Sometimes the most obvious thing is the hardest to implement. We all know that video is a great way to captivate audiences and generate strong engagement. How do we know? Because we all love watching videos!
Facebook is always packed full with Facebook Live streams from people’s phones, little segments from the evening news, and of course the embedded YouTube links to interviews, documentaries, or whatever catches your fancy.
You’ve got a couple of great video platforms at your disposal as well, whether it’s YouTube or Vimeo. Both are great resources for connecting with your audience and giving them some background on your company and it’s line of products or services.
Then there is Instagram, who recently went from being strictly photo-based app to incorporating a live video component. Instagram Stories went viral on August 2nd, 2016, and have become a massive success.
Since Instagram Stories launched, the number of Instagram users quickly peaked over 700 million. Whether it’s because Instagram is owned by Facebook or because they took the best elements of popular video app Snapchat is beside the point.
The point of all this is that video is an exceptional marketing tool. All the data on Facebook video content shows that people are more responsive to video than text or image based marketing, so there really is no question about why it should be used.
The question is how should video be used? How do you represent your brand in an authentic and enticing way through video without trying too hard to be funny or making some generic style advert that would fit right in with 90s television commercials?
While I cannot profess to know the answer, I can put forward some tips for how to use video in your marketing strategy. They include:
Make It Educational – While getting people interested in your product is obviously the goal, sometimes the best way to generate that interest is by educating your customers. Put together a little video highlighting some interesting facts about your products that can be embedded onto your site or Facebook page.
Go Live Sometimes – Customers always love to see the CEO of a company appear on screen to answer questions. It’s certainly not an easy position to be in for CEOs that are a little bit on the shy side, but it sure does bring credibility to your brand if you can go on Facebook Live once and awhile and communicate directly with your customers.
Keep Them Short, Keep Them Informative – The nice thing about making promotional videos is that they should not be long. Two minutes is probably the maximum length you need to get your point across, especially if it’s geared towards answering a specific question.
Interview Industry Experts – Why not do a bi-monthly video feature where your CEO interviews another thought leader in the field? It can be a little fun and games of course – maybe have a silly question portion of the interview – and should not be overly technical or packed with complicated questions. The value of video is to draw viewers in and make them more curious about the people behind the products they buy, so in that regard it’s always important to focus on keeping things personal.
Don’t Post Too Much – Less is more when it comes to video. Oversaturating your audience’s desire for video content will surely happen if the quality of videos begin to slip. There is a fine line between informative videos and bland marketing videos. Always strive for the former if you want to keep your audience engaged.
Try incorporating some of these tips into your video content strategy, and you’ll probably notice a spike in your key social media metrics like engagement, CTR and conversion rates!