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Digital Marketing

Jan 22
Love0

The Promotional Video Is Not Dead!

By Digital Marketing

How Important is Promotional Video Today?

As a busy video marketing agency we’ve noticed that one of the by-products of the perceived power of content marketing and the language that accompanies is that the humble “promotional video” seems to have been left in the dust. Current marketing rhetoric constantly reminds us that “content is king” and that your online marketing video content should be original, and dare I say it, “quirky”. This has created a downward pressure on brands (both large and small) to create video content with the sole aim that it may potentially go “viral”. Unfortunately this pressure can sometimes actually restrict creativity and cloud the basic aim of video marketing.

The Truth About Viral

Let’s face it, we’d all like our video marketing to go “viral” but the truth is that the chances of your video reaching viral levels are pretty much non-existent (although you may not find another digital marketing agency prepared to admit this!). No matter how clever you think it is.

300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute and over the course of 12 months only a handful of the videos uploaded will go viral. But this should not deter you from producing video content as a way to market your business or service. You’re potential customers don’t care of your video has 10 or 10 million views, they simply need it to fulfil their own needs and answer some obvious questions.

video marketing agency

The History of Promotional Video

That’s where our friend the good old fashioned “promotional video” comes into play. Over the years promotional video and corporate video had something of an image problem. Anyone who has in the past been tortured by having to sit through a company’s latest promotional VHS offering (usually featuring one of the least charismatic staff members they could possibly find) will know what I’m talking about here.

When VHS was at its height countless companies and organisations hired production companies to produce promotional, marketing and training films which were distributed on VHS to help them deliver there message. For the most part these films were terrible, over long, dull and offered with the choice, many viewers would rather set fire to their socks than sit through them.

So “corporate video” and “promotional video” were previously pretty dirty words to modern marketing experts. However 2 things happened that changed all this. Firstly as the web emerged and slowly increased its bandwidth capabilities we were able to watch video online at ever increasing quality levels. The rise of youtube is testament to how consumers grew their love of this medium and its delivery method and confirmed online video as one of their preferred methods to consume information and entertainment.

The second thing that impacted was the advances made in digital video production which put the power a skill base to produce, direct and edit great video content into the hands of an army of new professionals. This was essentially the birth of the video marketing agency, and produced a new breed of marketing experts who had innovative and creative ideas as to how it could be used to market businesses. We should also add to this that the explosion in social media usage provided additional advantages to businesses such as easy sharable content.

video marketing agency

Promotional Video’s True Objective

But to return to my original point, it would be unrealistic to suggest that the power, budget and opportunity for every single business, large or small to produce potentially viral content is within grasp. It simply isn’t.

But once again the key here is that your customers don’t care if your video goes viral. Both the brand and the customer simply need it to perform one simple task, that is to introduce (or “promote”) the brand efficiently. Any video content that’s primary purpose is to raise awareness of your produce or service is essentially a promotional video. Yes, it’s much cooler to call it video marketing or content marketing but basically its video intended to promote. All that’s different is the language.

So you shouldn’t get too worried about whether to produce inbound marketing, digital marketing, viral marketing or whatever people are calling it this week. Just worry about getting the content right for your customers. You don’t even need to be super creative, incredibly cool or cleverly original with the video you produce. In fact we see many examples of brands trying too hard to produce “cool” video marketing where we’re left wondering exactly what the product–or the point–is?

At the end of the day here’s some cold hard facts.

You sell a product or service.

New customers search for that product or service online.

These customers will be looking for answers to questions

Ensure that whatever kind of promotional video you produce tells them that you supply what they are looking for and answers their questions and you’ve nailed it. And hopefully you’ll see your sales reflect this. Promotional video, video marketing, content marketing have simple aims and simple methods. So stop worrying about the hype and simply give your customers what they need. 

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 19
Love0

How can business video marketing drive sales?

By Digital Marketing

Business video marketing is a powerful tool.

