Create marketing videos that show the best of your brand.
Video content can grab a viewer’s attention or hook your target audience. Learn how to make high-quality video productions that turn watchers into customers.
What is a marketing video?
A marketing video is any video produced by a company in order to acquire potential customers. Customer testimonials, product demonstrations, and new product announcements are tried-and-true types of videos for marketing.
But there is no template or simple formula for a successful video. “A video can be truly anything at all,” says marketer Kelly Woessner. “So step one would be establishing what kind of video we’re going to do. Is it going to be live action? Is it going to be a documentary? Are we going to interview people? If we’re going to involve people and talk to people, then we’re going to need a shooting script. We’re going to need to plan all of that out.”
Marketing videos can tell the story of your company or industry, introduce your small business to LinkedIn connections, give your audience tips on how to use your products or services, and build brand awareness. From new customers to influencers, explore how you can use video to attract and engage different audiences, and how to use video as part of your overall marketing strategy.
Know your audience.
Who is your video for?
Good marketers know who they’re talking to. Video content, like every other piece of marketing content, needs to start with a picture of its target audience. Are they members of a particular industry or the general public? Are they located in a particular city or region? Are they young, old, or members of a particular cultural niche? What’s their income level? Where do they live? What do they like?
Not every message is going to land with every demographic. The more specific you can get, the better you can tailor your message to the people you’re trying to reach.
What do you want your audience to do?
Good marketing content has a clear purpose. Your marketing videos should be designed with a goal in mind.
If it’s a product announcement, direct viewers to a landing page where they can preorder. Videos about your company in general can link to an About or Contact page. Tutorials can link to related content or to landing pages to buy the relevant product.
You should know exactly what kind of information you want your marketing video to give your audience and what they should do with that new information.
Put yourself in the viewer’s shoes.
Viewers likely want to know something about your product, company, or industry — especially if they found your video via a search engine. Unlike video ads, marketing videos usually have to provide value and insight on their own. They usually speak to your audience’s pain points or help them solve a problem. Think about questions your audience has and do the best to answer them.
How to shoot a marketing video.
Planning and practice are key to making a great video and ensuring that you capture your message well. Do as much as possible before you start filming. Nail down a script for narration or voice-over, have an outline or storyboard for the video, and make sure everything works ahead of time. Make sure your goal and message are set so when the camera is rolling, you are confident about the substance of your video and how it will connect with people — and you can ensure the technical aspects of your shoot are set.
“Practice and prepare before the day of the shoot,” says Woessner. “You don’t want to film an entire interview only to later discover your focus was off or the sound was blown out. The more you calibrate and test your equipment, the better.”
Get multiple shots and angles of everything you’re filming. “If you’re interviewing people, get a minimum of two angles, so that you can cut away,” says Woessner.
Multiple angles and takes can be beneficial to give you more raw material to work with. “Get more footage than you need; overshoot,” says David Murdico, a creative director at a video advertising agency. Having a variety of takes for a given scene, and filming it at different angles, will give you more flexibility. Overshooting gives you footage you can cut away to, potential B-roll, and wiggle room during post-production.
Video and content marketing.
Videos don’t just live on their own. You have to weave them into a larger content marketing strategy. After you’ve created your marketing video, you need to decide how video marketing and brand videos fit into your overall marketing efforts.
Search engines look for keywords in video content just like they do in written content. If you want to capture SEO keywords with your video, make sure those keywords are featured prominently and clearly, and are used well. Keep SEO on your mind while you’re writing a script or editing, to make sure your target audience finds your work.
Promote on all channels.
Promote your online videos along with your other digital marketing efforts. Regularly schedule posts to promote them on social networks, and embed videos in relevant blog posts. If your videos have some especially memorable moments, turn those videos into GIFs. As long as the information in a video is up to date, keep getting value out of it.
Regardless of the content of your marketing video, you’ll want to end with a clear call to action, or CTA. A call to action can link to a landing page where your audience can purchase a product or service, or it can lead to another resource, like a white paper, webinar, or case study where they can get more information. Videos are one step in your customer’s marketing journey, so give them a way to get to the next level and, eventually, become loyal customers.
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