Humans are visual creatures. In general, if you have to choose between watching a video or reading text, you will probably choose the video. 60% of users will watch video before they read any text if it’s available (Boast.com), and the popularity of YouTube at over 2 billion users is certainly a testament to this as well.
Video was first used for advertising in the 1940s, when a watch company put on a short ad during a sports game. From there, video advertising blossomed into a massive industry, and today it has become a key component of any marketing strategy. But why exactly has it become so popular?
The first reason is that video moves. The human eye is attracted to motion, so video is inherently attention grabbing. When scrolling through social media, a sudden motion may be enough to catch your eye and make you stop, which is key for setting yourself apart in a sea of content.
The second reason is that it stimulates multiple senses at the same time. Combining sight and sound creates an immersive experience that more closely mimics our realities, and this helps to keep our attention. It also takes considerably less mental effort to watch a video than it does to read, and in a culture that increasingly caters to shorter attention spans, this is an important factor.
Another positive aspect of video is that it can be used in a lot of different ways. Short, medium, long, television, Internet, social media, billboards, these are just some of the potential variables that can be manipulated to create an extremely personalized campaign. Furthermore, even though video can be very expensive at the highest levels, a basic but effective video marketing campaign could be created with a small budget. With all of this in mind, there is no reason in today’s world to not incorporate video into your marketing strategy, so how can you get started?
First of all, you need to identify what kind of content your business should be producing, which means identifying your target audience. Are they younger? Then you are probably better off with Internet advertising on streaming services like Hulu or YouTube. Are they older? Then consider TV advertising or Facebook advertising. Once you know the platform and demographic, you can start making decisions about other key variables, namely length, tone, style, and
quality.
Length is obvious, it’s just about how long or short your video is. Longer videos have more potential for providing information and telling a story, but they also have a high potential of losing your audience’s interest. Short videos are much more likely to keep the audience’s attention for the entire time, but they can’t communicate as much information. Both can be effective or ineffective depending on the situation, so just be careful and work to find the balance between being informative and keeping people’s attention.
Tone and style are closely related. Tone describes the attitude of the video, as in how happy, sad, funny, or emotional it is. Style describes the technical characteristics of the video, such as the speed, the music, the editing, etc. The style determines the tone, and the tone plays an important role in how audiences will feel about your brand. Is your brand about comedy? Is it about being serious and emotional? People frequently buy with emotion, not logic, so make sure that your tone fits your brand’s goals.
Finally, there’s quality. Quality is generally determined by what resources you have available to you, but it can also be an important factor in what you are communicating about your business. Think about online video marketers, such as the famous Tai Lopez, who walk around holding their cell phones in front of them, talking for several minutes. There is nothing special about these videos, anyone can make them, and these individuals certainly have the money to hire a top-class video crew, so why don’t they? The reason is that this low budget style feels very personal and human. They are showing that they are normal people just like the rest of us, they don’t need fancy crews to do the talking for them, they can do it themselves. This personal flair makes them seem more genuine and trustworthy, and it helps them to sell their product. So, before you go hiring a crew to make you the highest quality video you can afford, think about your company and the people you are selling to. They make like a high quality video, but it’s just as possible that it will make them feel disconnected with your brand.
Video is a very powerful tool if you use it right, and you don’t have the break the bank to get it. Although there are a lot of variables that make it easy to fail when it comes to developing a strong video strategy, its potential to grow your brand and capture audience attention makes it a key part of modern advertising.
Josh's Journey 