Static banners and ads have been extremely ineffective and their effectiveness continues to decline each year. Most users either ignore static ads or block them using ad blocking software that can be easily installed. According to research, around 30% of all internet users now use ad blockers.
On the other hand, videos get 11 percent more in conversion rates, than static banners. Conversion rates are much more important than traffic. You can have all the traffic in the world, but if users ignore or don’t click the ads, your marketing is a huge waste of money.
That is why video is becoming an extremely potent form of marketing used by companies to grow their brands and their business.
Follow these tips to learn how to create an effective video content strategy to help you maximize your video marketing efforts.
The Proliferation of Video
Video is taking the Internet by storm. 85% of all Internet users in the US watch online videos, but it’s Saudi Arabia that takes the lead. Surveys rank Saudi Arabia as the number one video consumer, with 95% of all Internet users favoring video content.
Here is some more data that illustrates the importance of video content:
- The demand for video content is extending to brands—54% of consumers prefer to learn about the brands they follow via videos rather than from text.
- Video has become a standard marketing tool—video is used as a marketing tool by 87% of marketing teams.
- Video is the preferred content type in social media—a 2018 State of Social Video Marketer Trends report, states that videos play a big part in the purchasing decisions of 73% of consumers.
- Videos encourage visitors to stay longer—users spend 88% more time on a website that features a video.
- Video call-to-action is more effective—people are more likely to respond to a call to action after watching a video.
Types of Video Marketing
You can leverage video for your marketing strategy in several ways. Some of the most effective ways are:
- Long-form—these are videos that are ten minutes or longer. This format is becoming increasingly popular thanks to Instagram’s video offering IGTV. This platform lets Instagram users post videos of up to 10 minutes. Several companies such as General Electric, IBM, and Patagonia, are using this format to create engaging stories.
- Live streaming—live streaming enables you to get the full attention of your customers. You can use this to build brand loyalty and introduce campaigns. Social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram enable you to broadcast live from a smartphone.
- Explainer videos—these videos tell the story of the brand or product. It allows you to explain how your product or service can be useful to customers.
6 Tips to Make Your Video Content Strategy a Success
An effective video strategy improves engagement and conversion rates. Below, you’ll find an overview of expert tips, which you can leverage to improve your video content.
1. Keep your videos short and to the point
When making explainer videos, keep them as short as possible. A concise and interesting video can provide users with information without boring them. Content should be short and to the point, summarizing the key point the viewer needs to know. It is important to include a good hook, as you have less than ten seconds to attract the attention of your viewer. A hook is a quick preview of what is shown in the video.
2. Make sound optional
A large percentage of video is viewed without sound. In light of this, your video should be compelling without the need for audio. Many videos use caption overlays you can follow without the need for sound, which is usually a music background. Typical examples are cooking tutorials just like this one from Tasty:
You can notice the fast pace of the video and how the caption overlays let you follow the recipes.
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Adding subtitles to a video not only is a requirement to provide accessibility for hearing-impaired viewers. Subtitles help your viewers understand the video content in busy or difficult to hear environments.
3. Don’t clog the bandwidth
Video files tend to be heavy because of the large amount of data they include. Large videos tend to upload slowly or stalling while playing. This annoys viewers that soon start looking for another content to watch.
To ensure that all users can see the video, make sure that your video file is small.
Optimize videos to improve performance and decrease load time when posting on social media sites and streaming platforms, as well as different devices and video streamers. Hopefully, more companies will optimize videos for mobile devices in 2020, to meet user’s needs and bandwidth demands.
Compressing video files is essential to ensure your uploading or streaming goes smoothly. Video compression is done using video codecs, a type of software that uses algorithms to compress the video frames. Video codecs eliminate redundant data, reducing the video file size. There are a number of video compression tools available, which you can use to automate the process with minimal coding.
Compression can be lossy or lossless. Lossy compression enables you to compress the video to small sizes, but it affects the quality of the images. In some cases, the resulting low resolution can make the video difficult to watch. Lossless compression compresses the video without affecting the quality, but it doesn’t provide significant size reduction.
4. Focus on the story
If you want viewers to watch your video, you should provide value for them. Videos focused only on selling are likely to be ignored. People love a good story. Think of the Super Bowl ads, for example. The best ads appeal to the emotions of the viewers.
5. Know your target audience
Let’s say your product is a razor. Your video will be different if it’s a razor for men than if it’s a razor for women. Men and women use razors for different purposes. Therefore, you need to target the tone of the video to what resonates with the potential customer. Sometimes, your audience is varied, so the best approach, in this case, is to tackle several angles in the video.
6. Choose the right platform
Just uploading a video to YouTube does not guarantee instant results. You should evaluate which platform is the best channel for reaching your audience. For example, Instagram is a good fit for apparel companies.
Asking customers to tag the brand’s profile, when posting images of themselves wearing the brand’s apparel, can get the company more exposure. On the other hand, instructional videos are more effective on YouTube because they don’t require live streaming. It’s also a platform used for searching content.
What’s Next? Video Projections for 2020
The key to a successful video strategy lies in creating engaging high-quality content that resonates with the user and provides a good experience. Video marketing is becoming more competitive and just like with other marketing channels it will be harder to stand out with your video content. You need to make sure the video content you create provides real value. By learning about your audience, finding out what they crave, understanding what problems they have and focusing on helping them find solutions you’ll be able to create video content that will help you build and grow your business.
Author Bio: Gilad David Maayan is a technology writer who has worked with over 150 technology companies including SAP, Samsung NEXT, NetApp and Imperva, producing technical and thought leadership content that elucidates technical solutions for developers and IT leadership. LinkedIn.