When done well it can drive awareness, visibility and have a positive impact on sales. However at the heart of effective video marketing is engagement. It’s purpose is to provoke an emotional connection or response from the viewer (or customer), and provide a persuasive message about your product or service in a credible way.

But it’s useful when producing business video marketing to really understand why (and more importantly how) this works so that we can produce effective material.

I recently read a stat that proclaimed: “1 minute of video is worth 1.8 million words” – Forrester’s Research

Pretty bold stuff eh?

Now whatever you make of that stat it does offer some interesting food for thought about engagement and communication. Whether the stat is bang on, or has an element of exaggeration (not that we’d suggest this for a second) what it is essentially demonstrating is how people absorb messages and information.

When reading copy our brain processes the text our eyes see allowing us to consider its meaning. However, it relies on our imagination to take that message and form something that’s not simply a one dimensional message.

business video marketing

The power of business video marketing

The power of video lies in its ability to present visual and audible information that fuse to create a multi-dimensional sensory experience that can often be overwhelmingly more powerful that mere words alone. Lets take the humble “promotional corporate video” as an example to examine this closer.

Many of the usual elements that you will encounter in a typical promo video are strong tools when used alone (ie, action footage, music, people speaking to us etc). But when combined together they form something that’s much more irresistible. Video marketing combines people, words, thoughts, footage, emotions, stories and music to engage the viewer in a wider sensory experience that involves their eyes, ears, emotions and beliefs. We retain information from good video material because it involves these senses (ie sound and sight) in a way that triggers emotions. These sense driven emotions can be strong enough to override what we already think and it’s this alone that allows video marketing to communicate in an engaging and convincing way.

Ask a random selection of friends for their favourite lines from a film. I’d expect them all to have at least one or maybe dozens of lines that instantly spring to mind.

Now ask the same group of people for their favourite line from a book.

I’m prepared to bet that you will receive significantly fewer answers. Not because books are in any way a lesser art form to film, but because we absorb and retain information delivered through the medium of video quicker and easier.

business video marketing

Real World

Lets take a possible client brief and see how this actually works in the real world. A client has asked us to produce a piece of business video marketing that has a primary message of:

“We are a company who care.”

Now lets first estimate how many words of web copy or print copy we would need to effectively and convincingly convey this message. People are hard to spin these days and we would need to present a pretty convincing case possibly including testimonial text from existing clients, backed up with several paragraphs of copy to re-enforce this message of caring.

Now lets try to convey this same message through business video marketing.

There’s an old saying that “people buy people” and this is still true in today’s digital age. Just a couple of seconds of genuinely convincing footage showing a smart looking company employee warmly engaging with a customer tells us a great deal. We don’t even need to hear what they are saying. The power of sight and our trust of film is such that if the footage looks genuine, then we will accept it as being the truth and the message of “we care” may be instantly conveyed.

But lets not stop there.

Lets also imagine that we hear a voiceover talking to us as we are seeing the footage. If cast correctly the voiceover artist will have that warm, caring, (almost matronly) feel to their voice that we may associate with our parents, a favourite teacher or someone who has shown us real care in our own lives.

Again, we may only need to hear this voiceover deliver one or two words to instantly accept their warmth and sincerity. So we’re only 2 or 3 seconds into the video and already it has engaged us and effectively communicated the key message in 2 powerful sensory ways.

Now lets add in a gentle musical soundtrack to the background, Again, this needs to be selected well and be sector appropriate but music is one of the most important tools in the video marketing arsenal. Get it right and suddenly the visual, spoken and musical elements fuse and are elevated in their power to deliver a persuasive messages that is memorable, genuine, and long lasting.

