The past few years have been marked by turbulence, with businesses scrambling to react to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic impact. However, as the effects of the pandemic slowly decline, now is the time to take a step back and adopt a more proactive approach to content creation, including one of the highest priorities for marketers in 2022: video.
As the effects of the pandemic slowly decline, now is the time to take a step back and adopt a more proactive approach to content.
But with video soon expected to make up 82% of all internet traffic, the market will be saturated with visual storytelling, ranging from highly impactful to completely forgettable. How do you stay ahead of the curve, ensuring your message stands out from the noise? Strategy and long-term planning are just some of the keys to successful video marketing. In the first of this two-part blog series, we’ll look at five ways you can holistically reevaluate and revamp your approach to video marketing. In part two, we’ll explore how to execute your plan with professional production. Follow along to get started on your proactive communications journey.
Step 1: Plan your Content calendar
With 73% of consumers saying they’d prefer to watch a short video when researching a product or service, it’s essential to establish and maintain an active posting calendar. Map out a schedule for when you’re going to publish content—then stick to it. You can figure out the exact content as you get closer, but as we’ll learn in part two of this blog series, high-end video can take several weeks to even months produce, so having a general idea for messaging will help. Plan at least three to six months out for maximum preparedness—a year would be even better.
With 86% of consumers hoping for more videos from their favorite brands, it’s essential to establish and maintain an active posting calendar.
Step 2: Decide what type of content you’re developing
Now that you’ve nailed down a schedule, it’s time to choose what kind of content you’re producing. Your options vary widely, from short video clips and social posts, to longer explainer pieces and client or expert interviews. You could even wow your clients and prospects with an augmented or virtual reality (AR/VR) experience. The type of content largely depends on your intended audience and your goals. If your audience is primarily prospective buyers, your content type might be more formal than a training video for internal staff. If you’re posting externally, thought leadership is always a solid option. It gives you an edge in the market as a visual expert, and it engages current clients with ongoing education.
Step 3: Decide on a targeted goal
Nearly 100% of consumers have watched an explainer video to learn more about a business’s products, but if they have no idea what to do next, you’ve wasted an opportunity.
For videos to convert to sales, include calls to action (CTAs) in all of your content. Decide what action you want the viewer to take after watching—and then ask them to do it. For example, prospects near the top of the sales funnel could be offered links to more thought leadership pieces, while consumers who are ready to purchase could be directed to a product page or case study. Nearly 100% of consumers have watched an explainer video to learn more about a business’s products, but if they have no idea what to do next, you’ve wasted an opportunity. A professional video producer can help ensure your CTAs are incorporated correctly on various video hosting platforms.
Step 4: Figure out your distribution strategy
Where and when you post your video is just as important as what your video is about. You could host videos on your website—and you should, since 62% of people find a landing page with video more interesting than a static image—but that’s not where consumers are actively searching for help. Video hosting services, like YouTube and social media sites, are not only optimized for streaming content, but they’re also where many consumers spend their time. Facebook alone had nearly 2.3 billion users as of January 2022, and other social media platforms aren’t far behind.
Even better: many hosting services allow you to embed the same videos on your own site, combining the benefits of rich media with optimized streaming. And speed matters—nearly 40% of visitors will leave a site after only five seconds of load time, so make sure your website is optimized for video. Beyond websites, you can also use your video links in emails, blogs, and pay-per-click advertisements. With many free external hosting services, distributing your video on an optimized platform is also a no-braine.
Step 5: Schedule content production
You’ve done the pre-planning, and now it’s time to execute—but this critical step shouldn’t be rushed. To ensure you have enough time to produce a high-quality piece of content, work backward from the deadline on your content calendar, adding in extra time in pre-production for longer or more substantial pieces. For example, a longer marquee video will take much more time to produce than a 30-second client testimonial. And if you’re incorporating AR/VR, the pre-production alone can take up to four times longer. When the day of the video shoot arrives, you already should have finalized the script, honed your story, and designed your content supplements.
Outsource Expertise
As videos become more prevalent in the market, customer expectations rise—and so, too does the investment of time and resources it takes to bring high-quality videos to life. Stagedge's team of creative experts takes the pressure off, making production seamless while ensuring your videos get delivered on time and with the intended messaging. Take a look at our creative services offerings, and stay tuned for part two, where we discuss the actual production process.
