Five ways to use video
With the barrier to entry continually falling for video marketing, it has quickly become a far more obtainable communication tool for businesses regardless of their size.
Previously, we’ve looked at the ROI benefits of investing in video marketing. From improving average on-page sessions by 81% to improving consumers intent to purchase by 84%.
We’ve also seen how video marketing is by far consumers favourite marketing medium with an astonishing 66% of people asked preferring it over written content.
But whilst it is easy to know that marketers need to look at investing in video, it’s not always so clear as to how they should invest in it.
So, we decided to explore 5 ways a business can utilise video in their marketing.
Support & how-to videos
Not all video marketing needs to chase high view counts or impressions. In fact, some of the most successful videos from a customer’s point of view, can also sometimes feel a bit every-day.
But videos – and marketing – work best when you consider the customer journey in its entirety. And when you start to think about how video content can benefit the business in different ways.
As mentioned, support and how-to videos aren’t about getting huge views. Instead, they focus on delivering great customer service and saving your team valuable time.
When customers struggle with a product or service, they look towards the provider for help.
Without a doubt, a customer’s first port of call is to look at a website for information. If they can’t find the answer, then it’s likely they will get in direct contact with the provider.
And this is where time is wasted. Customer service teams answering emails and calls with queries that could be addressed in a different and less time-consuming way.
Chances are, within those emails or calls, there are some trends. And that the customer service team are answering the same questions time and time again.
Customers want their questions answered quickly. They want to get on with their day.
Making a customer scroll through and read long guides or waste time sitting on hold will just lead to frustration.
This is where video can help.
Taking those common questions and frustrations, it’s possible to create videos that give those answers. Quickly and succinctly.
Make sure these videos get to the point quickly, with a clear message. Ensure the videos are clearly titled so they can be found by the customer. And have a dedicated area on your website which customers can easily and quickly locate.
This all leads to a better experience for the customer and helps free up customer service teams to concentrate on other tasks
Product demo videos
Who doesn’t like to see what they’re about to buy? Product demo videos are a great way for customers to get a better understanding of a product before they make that purchasing decision.
They’re a great addition to any marketing funnel.
Demo videos can also help to build trust and credibility, as well as adding easy-to-consume detail to surround messages.
Product demo videos need to be carefully drafted though. A video that leads with too much detail might fall at the first hurdle, by losing that essential initial customer engagement. You must hook your audience in first.
For this reason, it is wise for product demo’s to be led by marketing teams rather than product teams.
The focus needs to be clear and concentrate on what the customer actually cares about – their pains and gains.
Fortunately, there’s a huge scope of creative that can be utilised for product videos; animation, presenter-led, 3D, 360 degrees. Even User Generated Content can be repurposed as a product demo.
Brand video
When most marketers start to consider marketing videos, they immediately head to brand videos.
These are videos that are aimed at introducing or raising awareness of brand values and messages to a target audience.
When done right, a brand video will help form an emotional connection with a target audience. It’ll be able to talk directly to them and they’ll be able to instinctively understand the values and morals of a company.
They’re not necessarily there to sell but to set-up the values of the brand through visuals and audio.
Brand videos are one of the most complex video types to create due to the need to portray intangible concepts. They rely on a highly-skilled production team to script, plan and execute them properly. Brand videos need to leave a positive impression on the audience that they will remember and act upon later.
Because of this, they are a hugely valuable video to have in a communications plan.
Induction videos
Wouldn’t it be great if all new employees got consistent information as part of their onboarding?
Induction videos are one of those little-known ways to use video, that can have a big impact on a business.
From the classic health and safety site induction to welcoming new team members into an organisation, induction videos explain information clearly, give a taste of brand and culture, but here’s the key bit: they do it consistently, over and over again.
All new employees get the same information. From a health and safety aspect alone, this is a great way to ensure certain standards are met and to protect a business from a legal perspective.
For fast-moving organisations that regularly onboard new team members, inductions can be a huge time commitment. Investing in induction videos can make the process more efficient as well as consistent and more engaging.
Content videos
One big strategic growth area is content marketing. The process of creating engaging and interesting content tailored directly for a target audience.
Videos fall into this seamlessly.
However, competition is tough. As lots of brands compete in a crowded space, all vying for attention from audiences.
For content videos to work best, a brand needs great insight into its target audience, such as what interests them or what platforms they’re on.
Content videos also need to be culturally aware and have a finger on the pulse of the target market. To be relevant, sometimes marketers need to act fast with content videos so that they are able to get involved with conversations that their audience are having.
The strongest content videos need to be relevant, novel or spectacular to capture the interest of the target audience. Having a solid and close relationship between brand and creative agency working with a clear set of values can be beneficial here.
And sometimes, the video doesn’t even need to be perfectly polished or scripted – just reacted quickly and appropriately.
Take for instance the recent Ocean Spray and the viral skateboarding TikTok.
A simple video of a man, Nathan Apodaca, skateboarding whilst sipping on Ocean Spray with the tunes of Fleetwood Mac, quickly racked up 26 million views.
Ocean Spray jumped on this with a response.
After discovering that Apodaca was skating due to his car being broken, they decided to deliver a brand-new car to him (obviously loaded with cartons of Ocean Spray of course).
They understand their audience and responded appropriately by helping one of their customers and creating some fantastic, emotionally investable, content as a result.
————
Videos consumption has grown rapidly over the years. Accessibility to it has grown too. What used to require exotically expensive productions, can be a lot more affordable now.
One common fact is that video content still needs to be engaging for the audience. In fact, with video marketing becoming so attainable for marketers, and with the increase in competition, getting engagement is becoming ever more difficult.
Approach video marketing with the focus on the customer. What purpose is it going to serve and how best can it work for a business or brand.
As discussed above, sometimes the most valuable videos for a business can have functional purposes in improving the customer experience or inducting new employees.
Ready to get started?
Our team of creatives work together in a wide range of disciplines, meaning we’re able to craft beautifully bespoke creative that will produce results you’ll love!
