Brands need video content marketing; any marketer can tell you that. And, video marketing needs a strategy to be successful – without one, you’re wasting time and money.
Video content has risen in popularity with audiences everywhere; the use of video on a landing page can increase conversions by 86%. And it’s especially effective with digital marketing, more than 50% of consumers prefer video over other types of content. It’s shown over and over again on any of your social feeds (except Twitter, which we’ll get into later) that videos get more meaningful engagement than any other content.
You already know how effective video can be. Now, we’re
here to tell you how to plan your type of video content to meet your goals and reach your audience.
Plan An
Objective
Part of your video strategy is to decide on an objective: What do you want to accomplish with this video? Once your objective is decided, you can start to think about the type of video you will make.
Depending on your goals, your video will differ in form because different types of video have different effects on your audience.
Three main types of objectives:
Awareness: To entertain your
audience. These are intended to have a broad reach, promoting awareness in a
large capacity.
Engagement: To inspire action from your audience. Done well, these videos will spark a meaningful conversation with your audience, make them stop and think, or cause them to turn around and sign up for your service. The Rush Kappa Sigma video, clearly aimed at University aged students, does exactly that.
Education: To inform your
audience. It could be about your business (a case study) or about your products
in an instructional video. It could also be about something totally unrelated
that grabs their attention.
These
objectives aren’t mutually exclusive. You can decide to educate and engage at
the same time. Once you have your objective in mind, you can start thinking
about the form you’ll be using to deliver that objective.
Types of Video:
Lifestyle
Lifestyle content doesn’t sell your brand or your product, it sells a way of life. Ask yourself, why would someone choose your product or service over another that is similar or identical? Why buy Nike’s instead of Adidas?
They want to purchase the lifestyle they associate with that product, not the product itself.
Lifestyle
marketing is why celebrity endorsements and influencer marketing are so
effective. Besides having trust in another ‘real’ person’s opinion, consumers
want to embody those people.
FI Collection’s Headware Trailer shows models in the same demographic as the brand’s targeted audience wearing their product in a lifestyle video. Greenz, an online cannabis dispensary, also uses lifestyle content for their trailer.
Instructional
Instructional videos are great for building brand credibility and getting your audience to trust you. Bite-sized clips showing people how to cook, how to pack a suitcase, even how to become a ‘true’ citizen of their city all give people the opportunity to learn something. This education lends a certain validity to the business posting the content.
Behind the
Scenes
Behind the scenes (BTS) video content makes your brand relatable. Showing the people behind the company is an effective way of humanizing your brand. People want to work with other people, people trust other people.
It’s simple, really — show the human beings behind your brand and more people will want to work with you. Often, these videos are raw and unedited but don’t necessarily have to be.
Interestingly, Beedie Luminaries used the concept of BTS footage for a part of their Class of 2019 video. They showed what it was like “behind the scenes” of the students receiving their scholarships.
A recording of the phone call the students received when they were told they won the scholarship was played over the video; the results are powerfully emotional.
User-Generated
Content
User-generated content (UGC) is effective in engaging your audience. People love to see their own video content on a brand’s page and often want to be recognized as fans. Your audience will develop a personal relationship with you and your brand.
The ‘Dance the Slurp’ campaign does exactly this. The dance was created to celebrate Slurpee turning 50 in Canada and encourages users to post videos of themselves Dancing the Slurp and tag @SlurpeeCanada.
Storytelling
The
‘storytelling’ method should wind its way throughout all of your content
marketing. Don’t tell your audience
why your product is the best or who your company is, let them see it for
themselves with a story. We took this concept and ran with it for a White Spot
campaign.
White Spot, a 90-year-old BC restaurant chain, wanted to show tell their audience they shopped local for their produce. AntiSocial Media Solutions took this concept and ran with it, creating Meet the Kennebec Potato.
Live
Much like
BTS, Live footage will humanize your brand. This footage is raw and unedited,
showing honestly what is happening at that exact moment. This footage should be
shown on a casual platform, like Instagram Story’s because is essentially a
more intimate, less refined piece — and that’s where it gets its power from.
Event Coverage
Much like Live footage, Event Coverage videos will give your viewer an inside peek into what you and your company are up to. Event Coverage should be edited, however, and can be used on a more permanent platform.
Product
Having a
video to show your product is more dynamic than a photoshoot with a white
background.
Oakwyn Realty’s marketing agency, for example, created an urban brand through lifestyle marketing to reach a younger demographic within the real estate market. Part of this campaign was to create a fashion line, We Are Oakwyn, which was then displayed in a video. You’ll notice the video not only shows off their product but uses music and cuts designed to reach their audience.
As always, plan to publish your video content accordingly. Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram feeds are the perfect place to promote a video you’ve made, longer videos have their place on IGTV and more casual video’s on Stories.
LinkedIn should be used for a serious audience and Twitter traditionally has not been a great platform for video content. Twitter can be used, however, to direct content back to your video platform.
