How to use Video as part of the Marketing Mix

As the sheer amount of online videos rises and rises, innovative video ideas to grab consumer’s attention are becoming more and more sought after. To try and stand out in this saturated marketplace takes a lot of innovation, good networking skills and a little bit of luck.

Attention spans are shortening and consumers are becoming more savvy. Also, users are consuming content and media in many different ways. Short duration content which works well on social media doesn’t necessarily work well on YouTube or video sharing platforms.

A great way to engage with consumers

Video is a classic format that appeals to all audiences. Its also easy to consume compared to reading text on smaller devices; it has a low barrier to entry and is a great way to engage people with stories. Video can offer your business long term effects, including creating content that sticks around for a long time and provides an additional traffic stream. It also helps to develop an audience which cultivates brand awareness and importantly stickiness.

Know your audience

As with all types of marketing, simply creating a marketing promotion and then hoping for the best isn’t going to cut it. You’ll need to understand your audience and work out how they can benefit from your product or service. When you know your audience, you can work out where they hang out online. This will determine the type of video content that you want to produce for them and where to distribute it.

For example, if you’re selling washing machines, your customers may benefit from a demonstration video. Alternatively, if you’re selling DIY tools then your audience may want to watch an explainer video. Knowing your customer and the type of content they want, makes the video content production process a lot easier for you and your organisation.

Types of video content

If you know your audience and what videos they’re looking for, then you’re ready to start filming. If, on the other hand, you’re still looking for ideas then this list of the types of video content may come in useful. - Brand videos - Animations - Educational videos - Documentaries - Explainer videos - 360 degree videos - Video emails - Product videos - Company culture videos - Testimonials - Public service announcements - FAQ videos - Instructions - Thank you videos

Producing video content

Although making a video might seem easy, it’s a lot harder than you may think. Hitting record and then uploading it to YouTube isn’t always the best approach although there are no hard and fast rules to go by when producing video content.

For example, videos can be recorded by professionals, on your phone or via a webcam. Also, they can be a few seconds long to over an hour. For those of you that are camera shy, you can also do voice overs on top of video content, video the computer screen (for explainer videos) or use animation tools.

The two main things to concentrate on are video and audio quality. Make sure that the resolution of your video scales to all screen sizes and that the sound levels are loud and clear.

Innovative video ideas

When you’ve determined what type of video will appeal to your audience, you’re ready to work on the content. We’ve collated a few ideas below to get your creative juices flowing.

Insane Human Curling by Bic

Sometime something will grab your attention because it’s a little different, This does that.

Interactive Electric Guitar Player

Here you can press the different chords on this interactive video and the musician will play in the chosen chord.

Megacoaster: Get Ready For The Drop

This 360 degree video really shows off the thrills and spills of travelling at high speeds on the mega coaster.

Where to host?

Once you have created your video, it’s easy to host and share across social networks. The most popular hosting platform is YouTube (the second most trafficked site on the Internet) with Vimeo coming in second place. These platforms offer editing options too and can be embedded into your website quite easily. Sharing to social networks from these platforms is quite simple to achieve too.

Finally…

And finally, remember that video marketing isn’t just about going viral, it can also help with offsite SEO. There are many different ways you can effectively use video to drive awareness, engagement and sales. And if you can’t make a video yourself, you can always use someone else to do it for you. Whichever way you do it, don’t miss out on this fabulous opportunity for getting your message out there onto the world wide web.