This is the power of business video marketing, and this is why it can drive sales in such a credible and persuasive manner.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 19
Love0

The most common b2b video marketing mistakes

By Digital Marketing, Video Production Advice

b2b video marketing – the 10 biggest mistakes

Whether you intend to produce your company’s b2b video marketing in house or through an external production agency there are a few common mistakes that can significantly reduce how effective the final film is. We’ve shared a few below to help you side step some of the biggest pitfalls in video marketing.

Shoot by Committee

Although its good to involve lots of ideas in the initial briefing and conception stage of b2b video marketing when you get to shooting you really need someone to steer the ship. Having someone solely directing the shooting provides the best way of capturing the footage needed within the brief. They should have a firm vision of how they want the shoot to run and in what order. Never has the saying “Too many cooks” been more accurate than when producing video.

Lose Sight of Your Customer

It’s easy to get very excited and carried away when producing b2b video marketing but if there’s one thing to always maintain it’s the viewer (and ultimately customer). Delivering a film that will engage the viewer is your ultimate goal and should take precedent over ever other aspect of the project.

Going For the Latest Thing

If you decided to be very current and forward thinking a few years ago and shot your b2b video marketing in 3D you’ll now be struggling to find anyone who can watch it. There’s always something new and shiny in the world of video but content is always king and has remained so over the years. Tell your story effectively and the sort of camera or fancy gadgets you use won’t really matter.

b2b video marketing

Recording Poor Sound

DO NOT cut corners on the way in which you record sound on your shoot. Capturing great moments on film can be challenging and you don’t want to end your shoot thinking you’ve captured some golden moments only to find in the edit that you can’t hear a word anyone is saying. Use good quality mics or if your budget will stretch to it a dedicated sound operator.

Using Animation When it’s Not Appropriate

Animation is cool. There’s no argument there. However it needs to be brief and sector appropriate. Using the right method to convey your message should take precedent over what’s “cool”. If you do use animation make sure it’s right for your audience, there are so many different styles of animation that it’s easy to alienate the viewer if you don’t get it right. While it can be quirky and often cost effective there’s no substitute for reality if you want to deliver a powerful message.

Trying Too Hard

We’ve said this before but “people buy people”. Peer to peer case studies may not be re-inventing the video marketing wheel but they are very, very effective. Seeing and hearing first hand testimony from existing clients may be all that you need to convince new customers of your worth. Sometimes simplicity is the best route.

Doing Everything Yourself

If you are going to produce your b2b video marketing in house be fully aware of the time required to develop, produce and deliver video effectively. The initial appeal of the apparent cost saving this route may offer could be outweighed by the actual total time and resources required realizing your goal. Worse still you run the risk of the project faltering mid way through and having to then incur additional costs of having an external agency rescue the project.

b2b video marketing

Being Led by Your Own Taste

Whatever you own personal taste in film, being objective about your brief is critical. Understanding the viewer, customer, client or organization should be much further up your list of priorities than your own creative whims.

Not Understanding Your Competition

If you’re product or service needs to sit alongside the Audi’s and Apples of this world then your video production levels should reflect this. Viewers will make a snap judgment call on the quality of what you sell based on the quality of your video marketing. Of course if your brand has more of a local or regional position then you have some latitude in how you present yourself. However if you’re going up against the big boys, you need to ensure you can meet them head on in terms of quality.

Forgetting to Provoke the Viewer

Finally (and probably most importantly) don’t forget that at the end of the day you’re aiming to provoke a reaction or emotion from the viewer. Video marketing should not be a completely passive experience and you need to elicit some kind of emotional response from the viewer. Remember that people encounter online video at least once a day and anything less than memorable will simple wash over them.

Many of these common mistakes will seem fairly obvious but it can be easy to lose sight of them once your production is in full flow. However get them all right and you’ll have something that will push your brand to new heights and ensure you rise above your competitors.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 19
Love1

How Poor b2b Marketing Nearly Cost Me My Business

By Digital Marketing

An Honest Look Into Where I Got my b2b Marketing Wrong

For a long, long time I made some very stupid mistakes when it came to the b2b marketing of my business. In fact if I’m honest it’s a miracle that I still have a business at all. I’m not sure what led me to make such a hash of marketing my company’s services for such a long time, maybe I was too young, not smart enough, lazy or even arrogant about this aspect of business.

