Video content can combine information and entertainment more easily than ever before. The challenges in creating video content that seemed insurmountable less than a dozen years ago have been overcome with developments in technology. The following are seven reasons to invest in video content in 2020.
Make percentages work for you
As of this writing fully two-thirds of employees are working remotely for a portion of the week. 44% are working from home five days a week. The jump in percentages is approximately 17% greater than the numbers pre-pandemic.
The pandemic has shifted the way people think about work. A majority appreciate gaining the time and money normally spent on travel to and from a shared office work site. The leap in the numbers of remote workers has led to changes in the way a company develops a marketing strategy. Online commerce is secured by content and the content that gains customers quickest is in video form.
For example, if you’re producing content for a property management company, you might consider shooting videos about your new virtual tour tools to attract customers in a visual manner.
Optimize Employee Training
Video content saves money. Comprehensive training programs for new hires or re-training are costly. Space, snacks, meals, beverages, and speakers or trainers for even a moderately sized group can cost thousands of dollars and take days to accomplish.
The return on investment (ROI) for training videos is significant and in many cases, the videos can be used, with slight modifications, many times over. As a training tool, you can incorporate visual, aural, verbal, and logical learning styles. You can build in capabilities to monitor the individual achievements of trainees.
To increase the absorption of information, video training can be interactive with the addition of quizzes, multiple-choice questions, and review options. The incorporation of various activities throughout a training video will help employees retain more information.
Enhance Short-form Content
Marketing technologies have come a long way from Burma Shave signs, but the premise remains the same — capture someone’s attention. The growth of media technologies has proven that the world is a small place. Our connectivity has increased but our attention spans have decreased from an average 12 seconds to a mere eight.
This is a small amount of time to work in. Video content is perhaps the most engaging method to convey a product or idea to another person. Over 500 million hours of video are watched daily on YouTube alone. Before you choose the type of video content you will produce, decide what your goal is.
Short-form video content is a way to capture the viewer’s attention quickly. In the space of 15-60 seconds, you can engage the viewer and provide information about where more material, in longer form, can be attained. Think of it like snapping your fingers to get a kid’s attention.
Improve Long-form Content
The speed at which short-form video works to engage a viewer, raise brand awareness, and encourage further exploration is well documented by the marketing industry. Long-form content allows you to become more fully engaged with your target market.
A four-to-ten-minute video gives you time to explain your brand, history, company intentions and generally allows the viewer a more intimate narrative. Long-form video content can be interviews, how-to videos, educational videos, demonstrations, and documentaries.
The platform on which you choose to share long-form video content should be considered with your target audience in mind. You do not have to choose between short or long-form video content; for a comprehensive marketing strategy, consider using both.
Repurpose Written Content
Turn your written content into video content and the percentage of what the viewer remembers increases to 80% as opposed to the 20% remembered after reading. The staggering difference in these numbers is clearly a good reason to commit to video content as a marketing strategy. Do not burn all of your pencils yet.
Quality video content begins with a well-written script. Research competitors and decide what you will be adding to the conversation in your industry. Write an outline of the key items or ideas you want to convey. Keep them in a chronological order and then flesh out the points with a combination of information and anecdotes or reflections.
The goal is to connect the viewer to you or your company on a more personal level — to engage on a human scale. If you are doing a live broadcast or interview, make an outline to allow the conversation to flow naturally and to keep it on point.
Reach the right person
Just like Microsoft’s mail merge program allows you to create a document and personalize it for each recipient, there are platforms like Data Creative that allow you to create personalized videos. The ability to target specific individuals, companies, or groups helps assure that you reach those you intended to share information with. By sending video content through an email system you can track your marketing campaign and utilize the data to further refine your video content.
Find Your Brand Purpose
The purpose of a successful marketing campaign using video content is the same as any other strategy, to become the market leader in your industry. Well over two million searches a day can make content difficult to optimize, let alone stand out as unique. Investing time and money in video content will bring your customers to you, help them feel you value them, and increase awareness of your brand.
A marketing campaign crafted with well-planned video content will help your search engine optimization (SEO) move to the top of the list in organic searches. As Neil Patel says, “If you ever need to hide a dead body, you should place it on the second page of Google search results.”
Optimize, experiment, use collected data, and adapt, and you will have a marketing program that can set you above others in your industry.
Join 100,000+ fellow marketers who advance their skills and knowledge by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.
