your job should be restricted to the script and dialogues.
According to Julia Jornsay-Silverberg, social media marketing consultant, if the marketer or a senior company representative appears in the video, there should be a proper introduction and establishment of credibility by letting them know more about you and your functional role in the organization.
Whether you have done the video or outsourced the work, it should be of good quality, free of blurriness, with good camera focuses suitable for the theme, have good audio recording quality so that speech and music are clear, with no background sounds or disturbance, and adequate lighting.
5. How to share videos
Until now, the common practice was to first upload the video on YouTube by creating a corporate account and sharing its link on Facebook. However, Facebook directly gives top priority to videos in News Feed, so it makes sense to upload videos directly to Facebook so that users need not click on another link to see the video. While YouTube has a loyal following, they restrict free uploads to specified file sizes.
6. How lengthy should your video
The ideal duration of YouTube videos would be 3 minutes, which could be less than a minute or 30 seconds. The success of TV commercials is due to their good storyline, message, slick editing, and music. The challenge in the video marketing business is to remain short, engaging, and appealing to the target audience so they don’t press the ‘Skip’ button before it ends.
7. Music drives emotion
The storyline, camera work, editing, and sound mixing all contribute to the overall impact of a video. According to Neil Patel, visual content is important, but a good background score can make the message powerful. Music should be appropriate but not loud or distracting. Music can enhance the viewing of the video if it vibes with the mood- sadness, happiness, joy, excitement, surprise, and so on.
8. Utility videos for the consumer
Good video marketing business need not be about selling more or creating brand awareness to new consumer groups. Video marketing can educate customers on product usage, such as getting better results with a dishwasher or cooking with a microwave. Customers can provide short endorsements that add value to our video. Such videos do not require post-production help but can be shot with amateur cameramen. Product demos, new product launches, or service tips can be provided effectively through video.
9. Real-life testimonials by customers
Studies show that video testimonials are more effective than text-based testimonials. They should not be more than 1-3 minutes long. Mercedes Benz promotes its service facility by taking videos of the technician doing a quick check-up of the vehicle. The technician utilizes GoPro to inform the diagnosis. The company establishes its credibility by emailing the recorded video to the customer.
10. Create different versions of the same ad
In social media and video advertisements, the charm is targeting, which is impossible with mass media advertising. You can send a video simultaneously to two groups to observe and compare its impact in both scenarios. Sometimes, the visitors in both groups may be the same, but conversion rates may differ. All it needs is to change the description, titles, and some scenes or shots to see the difference in its impact on different target groups. It will ultimately help the marketer develop more effective video campaigns in the future.
Conclusion
Video marketing is gaining popularity, but many marketers have not realized its potential. As YouTube and Facebook promote more video content, the adoption of video marketing is expected to increase. Paid video advertisements tend to bring better results than text overlay. A survey revealed that ‘ video’ in an email subject line helps raise open rates by 19%. According to Andrew Angus, business guru- among call-to-action links in marketing, the play button is now the most powerful in drawing audiences.
The video marketing business phenomenon is gaining momentum, but as of now, no formula can make it a sure winner in the marketplace. It involves a lot of creativity, market research, and understanding the dynamics of social media, and more importantly, it should have a clear Call-to-action strategy. Sometimes it should not appear as an advertisement, as in the case of Dove and GoPro, but help engages and educate. It is exciting, promising, and scalable to any region, language, market, or territory. Realizing and working on its potential sooner will increase your chances of outsmarting the competition.
Recommended Articles
This is a guide to Video Marketing Business. Here we have discussed a brief overview and tips to help marketers to get the best from the video marketing business and improve the video marketing business. You may look at the following articles to learn more –
