Using Video as marketing methodThe post is available in a PDF
here.
Video is one of the best ways to market your product. According a various research companies, including Forrester’s Research, the video is the best and most efficient way to deliver your product vision to your audience. Since the video provides text, visual effects, speech and music for background, it is savvier for the general user than reading a plain text, even if there was a picture thrown here or there.
Besides, the general user understands the service or product that you are selling much easier when you show him how it works. Why the user prefers to watch then read – remember when you were at the university, and reading all the heavy books? Sometimes you had to re-read some of the chapters – it takes time, you get tired… Well, if you watched a video on YouTube how a particular process is done, then it becomes easier for you to reproduce it since you remember most of the events easier with visual memory than trying to remember something on “theory”.
Videos might have other benefits – promote your brand on Social Media, or use them as video tutorials within the company. However, mind that the content of your Social Media Video MUST not show a direct sale, but rather engage potential customers with your brand – for example, you might show a typical situation in your office, and show a sneak peak on some of the upcoming products, just enough to tease your competitors and customers.
Let’s take for example a student who starts a traineeship in your company and asks how a particular task is done – for example, how to integrate Google Analytics with the new web site that your company is preparing. What you do? You can either send him to read the help, which will take time, or you can sit together, and show how it is done, then ask him to repeat it. OK, this is time consuming – in this case, you can prepare a video tutorial showing how this particular task is done, then this video can be reused for future employees.
What makes your video successfulAccording to the heavy books from the university… damn I hate ‘em, the success is an integral with a function of a few parameters:
Good video material = 50% C + 15% W + 15% P + 20% P
50% contentNowadays everyone is making video, but what they don’t do is to provide value and quality. Most companies do not realize that their short movies are closed right after the first 30 seconds of watching. Why? Because they just throw some plain and dry facts and people fell asleep – people are busy, they do not have time to waste, and if you do not provide them with a value within the first 10-15 seconds, then these customers are lost. To provide value, this can be a practical task applicable for their business.
In addition, diverse a little and add some humorous element in your video. For example, show a party in your office something like: “OK, John shows us we should NOT drink the beer near the server raids. You have to…” People love to laugh – take for example Apple MAC vs. PC ads.
Here is the place to mention, adding a suitable music background. For example, if you are preparing a promo video for a rock concert, you will not set as background a classic music… right?
Any other special effects that will help you to emphasis your brand or service or product – different software packages provide these effects implemented.
15% wordsWords and how you use them. It is nice to create a video that shows how cool and design-efficient is a friction clutch for example, but imagine that your audience consists of several managers that do not event get a word of what you are saying. In addition, a certain language might be more appropriate for your audience – they might prefer a stern language that draws respect, while others might prefer more common language.
Metadata for the video also applies here – this is title, description, author, etc. This data increase the chance your video is found. For example, in a company I used to work, we were presenting one of our products and named it “Building Web Event tracking application”. The result – the video had more hits in its first week of release than any other video that was produced before on the web site.
Add relevant content as well – if you are using a product you are promoting add a tag, explaining that where this product could be found.
15% PackageThis is how your video is presented on the web – Flash, Silverlight, thumbnail, etc. One BIG hint, please, oh for all saint, please DO not exaggerate with the package. That method of “package sells” was during the last century. Yes, it is important but it MUST promote the actual content of the video – this is like PR, provide and promote just what you deliver at the given moment, if the user finds other value, then this is a bonus for your brand.
20% Promotion
OK, now you have a very cool video but you do not know where to promote it… Well get over on twitter, Facebook, etc. and spam for it, blog it in your blogs, relevant group or forum discussions, and most importantly – in your Newsletter and RSS feeder!
Please do not spam – I bet you will get the boot if you are posting a link to your video every day on the same discussion board, or the content of the video is totally irrelevant to what the group, discussion, etc. is about. I bet web marketers will not be interested in my engineering presentations but engineering groups would be… probably. :P
If your video is funny, or provide good enough value, it will be recommended by your viewers to their friends – let’s get viral!
Video for Social Media
So, you are social analytic, content manager, or whatever, and you are wondering why your videos are not working with the social media that you are participating in. Simple question, people cannot answer. Why people login on sites such as Facebook? They stay connected with their friends, watch photos of some crazy party they cannot remember last night, compare results of quizzes, collect some kind of tokens for a super-duper rank in an application. People on other sites have different interests – on LinkedIn people are interested in professional advices, job seeking, etc. Usually their contacts there, even with friends, are purely professional – they do not watch pictures there, or collect tokens.
And here comes the value again – yes, people should find a value. Make your video have a cause, be more social-aligned, i.e. cover a social topic according to your area. For example if your company is donating a partition of the incomes of a certain product for a disease, why not make a movie describing the disease – add statistics, suitable music, etc. and mention at the end that your company is aware of the issue, but do NOT vaunt yourself – no one likes braggers, make it more human and social, because if you are doing it you really DO care.
ConclusionIn summary, use your video with a value. Do not just spam and brag your service, or business. Show as why you or your service is done that way, and how the clients can benefit from it.
If you are stepping into social media, then you should be careful what topics you will cover and how you will align your business with your customers.
Add funny elements, behind the scenes topics, and most importantly – do not mislead your video viewers with title, thumbnail presentation: remember – it is bad for the brand. Choose them according to the REAL content of the video.
