Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
Everyone loves videos.
In the latest CMI study, 84% of marketers said they use video – an 11% increase from the previous year.
Yet executives, managers and others are still clamoring for more video. You've probably been in a meeting where the CEO said the company needs more video. Or you've received a forwarded TikTok link with a note from a sales executive saying, “We should do this.”
But creating more videos because people in your company want them isn't a good enough reason. Well, a request from the CEO might be a good enough reason. But even then, you need a strategy behind your video decisions to get the most value out of them. In CMI's video survey, 60% of marketers say a video strategy would help them get better results.
Bean Porter, manager of brand and content production at Grainger, and A. Lee Judge, co-founder of Content Monsta, recently joined CMI Live to share advice on how marketers should approach video for their brands and offer practical tips for creating high-quality videos.
Watch this video or read on to see the highlights:
Develop a video strategy for your customers
“Always think about the customer first,” advises Bean.
To do this, ask these two questions:
- What motivates an audience to watch a video?
- What should the audience do after watching a video?
By clearly defining your goal and call to action right from the start, you're more likely to create an effective video for viewers and your brand.
For example, to achieve Grainger's brand awareness goal, Bean and her team created “Everyday Heroes,” a video series highlighting various Grainger customers.
However, if the goal was to motivate a viewer to purchase a product, Bean says a five-second YouTube bumper promoting the product and directing viewers to a landing page would make more sense.
Combine customer considerations and brand goals to guide decision making
An audience-focused video strategy naturally leads to a mix of video content, from subject matter to audio.
The length of the video can also vary. Short or long? The answer is up to the audience.
For example, people won't watch a two- to three-minute video about a product. “Make it short. Make it quick. Grab their attention immediately, and you know what you want them to do – click to buy,” advises Bean.
Try longer videos if you want to create an emotional connection, which is often helpful for top-of-the-funnel goals. Bean suggests 12- to 15-second Q&A clips to help a middle-of-the-funnel audience learn more about what your company does.
“There’s a creative way to use different types of videos of different lengths to continue telling the story and move them through that funnel,” Bean says.
You can also use the same video content in different ways. For example, you can publish a two-minute video telling the story of your brand or a client on YouTube and embed it on a landing page.
Then create shorter snippets of them to post on social media to drive traffic to the landing page. You can move the prospect further down the funnel by linking to videos for a specific product from that landing page.
“Tell the whole story so your customers stay engaged with your brand,” says Bean.
Use storytelling to strengthen your human-centered video content
Although length, tone and topic may vary, your videos should always have a human appeal.
“Every brand has a story to tell and every product can have that emotional element,” says Bean.
Let's say you sell hammers. It's not a sexy product. People just pick it up and use it, right? How likely is a demo video of a hammer to captivate an audience?
But if you focus on the person behind the hammer, people will respond, Bean says.
Make a video story about the customer who has the hammer. Did they buy it? Did they pass it down? Who else has used the hammer? What have they used it for? How does the current owner use it? How do they like it?
“You create a human and emotional connection with the audience by using video as a platform,” explains Bean.
Her other ideas for creating videos that engage audiences include:
- Record the sound of a product being created to appeal to an ASMR-oriented audience. (Autonomic sensory meridian response videos are popular because the sounds can trigger tingling sensations in some listeners.)
- Walk through the product's manufacturing process step by step and provide tips on its use and features.
- Follow a day in the life of a product or an employee.
- Conduct a question-and-answer session with a product specialist or customer who uses the product.
- Fly a drone over the building as employees enter for the day and use it for multiple videos.
“There is no shortage of stories,” says Bean.
Create a distribution plan
With so many platforms to distribute your videos, it can be overwhelming to choose from, but Bean recommends focusing on your original strategy—audience.
“You want to meet your customers where they are so they actually engage with the brand and build that relationship over time,” she says. “You don't want to create a video for a platform that you're not getting any revenue for.”
Run a test by publishing the videos on all the platforms your audience will see them on. Take a closer look at the results to really understand which videos are engaging and captivating your audience. See which ones are most likely to elicit responses to your calls to action.
With this data, you can stop publishing on platforms that don't deliver results and focus on those that do.
Tips for producing better videos
Once you've documented your strategy, you and the team can begin production. Bean says Grainger films horizontally so the content is available in full on YouTube. They then edit the content to better suit the audience on vertical platforms.
Lee Judge of Content Monsta offers these additional tips for producing better quality videos that work for your brand and audience:
- Adopt a listening tempo: When you speak to communicate, you need to slow down your pace, even if it doesn't seem slow to you. Take the time to speak clearly and get your point across so the listener can process what you're saying, Lee advises.
- Give energy in front of the camera: When Lee looked back at his early videos, he noticed that he never moved his eyebrows when reading a script. “That's not normal. In a conversation, you get excited, your eyebrows move, and things happen. That was a telltale sign that I wasn't having the right emotions when I was reading.”
Turn on your emotions a little to make you seem more natural. When you're engaged, not only your eyebrows move, but also your hands and even your smile.
- Try disposable shots: If you encounter people who are uncomfortable on camera, schedule an extra take. Lee says his colleague Marc Raco of Content Monsta tells the person it went well, but asks them to do one more. “Forget all the rules. Just be yourself and do one more take,” he tells them. That second take is almost always the one they use. “By that point, he's already trained them. He's already told them how to do certain things, and they've become more relaxed.”
Take time to develop your video plan
If you're going to create videos—and you probably should—then think about it carefully. Develop a strategy for using videos throughout the customer journey.
“You want to create content that is relevant and represents your company well,” Bean says.
Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use code BLOG100 to save $100. Can't attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings of the live event until the end of the year.
HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:
Cover photo by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