My Background

To give you a bit more background – I own a video production company who (today) produce for a wide range of clients based in the UK and internationally. I’d grown my business over 9 years by a combination of luck, hard work and traditional b2b marketing approaches such as Yellow pages listings and a badly ineffective and costly Google campaign. However when the economic downturn hit in 2009 we lost 2 of our biggest clients (which we’d admittedly become reliant on) and I was forced to slash the workforce. The phone wasn’t ringing and we had very few new enquiries. These were dark days. I knew we provided a good service and for a long time I couldn’t work out why we weren’t growing.

However slowly but surely it dawned on me that if no-one else knew how good we were, then we weren’t going to survive.

The dogfight that was the economic downturn provoked such a radical change in my b2b marketing approach and activities that I often tell people that I’ve learnt more about running a business in the last 3 years that I did in the previous 9 years of trading.

Today things are very different for my company.

The way in which my business currently markets itself has been nothing less than a revolution and we are looking forward to a bright future. We have new clients, new projects, and daily new enquiries are the norm.

Now I’m conscious that I don’t come across as too smug here as I’m only writing this to share my experience with other business owner.

Corporate Video Production

So here’s what (I think) I got wrong.

My b2b marketing efforts before the downturn were poor, ineffective and a complete waste of money. There was a small part of me that (arrogantly) believed that because the quality of our work was high, customers would naturally find us. This was a HUGE mistake.

It simply does not matter how good we are at what we do if people/customers either
a) don’t know us.
b) can’t find us.

I came to realize that putting my business in the spotlight and making sure we are visible is critical to growing our business. Getting our work, approach and service in front of prospective new customers has been the essence of our recent transformation from “going out of business company” to what we are today.

So being known and being seen has become as important to our business as the actual work we produce. We allocate time (no matter how busy we are) to achieving this goal every month.

The way in which we have achieved this won’t come as much of a surprise to most marketing experts and in some respects can be simply described as a good old fashioned “marketing mix”. However in addition to getting the established marketing elements right we’ve also embraced digital marketing in all its glory which is where a lot of our new business has come from.

Corporate Video Production

A good old fashioned “Marketing Mix”

Simply throwing loads of cash at Google AdWords creates a world where its only a matter of time before your rivals throw even more cash at AdWords and you become embroiled in a marketing war of attrition. However that’s not to say that AdWords don’t play a part in our b2b marketing today. It’s just that they do not represent our entire marketing activity by a long chalk and we’ve spent time working with experts to ensure that every pound we spend with Google is now finding the right customers.

Now although we’ve turned things around I would by no means claim to be a marketing genius. In fact many of the things we learnt have been through seeking the advice (sometimes free, sometimes paid for) of skillful experts. And since I’m sharing most of what I’ve learnt here for free then you’re essentially party to a good deal!

One of the first things we did was to make sure that every element of our website was optimized so that search engines could find us. This was one aspect where we needed an expert but getting this part right was the building block for all our internal activity.

So we engage in lots of different b2b marketing activity over the course of each month. Alongside a modest AdWords campaign here’s what else we do every month to help drive visibility and ultimately sales.

Social Media and b2b Marketing

We have a regular blog where we share as much of our knowledge and expertise as possible(for free!). We offer advice, guides, and info-graphics from our particular field with the aim of positioning us as experts and creating articles of value that people will freely share (effectively spreading our name around the web).

We have an active Twitter output that helps us promote and share our blog articles. We try to update our other social media often, ie pinterest, youtube, vimeo, etc Hootsuite is great for this. We upload as much video content as possible.

Obviously being a video production company we have lots of material but having some video on your site or social media is very useful. And we ensure that we are listed on online business directories and sites.

