As a creative production house, we have seen the amount of video content on social media grow exponentially in the last couple of years. Social media platforms have had to keep up to give the people what they want – snackable and engaging content.
In fact, video campaigns have now become indispensable in order for brands to reach new users and maintain the interest of existing fans. Here are some tips to make your next video campaign successful:
1. Keep it short.
The average consumer’s attention span is now officially one second less than that of a goldfish. You’ve got 8 seconds. Ready, set, go!
2. Optimize for different sizes.
Often times, clients ask us for the same video but in three different sizes. In these cases, it is even more important to be mindful of composition and the treatment of graphics to ensure that each version has sharing power.
3. Know Thy Audience.
A video promoting pharmaceuticals will have a very different tone than one for a fashion brand. Get to know your audience and what resonates with them. This can come through in the tone of music, color palette, the amount of playfulness you bring into your visuals and copy, etc.
4. Tell Your Story
First, define for yourself what benefit you can bring people. Then, treat your audience like real people and communicate that value prop. Sell without being “salesy.”
5. Merge art and commerce.
This is a practice in combining both the left and right sides of the brain. The best marketing ideas come from melding imagination with insights and logic.
6. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth many more.
Use visuals to tell your story with minimal text to appeal to a broad and international audience. Communicating your offering visually, rather than relying on text, allows your potential consumers to see it for themselves rather than take your word for it.
7. Be a tough critic on your footage while editing.
Keep only what is necessary to tell your story.
8. Hit them with the good stuff within the first 3 seconds.
If the audience’s attention is not captured by the first 3 seconds, they likely drop off. Making a good first impression is crucial, and sustaining it throughout your video is just as important.
9. End cards – to have or not to have?
End cards are an opportunity to leave a lasting impact on your viewers, and can rely on graphics to bring in a call-to-action or logo.
10. It pays to use paid media.
With ever-changing algorithms diminishing organic social reach, paid media becomes even more of a critical component in any digital marketing strategy. Boosting your reach with paid is a sure-fire way that the content you’ve worked so hard on will get the audience it deserves.
11. Quality over quantity.
The better your content is, the more likes and shares it gets. And the more likes and shares your content has, the better your SEO will be.
12. Hire a professional.
Save yourself valuable time, energy and frustration. Professionals are much more familiar with best practices and will be able to communicate your business prop in a fresh and dynamic way.
13. Involve the community.
Bringing in influencers from your community to be featured in your content or to collaborate on creating your masterpiece will get you much more reach, since it will reach their communities as well.
14. Stay true to your brand strategy and guidelines, but don’t be afraid to have some fun!
Consistency is important to developing a strong and recognizable brand, and guidelines are great to keep you on track. Challenge yourself to think outside of the box and experiment with how you express your brand.