15 Tips For Creating Videos Customers Want To Watch
Okay, so as a business owner you’re now fully on board with video marketing. That’s great, but where do you start? After all, you’re not a professional videographer. If you’re going to do this on your own, you need to know where to start.
Creating beautiful, professional quality videos isn’t as difficult as you might think. However, video marketing is as much an art as a science. When creating your videos, keep a few of these tips in mind.
1. Have A Plan
Video marketing isn’t like placing a coupon in the local newspaper. Especially if you are going to be using your video ad in a targeted campaign, you’ll want to define your audience and plan out your video to make sure it appeals to that target.
Ask yourself “who do I want to view this?” and “what would they want to see?” In short, plan your video and decide on the story, emotion, and message you want to convey. Don’t just wing it!
2. Start Off Strong
You’ve got a cluttered news feed; I have a cluttered news feed. Heck, EVERYONE has a cluttered news feed! You’ll want to start off strong and grab the audience’s attention. According to Facebook video marketing statistics, you have about 2-3 seconds to grab the audience’s attention before they scroll past you. So make sure your opening shot is attention-grabbing, interesting, unique, or even shocking.
3. Don’t Get Too Long Winded
You could probably spend all day talking about your company, products, services, etc. You also probably shouldn’t do that. Look at your video ads as the attention-grabber which prompts customers to click through to your website, app, online store, etc.
In most cases with social media video marketing, the best engagement rates come from videos that are a minute or less in length. This means you want to pique interest quickly and leave your audience with no choice but to find out more. There are intriguing ways to tell your story in a 30 second video – it’s an art form that can be learned and perfected with Promo.com!
4. Use Humor
Being funny is one of the most successful ways to get the most out of your video marketing. Laughter is universal. If you can create a funny video that would be amusing to a viewer even if they had no prior interest in your product, you’ll have a better chance at seeing your engagement numbers go up.
5. Test, Test, Test
Figuring out your video marketing sweet spot isn’t always easy. Despite your best efforts, you may find that one of your videos just isn’t doing it. This is why small businesses like yours are creating multiple video ads and testing them against each other.
Create concurrent campaigns and experiment with different videos, wording, or call to action offerings. Which one is working best? Test, test, test until you develop an understanding of what works best for you.
6. Don’t Devote All Your Time To The Product
Of course, any video ad is probably going to feature your product. However, in some cases, you may find your video more engaging if you focus your message more on the emotion, lifestyle, or benefit that the product brings.
Let’s say your company sells coffee. You may find a video is more effective if it shows people enjoying your coffee with friends, smiling as they take a sip, etc. This type of approach can be more engaging than spending 45 seconds simply talking about how good it tastes.
7. Don’t Forget A Strong CTA
Your call to action is the most important part of your video marketing efforts. This is the next step that you want customers to take. If you’ve succeeded in creating a video that customers want to watch and enjoy, they’ll want to know more. This is when you have them right where you want them!
If customers want to take the next step, tell them what that next step is.
8. Use Music
Background music is a great way to increase the perceived quality of the video as well as accent the video’s tone and theme. We can all hum the theme song to Jaws because it’s a classic. What we forget is that movies have music all over them to accent specific scenes and give them depth. It may not be as noticeable as an iconic theme, but you’d definitely notice if movies started removing the background music from their scenes.
9. Include Subtitles or Closed Captioning
Did you know that 85% of Facebook videos are watched while muted? That’s a huge percentage! And it makes sense. After all, we don’t want our bosses to know we’re goofing off when we’re supposed to be finishing up that quarterly report which is already a bit late, but we promise is almost done.
Including subtitles or closed captioning in your video can help not only those who watch videos without sound by choice, but also the hearing impaired. This is also a reminder that your video has to be able to convey your message effectively if the viewer is only watching and not listening.
10. Ask Questions
You’ve got a short time frame to make an impact, so get the audience involved. Asking the audience a question is an effective way to increase engagement. “Do you want to make more money?” “Do you like pizza?” “When was the last time a website helped you save money?” Etc.
Asking a question immediately gets your audience to think of their answer. It also makes a connection between your brand and the answer to that question.
11. Create A Great Title
The title of your video, or the ad copy can really make your video marketing pop. In some cases, it may be the first thing the audience sees before deciding to watch or continue watching. Make sure you convey relevant information or pique interest early.
12. Quality Matters
You don’t need to break the bank to create professional, high-quality videos ads. However, you also don’t want to film your videos on a flip phone either. Quality video marketing production tools are not out of reach for small businesses. You don’t need to hire a professional crew and write a blank check, but you do want to convey a level of quality, success, and professionalism.
13. Don’t Sell
Consider the context in which your audience is viewing your video. They’re probably scrolling through Facebook, YouTube or
just casually looking around. They aren’t actively searching for a sales pitch so don’t give them one. Engage them with a fun, quirky, or interesting video that captures their attention without saying “hey, come and buy my stuff because X, Y, Z!”
14. Don’t Forget Your Branding
Part of the reason for any video marketing campaign is generating brand awareness and remaining in the mind of viewers. Your closing shot should include your branding (such as a logo), a call to action, and other relevant information such as your web address.
There’s no use creating a great video ad if you’re going to leave people wondering where it came from!
15. ABC: Always Be Creating
Everyone wants their video to go viral, but the truth is that it’s tough to make this happen. The best viral videos happen organically due to their sheer compelling nature. It’s shocking, it’s hilarious, or it’s incredibly useful.
That doesn’t mean you can’t create great video content, promote it, and watch your engagement rates soar. It does mean that you should Always Be Creating.
Smart businesses know that creating great video content is an ongoing process. Don’t be afraid to take risks, be creative, and try something new every once in a while. The key to getting great results from your video marketing is to consistently create high-quality, professional videos that engage your audience and leave them wanting to find out more.
