6 Ways to Up Your Content Marketing Game with Video

You may have noticed video dominating sales channels, learn how to boost your content marketing game using video like the pros.

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

It is 2021, and if you have not got a solid video marketing strategy for your business, you could be missing out.

 

Why Should I Invest in Video Marketing?

 

The revolution in video content has been compared to the revolution in written content when Guttenberg invented the printing press.

 

Cheaper access to high-quality cameras and computers that can deal with video editing means that video marketing is at the fingertips of more and more businesses, and it pays to get on board.

 

With video, you can tell your story, your way, and even use your own people! You can give your audience a ‘behind the scenes’ look at your business and show them exactly why your company is the best choice, or your product is the best.

 

Here are six ways you can improve your video marketing efforts easily.

1. Get Your Own Look

 

Here is the thing, video is a creative outlet, and nothing is more creative than a videographer and video editor working together to create videos that shine through as ‘on brand’.

 

When a business has thought about the type of video they want to create and has trusted their creative team to do a good job, you can also tell when a company has tried to squeeze all of the creative life out of their ‘creative’ team too.

 

Use video in a way that speaks to your audience, get your own look by deciding how you want to present.

 

Do you want to have something more formal like a talking heads/interview style, or do you want it fully animated? Have you considered stop motion?

 

There are lots of things that can make your videos on brand, from the right color grading to the right choice of script, and even the use of B-roll.

 

Listen to the professionals and let them guide you.

 

2. Tell Your Own Story (not someone else’s)

 

Video marketing is all about telling a story, but it is vital that you tell your own story, rather than trying to emulate someone else’s story and style.

 

Companies will often look at what their competitors are doing on YouTube and decide to make videos ‘just like that’. While there is something to be said for keeping within your industry and looking for inspiration, you should never try to say and do the same things as your competitors.

 

Have a look for inspiration in similar fields and take a few notes from industries that are the complete opposite of your business, then have a chat with your creative team to see how you can showcase your work and your business to make sure you are getting the most out of your video marketing.

 

3. Create Video for Search as Well As The Audience

 

Did you know that video marketing can be great for SEO (search engine optimization)? 

 

Recent algorithm updates to Google search have put media creations on the same footing as pure text-based content, and featured snippets will now often include video tutorials for answers to simple questions.

 

If you were to Google how to do something, like “how to change a faucet,” you are more than likely going to get a video as your top answer, and if the AI has got it right, you’re likely to be shown the exact part of the video that has the specific answer to your question.

 

With that in mind, create your video for search, with specific sections, chapter markers, and fully checked subtitles to ensure the robots can index your videos properly and quickly.

 

4. Always Include A Call to Action

 

Yes, it is cheesy with YouTubers pitch things such as “don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more videos every week…” but there IS a utility in it.

 

Just as with any content marketing, your audience wants to be told what to do with the piece of content and including a call to action is a great way to get them to do just that.

 

Where should you put your call to action?

 

That is a hotly debated topic, but more research is suggesting that calls to action should go both at the end and as a small call to action in the middle of the video if the video is a bit longer.

 

Your audience’s attention is unlikely to make it right to the end, so it is worth poutine a quick subscribe animation in the middle to give them a little prompt.

 

5. Be Over Enthusiastic on Camera

 

There is every chance that even this week, you have switched a video off on either social media or YouTube because it was just… boring.

 

It is usually not the content that is boring, but the presentation. There are boring topics, and they are not easy to make exciting, but if they are also presented by someone who lacks enthusiasm, which will make the whole thing even worse!

 

One of the best tricks for those new to being on camera is to be over-enthusiastic while you are presenting. 

 

You may often think you are enthusiastic and entertaining, but it does not come across that way on the video. 

 

So, crank it up a notch and start dramatizing just a bit more; your audience will thank you.

 

6. Do not Forget the Subtitles

 

Here is a shocking statistic for you: there are over 8 billion hours of video content consumed on Facebook alone every single day. 

 

Even more shocking: as much as 85% of that content is watched without sound.

 

Sure, you have spent the last hour finding the perfect piece of music to accompany every video you create, but you need to know that most of your audience will not watch it.

 

This is where subtitles and captions come into their own.

 

You need to add burnt-on captions to all of your social media videos (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, etc.) and upload subtitles to all of your YouTube videos so that your users have a choice.

 

The bonus with YouTube closed captions is that they can be auto translated by your users to suit any language too!