Corporate Video Production

But it’s not all digital…

We also engage in some good old fashioned cold calling. But not to sell. Instead to simply say hello, and we attend regional business networking events so that we are seen out and about.

Now all of this may sound like quite a lot of work and something that could distract from the main activities of the business. But my business needed new clients to progress and grow (or back in 2009, to stop us going out of business). We found a way to schedule this b2b marketing activity so that it doesn’t impact on other elements of the business and fits nicely into our working week or month.

If I’m honest I can’t point to one single thing and say, “that single activity is where we’re growing our business”, all I can say is that thankfully, this combined approach saved my business.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 19
Love0

How can I Legally Safeguard My Corporate Video Production?

By Digital Marketing, Video Production Advice

A Guide To Copyright, Royalties and Content Ownership

Producing a programme that will be sold as a dvd/blueray/download or watched on TV presents a set of unique challenges that can often be applied to corporate shooting. In the past we have produced Sports/fitness, Live music dvd content, and comedy content for clients such as Universal pictures and ITV2 and to say that these productions have to be “watertight” is very much an understatement.

TV and DVD

Because these productions are sold as part of a dvd package or broadcast (along with adverts) for commercial gain absolutely everything seen and heard within the programme can legally be considered part of a revenue generating vehicle. What this means in real terms is that anyone and anything featured in the final footage has sign legally binding release forms giving the film maker absolute commercial rights to the footage and audio captured.

This also applies to footage of buildings and land used as either cutaway material or in the background of the picture.  We therefore need to sign off every location we shoot to release the image rights.

Music Publishing

In addition every note of music has to be cleared not only by the record companies who own the (physical) recording, but also by the publishers (and ultimately writers) who own the words/music. Weirdly enough sometimes the band or artist sometimes don’t even come into this!

What I’m aiming to illustrate here is that if you intend to use your film for commercial gain, you need to think carefully about what you want to include and allow enough pre-production budget to obtain the required release agreements.
This applies just as much when producing content for corporate film or promotional video use and is not just applicable to TV. If you’re allowing your company film to be seen online then you are effectively “exhibiting it” and hence you must own exhibition rights to everything featured in it.

legal-safegard

So,

• If you want you film to feature some great interview comments from your customers ensure you get legally binding releases signed by them at the time of shooting.

• If you want to include some footage of your product/service in action make sure you gain permission and release for the location in which it is to be depicted.

• If you’re filming general “wide” shots of your business with customers on site you’ll need to display clear signage informing them that “filming is taking place today”. You also need to ensure that these shots are general wide shots and could not be descried as “featuring” a specific person (ie – no close ups). Any close up (or “featuring”) footage of the public requires their permission and a legal documet signing.

And if you’re planning to use Take That’s latest hit as the soundtrack for your corporate film you better get permission in advance and be prepared to write a 5 figure cheque.

Get it right – before you shoot

However, don’t be put off by all this as it’s not as daunting as it sounds and the public are reasonably familiar with the concept of a “image release form” thanks to the amount of filming that takes place throughout the country.

The upshot of neglecting these aspects is that someone could legally request that you remove your film from the web and not exhibit it anywhere else. This is hardly the sort of thing you need after committing time and money to producing your new corporate video.

At the end of the day, if you’re watertight on this sort of thing you can distribute your film to effectively and freely and without worry.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 19
Love1

Video Marketing for Business – How do you find the right approach?

By Corporate Video Production, Digital Marketing

Video Marketing for Business – The Formats that Work

Producing video marketing for business today is affordable and reachable for any SME. It’s relatively easy to find a reliable and experienced production company and general awareness and knowledge of digital media has grown to such a degree that there’s a greater understanding of process and much more value for money offered within production budgets. However, exactly what kind of film you should produce is sometimes a question that is seldom asked. By simply asking your production agency to create a “corporate film” you could be missing out on creative options that can make you stand out from the crowd. Below we’ll describe some different ideas and production approaches to give you some inspiration when considering your film.

