How To Increase Engagement Through Video Marketing
Videos get far more views and engagement than simple photo posts on social media. In fact, social video generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined. And viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.
Whether it be for YouTube, Instagram reels, Tik Tok videos, or Facebook stories, videos are consumed more than ever before – and they’re effective.
“Video marketing is the key to brand growth and exposure. But as we all know, consistently creating content can seem time consuming and overwhelming. My biggest piece of advice is to make short videos that bring a whole lot of personality. The attention span of the average consumer is shorter than ever so keep content at or around ten seconds,” says Carlye Morgan, Founder and CEO of Chalonne, a company that creates luxury bands for the Apple Watch.
Video Production
“Prepping a content script, filming, editing, posting, description writing – all of it requires significant coordination. To ease this process, write out a detailed standard operating procedure on how you produce video content. If you lose someone, it won’t take your whole production system down,” says Meredith Noble, Co-Founder & CEO of Learn Grant Writing. She advises to start before you’re ready and don’t let perfection get in the way.
It’s important to always plan ahead before you record. “A little bit of planning goes a long way and can save you time, money and probably your sanity,” says Katie Hawkins, Creative Director of Here For Good Films, a full service video production company.
She says planning doesn’t have to be complicated either, and advises that you start with three simple questions:
“Determining the length of the finished video will help put parameters on everything you film. If you are making a 30 second video, you don’t need to talk for five minutes. Knowing what you’re going to say ahead of time, even if you aren’t reading from a script, will help you stay on track when you record and make your edit that much easier and faster,” says Hawkins. “Knowing what you want to see on screen, whether it’s props or text, will determine how much room you need in your frame before you press record.”
Storytelling
Great storytelling is at the heart of every successful video. Stories engage the audience, create buy-in, and are memorable.
It’s critical to know what you want to achieve with your videos prior to going into production. “Be crystal-clear about your purpose. Are you exploring videos to support your sales process, encourage customer reviews, or to broaden your brand reach? Those are three very different situations, with three very different types of videos,” advises Kinsey Wolf, Founder of The Lane Collective, a marketing collective for future-focused startups.
“Don’t try to squeeze everything into one video. A lot can go into making a video, and often organizations or brands want to include as much as they can to get more bang for their buck. But when you present too much, it dilutes your message and your audience gets lost. Having a strong focused message gives you a much better chance that your audience will pay attention and remember what they watched,” says Elena Rue, Creative Director of StoryMine, a women-owned video production agency.
“Always ask why. Every decision you make should be helping the story, not distracting from it. Why am I choosing this clip, this soundbite, this graphic? Why am I talking about or explaining this? Knowing your why can help you hit the target every time. If you can’t answer why, it probably isn’t helping the story and you should try another option,” adds Hawkins.
Relatability
Potential customers need to be able to relate to the content they are consuming – or it simply doesn’t work.
“If your customers can’t relate to what you’re saying, your message won’t stick. Whether it’s through shared pain points, similar motives or sharing mistakes and imperfections your customer needs to be able to see themselves in your story,” says Hawkins.
Emphasizing emotion is of utmost importance. “Emotion is what captures and holds our attention. What is the feeling you want your audience to have? Evaluate all of your video ideas and storyboards on their emotional pull. Make sure this emotion is tied to your brand,” says Wolf.
Rue emphasizes the importance of emotions over information. “One of the great strengths of video is that it can capture emotion in a visceral way. And there’s no better way to get someone engaged than reaching them on an emotional level. This doesn’t always have to be sad — it can also be fun, happy, or silly too. Videos that let our intellectual guard down and remind us what it means to be human are the ones that people connect with and remember.”
“Highlight your humanity. Your audience doesn’t want perfection, they want authenticity. As much as possible, use your real employees and let their personalities – and your company culture – shine,” adds Wolf. “If you’re on a budget, you might want to get started with a tool like Loom for accessible product walk-throughs. If you have a bigger budget, you might go for a full shoot, or even hire creatives to help expand your brand.”
Leveraging Content
Whether you’re creating videos specifically for marketing purposes, or you have video recordings of presentations, talks, or a livestream, all of that content can be repurposed and leveraged for marketing purposes.
“The beauty of the live event program is that you have an enormous amount of engaging content when you finish. This can be clipped down and shared across your socials, emails, and in shoppable content on your website to drive more sales. Dedicate areas on your website to house both clips and full replays while using shorter video formats for emails and social,” says Elizabeth Kressel, Founder & CEO of Lizard Strategy, an e-commerce and live shopping agency.
According to Statista, “Video marketing has become one of the most popular and effective ways of capturing the attention of audiences across the globe.” With the number of digital video viewers worldwide hitting 3.1 billion, and global online video ad spend at $74.6 billion as of September 2021, it’s clear that video marketing is not showing any signs of slowing down.