When it comes to keeping visitors on a website, nothing works better than video content. According to information reported in the Associated Press, the average person only has an attention span of 8 seconds (you’re doing good, stay with me), but internet users will watch about 3 minutes of a single internet video on average. This simple statistic shows the value that video content can have for internet and social media marketers. If marketers can hold attention 20 times as long through video content, the potential for marketing is almost limitless. The growing number of low-cost HD digital cameras and easy-to-use editing software makes creating video content a tempting prospect for businesses, but they need to make sure they do it right. Here are 7 tips for creating video content that will build your brand.
Use Your Time Wisely – As was mentioned in the outset, people have short attention spans. And though three minutes is the average amount of time people watch a single video, this also means that marketers have own a little bit of time to grab the audience’s attention before they move on to the next video. With that in mind, planning a 20-minute performance where the best information is at the end is the wrong way to go, since viewership starts to drop after the first 90 seconds. The best length for videos is about a minute or two, with the most important parts in the first five seconds. For content that requires a longer video, try to keep it up under five minutes.
Composition Matters – While no one is expecting marketers to be Steven Spielberg, or even Michael Bay, video content produced for a brand must meet a certain level of professional quality. If a video looks poorly done, that impression will carry over to the brand, and that can cost a business clients and revenue. Make sure the camera is shooting from a steady surface, and that there is good lighting on the subject. The presenter also needs to portray energy and look directly at the camera to give an in-person feel to the presentation. Make sure to choose production levels that are appropriate for the content. If you’re just showing backstage clips, a low-end HD camera should work well enough with proper lighting. But if the clip is a professional business presentation, then the quality of the video should reflect that. Similarly, use microphones for speaking part or at least adjust the audio during the editing process.
Brand Your Video – There is so much content being shared on the internet and social media, that it is often easy for people to forget the source of something they like. For social media marketers, this can be a huge problem. From a marketer’s point of view, it doesn’t matter if a million people liked a video online if they don’t know it was about a particular brand. This is especially true of social media where people often post content from other sites without any attribution. The solution is simple; by including a logo or marketing slogan in the video itself, it ensures that no matter who spreads it, the brand awareness value doesn’t diminish. Be sure to put the branding in a place where it can’t be easily edited out or stamped over.
Optimize Your Video for SEO – When creating videos for internet and social marketing, remember to keep SEO in mind. While fans of an organization will find videos because they were already visiting the organization’s page, other people will find the videos through search functions on the platform (e.g. Facebook or YouTube search) or on traditional search engines. Just like on everything else on the internet, a good title will drive traffic to video content. Also, businesses can use the videos information section to refer traffic back to their site or the main social media page. Embedding videos from YouTube and other sites directly on an organization’s website is also beneficial because other SEO boosting content can be added. This will help the video itself rank higher on SERP.
Use Schema.org Markup for Videos – When posting videos to their own websites, marketers need to be sure they are using a schema.org markup for their videos. Schema.org is the recommended way to describe videos on the web. It’s a collaboration between Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and Yandex that makes it easier for search engines to index videos for search results. Improved search visibility is always good for brand awareness. So even if a business is embedding it’s videos from YouTube, Vimeo, etc., they need to include the schema.org markup. It’s easy enough to use, check out the above link from Google to get the basics.
Create a Campaign – When it comes to producing video content for a brand, the old saying “In for a penny, in for a pound” is appropriate. Once a business finds content that their audience likes, they can greatly increase the reach and exposure of their brand by doing a series of videos with similar themes and styles. Not only will this build loyalty among the audience members, who will check back regularly for new content, each new video will build the brand’s identity.
Distribute Videos to Multiple Channels – Many people only think about YouTube when they think of distributing their video content. YouTube should certainly be a part of a video marketing plan, but it’s by no means the alpha and omega of video sharing websites. Other platforms worth considering are DailyMotion (which has a large US and international following), Yahoo! Video, Blip.tv, and Vimeo. There are also tools like Tubemogul that are let users upload to multiple video platforms at once.
Video marketing can be a very effective tool for businesses, but it must be implemented properly. People like to share video content, but with so much from people to choose from, it’s not enough to simply have a video. Businesses need to ensure their content has a professional look and sound if they want to reach their target audience in a positive way. With a little know how and creativity, marketers can create content that will increase their brand’s exposure to new people and build brand loyalty with current fans. Video may have killed the radio star, but it plays nice with social media.