Business Buzz - Making You Famous

The art of visual storytelling is seeing a huge rise in popularity. But you must use it correctly for it to be effective. Think about the last time you read a book. What made it good? No matter what medium you are using be it visual, audio, written word or what-have-you they all bring to mind images. Visuals are a powerful tool.  The visual element of today’s society is not something that companies should neglect to plan for. There are several social media platforms dedicated to strictly visual/video elements including Vine, Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest. At the end of April, there was a new app launched called Meerkat, that allows you to live-stream videos on Twitter. Video is the way of the future.

With all this focus on video and visual content, it would seem ridiculous to exclude it from your startup’s marketing strategy. So here are a few tips to help you beef up your video marketing strategy:

1. Clearly identify your goals- Make sure before you start trying to produce any actual video content that you know what you want to accomplish with your video. Knowing what the purpose of your video is before you start trying to figure out the who, what, when, where, why and how will help those things more easily fall in line. The best ideas can sometimes fall short without the proper planning
2. Invest- If you’ve decided to take the plunge into the video world, you might as well make it worth the $$$. Invest in your video, whether it is money for a great crew, outsourcing to a reputable production company, or time spent on a DIY project, make sure that you are investing enough to create a product that will grab attention and reach your goals.
3. You are telling a story!!!- Visual storytelling is just that – STORYTELLING! Try not to forget this and get too “salesy” or infomercial-like in your videos. Remember that telling stories is the best way to connect with your audience. You might have to think outside the box a little, but this is definitely the way to go when your choice is between a sales pitch or creating relationships help to lose weight.
4. Tutorial/Tips- A no-brainer for content if you are stumped is to make a tip or tutorial video. People love being told how to make their life simpler or easy visual instructions when learning something new. These never get old. Remember to give it your own style and make sure it falls in line with your goals.
5. Consumer Generated Content-What could be easier than letting people do all the hard work for you? Using consumer generated content often results in more views and interaction from your audience. It is also a good way for people to learn about your company/product/service. Offer a prize for the best video and see what people come up with. You might just be surprised.
6. Remember to be social- Keep in mind that videos will be shared on social media. You should be sharing them there, and others definitely will, so try and make them social media friendly. If you can make a condensed version that will work, or a teaser for the full version, try sharing those on social media first. Just remember, this is where the videos will end up, no matter where they are first posted. Also remember that users will be viewing your content on tiny screens all over the world so make sure you format it correctly so that is it mobile friendly as well.
7. Take advantage of interactivity- One of the many wonderful things about video content is that it is interactive. People generally must click play to start watching your video, so you’ve already got more action than simply reading or looking at something. Consider having the end of your video lead to a landing page where they are pointed to other relevant and interesting information that they can easily access through links. It doesn’t get any easier than that!
8. Call to action- A call to action should always be part of your marketing plan, so make sure that there is a clear call to action somewhere in the video. We’re not saying how or where just remember to put it in there! Also, going along with our last tip, consider making the call to action interactive – a clickable link, a customized landing page that works with your overall campaign, a place for comments and reviews, or a coupon code exclusive to viewers are just a few ideas.

Hopefully these tips will help you delve into the world of video marketing because it’s gonna be big! If you’d like some help with getting your video marketing plan ready, contact us!