PLANNING
The planning phase of creating your video campaign is the next important step in your video marketing strategy. Whether you’re developing one video, or a series of them, taking time in the planning stage will keep you organized and on budget. This process is important whether your video project is scripted or non-scripted. Even a video that is non-scripted needs to convey the key messaging points to the audience. Taking this step will help you determine how to go about achieving that.
MINIMUM QUALITY STANDARDS
Standards are an important part of any business. With video, there are three minimum standards that you need to set when creating your marketing strategy. These include video format, length, and lighting.
VIDEO FORMAT
The most popular video formats are MP4, which are compatible on mobile phones, Windows and Mac computers. MP4 is the most universal video format as it can retain high video quality while having relatively small file sizes. If you want to create something in really high quality or retain it for archive purposes then ask for a prores export.
LENGTH OF VIDEOS
The length of your videos is another important factor for consideration when developing your marketing plan, and really depends on what you are looking to achieve with your video and where it will be distributed.
For example, if you’re looking to create a brand video to introduce audiences to your organisation, we recommend keeping videos short (around 30 to 45 seconds) and try to make it entertaining or rewarding to watch. This makes it easy to share on social media and direct traffic to your landing pages.
If you’re looking to create evergreen content for your website that’s aimed at answering buyer questions, telling a story, or explaining how a product works – longer videos (2 mins) is usually recommended to give your audience a good overview and give you time to effectively communicate your key message.
These values vary depending on the nature of your business, product(s), or service(s), but they’re angles to consider and will influence your brief, script and ultimately your budget.
VIDEO QUALITY
When producing videos for marketing purposes, there are some basics that you should always follow. These include having proper lighting and audio and where possible, shooting in 4K to ensure high video quality. We recommend talking to your production team about how you can get the best production values in your video.
CHOOSING YOUR VIDEO PLATFORMS
There are multiple video platforms where you can upload your marketing videos. Each one has its own purpose and it’s important to choose the right one for your business goals and audience. Some of the most popular video platforms include YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Vimeo.
CHOOSING AN ON-SITE VIDEO PLAYER
The video players that you use on your website can also play a role in video marketing success. In the coming years, these types of tools will become more interactive with options for your viewers to choose from or interact with as they watch your videos. And there is another important reason for including an on-site video player on your website, and you need look no further than YouTube and Amazon for the reason why.
These companies go to great lengths (both financially and from a content-perspective) to keep visitors on their site. Keeping eyeballs on your website is one of the best ways to increase conversions, which ultimately can lead to sales. Where this factors into video marketing is the fact that the average internet user spends 88% more time on a site that contains video than one that does not. Research has also shown that video on a landing page increases conversions by 80%. When you consider that landing pages are directly tied to lead generation, it’s easy to see how important on-site video can be for revenue generation.
