Commentary
Developing A Video Strategy
- by John Fitzgerald , November 12, 2013
Video is the most important element of any heavy content strategy, and for good reason: when done right, one video can convey more information and emotion than a photo or a blog post. Studies have shown that videos keep users on a web page an average of two minutes longer and can increase conversion rates by up to 80%.
But before you hit the record button and yell, “ACTION!” you should take the time to create a video strategy that assess your needs and resources, while also working to complement your existing marketing plan. The answers to the questions below will help you determine the types of videos you will create, the method for distributing the videos and who will ultimately film and edit your videos.
Why Video?
These days, it seems like everyone is creating videos for their business. As the owner of a creative agency, I certainly welcome this trend, but I worry that many businesses are making videos without examining why they want to create videos.
It may seem silly, but doing so will help you determine what types of videos you need to create. If your goal is to increase sales, you may want to create a series of product videos. If your goal is to increase brand recognition, you may want to create high-quality branded documentaries about your company or product. If your ultimate goal is to spark customer engagement across social channels, you may want to focus on short videos that are shot by employees.
What Types of Videos?
The aforementioned product videos and branded documentaries are just two types of videos that you can create. Customer testimonials let your customers speak positively about your brand. Event videos give viewers a front row seat to grand openings, wacky promotions and any other special event you can think of. Anything your business is doing - from unveiling a new menu to having a table at a conference - can be turned into a video.
In addition, you can “create” a video by repurposing existing content. If you have photos from an event, they can be turned into a video slideshow and uploaded to YouTube. On the other end of the production cost spectrum, an existing TV spot can be uploaded to YouTube and cross-posted to Facebook, Twitter and your company website.
Where Will People See Your Videos?
Once your video is finished, you’ll need to distribute it. If you are going to put these videos on Facebook/Twitter, you will want to create many short videos with a relatively low production value. However, if you want your videos to be prominently displayed on your website, you should probably focus on creating fewer videos with a higher production value. In many cases, this will mean hiring a local video production company to script, shoot and edit your videos. Which leads us to...
Who Will Shoot Your Videos?
Who is going to shoot your video? The answer depends on the types of videos you will be creating and, ultimately, your budget. Social media videos don’t require high production values and, therefore, can be filmed on an iPhone by an employee. These types of videos also require little or no editing, but the overall production quality is going to be low. On the other hand, videos that will be used on website landing pages should exhibit higher production values, which usually means bringing in a professional videographer.
Thank you, John - nice post. It's a great reminder to start with setting business goals and objectives, so that the content developed will serve those objectives.
video marketing is to demonstrate the effectiveness of a product or service. Though this should be done sparingly and in an interesting way, physically demonstrating the product or service is the best way to build trust from a consumer.
I agree with all of this but don't forget the obvious.
Your client has probably been doing video marketing for decades but it was called TV advertising.
Take a close look at the history of TV commercials that were very successful for the brand. Don't cut and paste from TV commercials but don't forget to learn from them either.
The best TV commercials generate lots of word of mouth for the brand. Don't dismiss this as old school. There are insights here.
Going forward, try to make video production for TV commercials and for the social video strategy into one big, holistic exercise around strategy, production on tactics. At minimum, the social video guys will get access to more resources and at best, their ideas will lead the process instead being the tail end of the process.
We at Touchstorm would add one key element when considering what type of video content brands should produce. Create video topics that your target audiences are searching for. For example, we helped Betty Crocker understand that their target consumer was looking for instructions on how to make themed children's birthday cakes. So we helped them produce "How to make a princess cake" and "How to make a fire engine cake" videos, prewired to perform well in search--go ahead google those key words and see who dominates the top organic search rankings now. Put simply, your products were created with the consumers needs and wants in mind...so should your video content strategy.