Making videos that hit the mark
Video content is one of the most engaging forms of media, which is why it now plays a key part in most marketing strategies. Yet we often meet clients that know they need to use video, but can’t pinpoint exactly why or how to do it in the most effective way.
We suggest getting back to basics – looking at your brand or organisation’s positioning, defining your goals and setting your marketing targets are useful first steps when starting your video campaign.
Start at the beginning: your goals
Making a video is an investment, in terms of both time and money, so it makes sense to be clear about what you want to achieve.
Do you want to generate new business leads? Do you want to raise awareness of your brand or project? Are you celebrating a business milestone or success story?
Whatever your reason for commissioning a video, define and agree your goals early on. Then you can work out how to achieve them.
Decide on your strategy
How will you use your video to generate those business leads or brand awareness? You might decide your strategy will be to share your video and reach people on social media channels. If so, knowing which channels are available – and how video works best on each of them – can save you time in the long run.
For example, if you want to reach people on Twitter, you’ll need a video you can divide into 10-30 second edits – short snippets that will make an impact even without sound.
On the other hand, your film may need to stand alone on YouTube or appear as a loop on the background of your homepage.
Knowing how you’ll use your video at the storyboarding stage will streamline the development process so that, by the time we start production, we know the strategy behind how and why the story will be told.
Measure your success
Lastly, but most importantly, decide how you’re going to measure the success of your video. If your goal is to generate business leads, counting the number of new sign-ups to your newsletter might be the way to go. If you want to create conversions, you can look at how many people click the call to action at the end of your video.
If your aim was to increase brand awareness, you can look at how engaged viewers are – how many people watch your film all the way through.
And don’t forget to analyse your social engagement. Look at how your video is received on social media platforms, in terms of true engagement (in the form of clicks, replies, comments, likes, favourites, or +1s) and amplification (retweets, shares, repins, reblogs, revines).
If you want full control over your videos and how they perform, use a designated video hosting and digital marketing platform. These platforms allow you to: see video heat maps that show exactly which parts of the video the viewer watched, skipped, and rewatched; analyse viewing trends, engagement graphs and viewer history tracking; work on video SEO and much more. This information will give you the best insight into your return on investment.
Remain focused
Whatever your goals, clearly defining them at the start of the campaign, being sensible about your strategy and setting realistic targets will keep you focused. We know from experience that good planning and clear direction will help to make your storytelling even more special.