If you’re looking to reach your target market in an exciting, engaging way to make your business stand out in the jungle of information that is herded at consumers daily, then video marketing is for you. You might be thinking, what is video marketing? Quite simply it is creating a video to promote and market your brand, product or service.
With companies like Phink Productions specializing in top notch video content, the possibilities are endless; the most creative and simple ideas can seriously pack a punch.
Now you’re probably thinking, why? According to the Guardian, one in three Britons view at least one online video a week; that’s a potential audience of 20 million people. Video has the power to elicit emotion; it’s easily digestible and a growing form of entertainment. Its retention rates can be as high as 80%!
Therefore, failing to incorporate video into your marketing strategy is only at the detriment of yourself. However like anything executed in this day and age, there are people who do it meticulously and others, who well, don’t. These people find themselves missing prime opportunities, wasting precious resources and disappointed. Hence, we are here to help you avoid such outcomes in advising you how to create and market a great video whilst avoiding the common mistakes businesses make when it comes to video marketing.
Firstly, DO YOUR RESEARCH!
This is integral to shaping and creating the message you would like to convey to your audience. Conduct market research, undergo competitive analysis and gather target market insights. Your aim is to create a video that your audience WANTS to see, while creatively delivering your desired message.
The next step is to make this vision come to life. Sure, anyone can make a video, but quality is key and can be the sink or swim factor. Therefore it is advised to partner with a video production company. HINT, this is the next potential money waster! Just like going into any partnership, make sure they can actually meet and exceed your needs; be picky! There is no shame in wanting your video to be exactly how you want it and if the company is failing to do so, it is a waste of time and money on both parts.
So now you know what your consumer wants to see, you have found a great company to create it, but have you remembered to embed your brand in the video? Recalling a video is great, but if the consumer can’t recollect the name of your brand, company, service or product it is considered a waste of money and an overall fail. The fix is to ensure that the audience can identify you within your video. This can simply be achieved through branding with your logo or even your website URL. Another option is calling to action; prompt your audience to visit your website, or give you a call. The aim is to ensure your audience can easily associate your business with your video.
And voila! You have created a video with engaging content, relevant to your consumer that promotes your business. Now the final hurdle is getting the right audience to view it.
This is the most crucial step; creating a great video and failing to reach your audience would be considered the biggest money waster of them all. You would think this would be an obvious and easy task; you wouldn’t place a video promoting beer on the pregnancy advice YouTube channel. Therefore placement is paramount; even if your budget is tight ensure that the video is clear on your website or tactically place your video on pages that are actively visited. In addition share your video! Video is embraced on almost all social media platforms; on your Facebook page prompt people to share and promote your video with or without incentives. Tweet about it, share a short clip of it on your Instagram using the video function, upload it to your YouTube channel; the possibilities are endless.
Video marketing is arguably the most powerful promotional tool since the introduction of the Internet itself. But if you’re going to do it, make sure you do it right!
