How Creative Videos Can Help You Grab Your Audience
In a World Overwhelmed with Content Marketing...
We’ve arrived in a new era. You know it. We know it. Your audience knows it.
Everyone is wise to the idea that video outperforms almost every other medium when it comes to grabbing the attention of your audience…especially on social media.
But it’s not that simple! Don’t get lost in the woods of flashy production.
Gone are the days of simply publishing any old content to encourage clicks or uploading a flashy video montage to spark some engagement. You have to be both strategic and creative!
When you’re figuring video into your promotional strategy, you need to have a clear understanding of how a video will perform when measured against your chosen KPIs (key performance indicators). A good video is a larger creative investment than an infographic, or even a social media campaign. So you need a crystal-clear action item that the video will address. What will you gain? Is it awareness? Interest in a new product? Lead generation?
The hard truth – for many of you – is this:
All those very earnest 3-minute videos of everyone on your team talking about how great your company is? Or that cool 2-minute video footage of your office building, captured by your cousin with the drone he got for his birthday?
Almost no one is watching.
In the modern world of hyper-aware audiences and short attention spans, if you want to capture the attention of your viewers, then your video must be both useful and entertaining.
Not one of the two. Both! Every single time.
Sound daunting? Well, it sort of is. But there are a few things you can keep in mind.
The 3 'R's
Listen, we’re not saying you can’t make a heartfelt ‘About Us’ video…or that you can’t use that super cool drone footage. But there’s a right way to integrate those content pieces in your strategy.
For example…
- Maybe you’ve got some great talking points in that ‘About Us’ video that address what makes you different. Cut the video down to 30-45 seconds and blast it on social media to help your audience understand what sets you apart!
- Or maybe your business is growing so much that you’ll be moving to a new location in a few months. Save that drone shoot for the new location and give people an entertaining introduction to your new digs!
The best creative videos primarily fall into one of the 3 ‘R’s…
RECOMMEND
Provide some friendly, thoughtful content that informs and assists your audience with their own goals and ambitions.
Remind
Maintain thought leadership that helps your customers make better use of your products and/or services.
Rally
Entertain and amp up your audience with short form content that celebrates and rallies awareness around you and your offerings.
If you’ll notice, only ONE of those creative formats focuses on you and your business. Just like with social media posts and promotional communications in general, follow the rule of “two for them, one for you.”
And NEVER underestimate the value of being funny. Most people can’t do it. So as long as it’s fitting for your style, be as entertaining as you can.
Best Practices for Getting Eyes on Your Videos
When it comes to actually getting your video out there, your focus will primarily be on external platforms…because, to be honest, although it is wise to make your videos accessible on your website, you won’t get many views there.
Social Media
- Post your videos natively on social media…don’t just share the link from YouTube!
- Export your videos in various formats that can reach different segments of your audience…from horizontal formats that can be encountered on the Main Feeds to vertical formats for the Story Scrollers.
- Make sure your socially-posted videos are heavy with humanity…graphic videos and videos void of a human presence won’t perform nearly as well.
YouTube
- Make sure your YouTube channel isn’t just a compilation of videos that are used elsewhere. If you’re going to have a channel, make it worth visiting!
- Use attention-grabbing thumbnails that feature people or objects of interest…and use your view analytics to optimize your thumbnails as your videos evolve!
- Create transcripts of your videos to make them accessible to as much of your audience as possible.
- Use the right keywords in the title and description to “design” your searchability and optimize your video’s usefulness.
Once you’ve integrated these points into your video strategy, you can bet you’ll start seeing positive changes in your audience engagement.
And now that you’re out of the woods, you can turn your attention to the next step in your video marketing strategy…campaigns!
But that’s a different adventure for a different day…