All about the brand! – “Brand Film”

Brand films are more commonly referred to as “corporate films” and are one of the most popular format of video marketing for business. A brand film is a perfect vehicle to express the beliefs, values and goals of your company. As such they are a great way of introducing new customers to your company or launching a business from the ground up. A Brand film is a good opportunity to give your company a voice and a tone that will form the blueprint for the way new customers interpret you and what you stand for.
These films should not be too product/service specific but instead focus on the people behind the product/service as this is where your brands strongest identity should come from. Content wise you should be looking to capture action and visuals that not only show your product but also show the effect it has on your customers.
When done badly this can come across as corny but if done well the mix of stunning visuals and voiceover should establish exactly who you are and what you stand for. A Brand film may wrongly be seen as quite a luxury in terms of your marketing spend but you only have to glance at the online video customer engagement stats to see that is should be seen as an essential.

video marketing for business

Product Videos

As consumers increasingly demand a way to engage with the shopping process online product films have really come into their own. By producing what is effectively a moving brochure page (although it is also SO much more) you’re customers can see and hear exactly why your product/service is perfect for them. A glossy product film can seduce the customer in such a way that they willingly warm to your pitch.
It’s not a “fast sell” or a “patter” but instead its your product/service shown at it’s glorious best in HD beauty. With effective online distribution of the film you are able to bring your shop, office or outlet straight into the comfort of your customers home.

Case Study Videos (client success)

Producing a video that focuses on one (or more) of your customers allows you to present yourself with a pre-packed customer vote of confidence. A Case study film should be told by your customer and will focus on answering questions such as : “Why they chose your product/service initially?”, “How your product/service enhanced their life/business?”, “What was the business transaction experience like?”.
It’s a powerful way of presenting your company through a 3rd party voice and creates an honest and engaging video. As the old saying goes “people like people” and this is especially true when considering the content of your video.

video marketing for business

Staff Story

A similar option may be to tell your story through your staff. This works especially well in a service driven business and puts the personalities of your key assets front and centre within your communications. Staff stories can be produced relatively easily and can sometimes just require a few interviews and some “action footage” to create a great marketing tool.
Editing is key with this type of video as you’ll need to establish the companies message through the quotes/answers captured. However, when produced well a staff story video will win the trust and interest of customers before they’ve set foot in your location.

The Full Monty – “Promotional Video”

Ok, so a well produced promotional video can tick a lot of boxes and work really hard for your company. A beautifully shot and well crafted short film presenting your product or service in an engaging way can provide you with a versatile and engaging way of spreading your message. Sales presentations and events such as trade shows or exhibitions are great outlets for displaying a promo film but the more obvious outlet is the internet which has given businesses of all sizes a wide scope in which to reach new and existing customers (which we’ve talked about at length in other blogs articles).

Effective promotional films can be a mix of many of the elements described above and feature customers, staff, action and brand values all edited together into a snappy and engaging video.

There are no real set formats to a promotional film and they can be produced in many different ways. However the key is that a promotional video should inspire and engage your viewer. Don’t be afraid to be too dramatic and use music, visuals and graphics to ensure your film has an emotional connection with the viewer.

Video Marketing for Business can be extremely powerful when done correctly, so its important to find the right agency or professionals to use. So take time to find the right producer for your brand and look for video production companies who bring a creative spark and real understanding of your customer to the table.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 18
Love0

10 Amazing Video Marketing Statistics Every Business Should Know

By Digital Marketing

Video marketing statistics

Video is the new black! There have been all sorts of interstellar video marketing statistics over the past year. Cisco’s latest research reveals over 50% of all internet traffic is currently video; with over 48 hours of content being uploaded to YouTube alone every minute of the day! So, with that in mind, you should really be getting to grips with a video content strategy for your brand – here are another ten video marketing statistics to give you a reason why;

1000000000
1 billion internet users use YouTube

80
more conversions when a video is featured on a website homepage

10
higher reach when a video is uploaded to Facebook, compared to a photo, embed or text

62
of Google searches return results including a video

80
of consumers say it is important to see a video of how a product works

4
the number of people would prefer to watch a video about a product than read about it

90
of desktop users watch a video online every week; 55% of consumers watch video on their mobile every week

84
of social media users have liked at least one company video in their timeline

157
increase in organic traffic comes from featuring videos on a website

300
of video were uploaded to YouTube in the time it took you to read this post

Sources: Adelie Studios, Animoto, YouTube  To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

Jan 18
Love0

Viral Video Marketing Explained – What is Content Marketing?

By Digital Marketing

A Breakdown of What Content Marketing Actually Is

It’s all about content marketing these days apparently. If you don’t have engaging content online you might as well just pack up and go home. At least that’s what we’re told. But what is great content and how do you create it? Below we’ll breakdown what content marketing actually is and exactly how it works.

What Makes Content and Viral Video Marketing So Great

Great content marketing can take a variety of forms but essentially, it’s a piece of media that you have created with the purpose of promoting your brand. However, it shouldn’t appear overly commercial, simply posting your latest advert/promo won’t really cut it. Content marketing works because it’s a little more subtle than a traditional brash advert and more importantly it’s actively customer driven and distributed.

For this to happen the viewer needs to want to take a partial ownership of the actual content you’ve created, and by then sharing the content the viewer is making a public statement about themselves. For example, a viewer will share funny content to make a statement that they themselves, have a fun nature and a sense of humour. Or the viewer may share informative content to make a statement that they themselves are well informed and knowledgeable.

So great content can be a wonderfully entertaining and informative Blog, an instagram page featuring beautiful or dramatic photos or even an engaging and funny Twitter feed. But what it must ultimately be, is something that your customers relate to and essentially want to be seen relating to.

viral video marketing

How To Produce The Content

The most obvious form of content marketing (and the one which we’re best placed to discuss) is video. Let’s face it, we all love watching great online video content, and as previously mentioned, we don’t just love watching it, we love sharing it, tweeting it, posting it, and commenting on it.

We like saying, “check this out, this is what I’m all about!”

Viral Video Marketing

The drink manufacturer Red Bull is a great example of a company who understand the way viral video marketing works. Their online content features videos of extreme stunts and sports and these are perfect fodder for their target Social media savvy customers to want to share. They simple put the films out there and watch millions of young people worldwide act as brand evangelists and distributors by posting links to these films on their social network. The fact that you rarely see even a glimpse of the actual drink they make in these films only strengthens their actual brand power.

It was not too many years ago that this type of marketing action and re-action would have been an unspoken dream.

Imagine launching an advertising campaign for your company in the early 90’s (ie pre-digital). Let’s say for argument sake that the campaign’s main footprint was in the form of printed adverts in the popular press and magazines. Now lets also imagine that the people (your customers) who saw the printed adverts loved them so much that they instantly made copies of them. Then they went around putting these copies in highly visible places for their peers to see. Then they spent their social time discussing the posters with friends and debating what they liked and disliked about them. The peers who saw the posters also make copies and posted these copies elsewhere, and they also spend time discussing them with their other friends. Quickly the campaign is everywhere, spread freely by the very people who you covert as your customers! It’s perfect.

It’s not hard to see how brands can subtly spread their message in both powerfully and cost effectively ways.

This is the power of great content marketing.

Jan 18
Love1

How Do I Create Effective Marketing Videos for Business?

By Digital Marketing

Marketing Videos for Business Tips Every Video Producer Should Know

One of the most important things missed when companies produce a promotional or corporate video is a good pre-awareness campaign. By generating interest in your film prior to its release you will ensure that its views grow quickly and that the money spent on it works as hard as it can.

So, you know how important marketing videos for business are and you’ve made a promotional video. What next? Do you just stick it on your website and wait for the views to stack up? If you do then you’re missing out on a vital part of your supplier/customer conversation and not giving your new creation the press it deserves! Just because your film doesn’t feature a Hollywood A-lister or a whopping great special effects budget doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it the full marketing treatment. By adopting a similar approach to that of the major Hollywood studios a business can use the film’s physical production process as a marketing tool in itself.

In Production

Start right from the beginning by tweeting/posting the news that you are “in production” on your new corporate or promotional video. You can create a hashtag for the film and start drip feeding small news items about it online. For example you could share news about the script being completed or the casting process.

The actual filming offers a great chance to generate even more collateral that you can share to drive anticipation of your film. People love “Behind the scenes” items so try to do the following once shooting has commenced:

Tweet updates throughout the day.
Take and share photos of the shoot.
Post a blog article about the first day filming.

marketing videos for business

Think Big

All through the process don’t be afraid to think big, this is a key part of all successful marketing videos for business. Don’t assume that the nature of your business is not very interesting/exciting and that no-one will be interested in your film release build up. Whether you’re a plumber or a hotel chain there will be customers out there who WILL be interested in hearing news about your film.

If possible ask your production company to cut a short trailer or snippet from the main film (even if the main film is just 2 mins long you can show a few seconds to whet peoples appetite).

Once the film is finished post it’s release date online (if possible be time specific–ie “See our great new film at 3pm on Friday the 1st!”) and post regular countdown updates in the days prior eg “only 2 days now until our new film goes live!”

These messages tell your audience that you have belief and pride in the film you have produced and the excitement you’ve shown in all your pre-awareness messaging should translate directly into viewer anticipation and interest. More importantly this display of belief and pride will also speak volumes about your product and service, and make a firm statement about your passion to deliver.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

 

Jan 18
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Why is a video marketing strategy so important?

By Digital Marketing

The Key to a Successful Video Marketing Strategy

Whether you like it or not, when people encounter your company (in whatever form) they make conscious and sub conscious judgments straight away that affect their feelings towards you as a company. This judgment will have at its core a basic emotion which is strong enough to influence the customer in both positive and negative ways. For instance the second a customer sees your logo for the first time they may form any one of countless sub-conscious opinions. For example:

“This company is fun”
“This company values quality”
“This company is forward thinking”
“This company is a trendsetter”
etc…

Think about the amount of time major companies spend developing logos. Most companies invest a great deal of time and money into creating a logo that encapsulates their brand and communicates to the customer exactly what their values and strengths are. This a also certainly true of websites, social media content, printed materials and pretty much any form of marketing or comms material you care to mention. If someone hands you a hand written business card you may question how well they would look after the output quality of any goods or services you might buy from them.

The Judgements People Make Based on Film

In the case of film and you video marketing strategy output these instant judgments that the customer is making are even stronger as the delivery medium (film) is one that is not only emotionally powerful, but it’s also a medium that they choose and are very much at home with. Customers absorb information via moving image and film constantly and as such their expertise in forming snap judgments based on watching such material should not be underestimated.

video marketing strategy

When we are approached to produce a video marketing strategy one of the first things we need to establish is where the customers brand needs to sit in terms of their existing and new customers expectations of their quality, values and output.

For example: if you sell luxury cars then your video marketing strategy output should reflect the quality, style and ultimately customer that you are trying to appeal to. This sounds very obvious in this example but it’s something that can easily be lost when discussing production budgets.

So be realistic about how the video you produce will be interpreted by the viewer. Try to imagine they have never encountered your brand before and anticipate what their initial reaction will be. Ultimately, treat your promotional film and video production as you would your company logo and invest time, money and thought into it to get the best possible results and create a positive impression.

To find out more about us and our services, please click here.

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