Advantages of Video Marketing

Have you ever thought about how long we look at screens every day? Even just our phones, computers, and smartwatches? Would it surprise you if I said that even before the lockdowns, Americans spend the equivalent of 44 years looking at these devices?

So, then it’s no surprise that games, streaming, social media, and more have kept us entertained and tuned in, but for marketers, this is one of the more influential and useful channels.

The use of video marketing in your strategy doesn’t only elevate your business to the next level but also has become essential to a brand if they want to succeed. Just this year alone, 93% of industry individuals said yes to it being an important part of their strategy. Moreover, 87% had a positive ROI from their videos.

Best Practices

A few things to keep in mind when gearing up to create this type of content. The most important thing is to make sure you have a defined goal set. When you understand what you want to do, and how you want to say it, customers have an easier time understanding. Besides that, remember to offer value in the video and show it fast since you have 8 seconds on average to convince people to continue watching. Lastly, make sure the video works on multiple devices. It needs to be available for mobile, desktop, tablet, etc., to make sure you’re reaching your maximum potential audience.

Two more additional tips: make sure the message isn’t too scripted to where it’s noticeable by the viewer and, if possible, to include user-generated content into your video promotions. This not only helps you have a unique content mix but also shows consumers you are seeing what they are posting, and are actively engaging with them.

Where to Watch

When looking for platforms for video marketing, we turn over to social media. As written previously, Tiktok reigns supreme when it comes to being the most downloaded app. The runner-ups include Facebook/Instagram, Snapchat, and Youtube for the ones with heavy potential for video marketing. Nearly 100 million hours of videos alone are engaged with on Facebook every day, compared to over 1 billion on Youtube, which gives an idea of just how powerful these platforms can be.

 Payable is an Option

All of these platforms have the option to pay for ads on the users’ feeds, including video, so let’s talk a little bit about your options:

• Facebook’s advertising platform is for both Facebook and Instagram in multiple forms while providing tools to build brand awareness, understand what goal is the right goal for you, and provide creative inspiration. Also provided are video guidelines for both Facebook and Instagram. These have information such as file type, caption options, character limits, and can even get a side-by-side comparison with how it’s going to look for consumers!

• Snapchat lets you create video ads from photos, carousel posts, story ads, augmented reality experiences, and even branded filters. When giving marketers multiple avenues to explore, advertisements have the creative freedom to mold into the shape the strategy needs to reach audiences and return positive results. This might be a particularly advantageous platform considering they added 13 million more users last quarter!

• Youtube offers an assortment of different ad placements, such as video discover ads that show up at the top of search results. Another is TrueView in-stream ads, which are the ones that show up before a selected video plays and is skippable. The Non-skippable in-stream ads are the ones that pop up in the middle of whatever the user is watching. Additionally, there are bumpets, that are small 6-second videos users can’t skip. Suffice to say, here in particular you have and options for videos.

Content for Platforms

Videos for marketing attempts can contain whatever creative aspect your business wants to have: music, voice-overs, graphics, b-roll, etc. Content-wise, you have options of being on location, in-studio, animated, and whatnot. As long as the content is a match to the strategy and brand, you can be as creative and strategic as you want. 

The best thing about multiple platforms is that you have the choice of which channel best benefits you and your strategy, and if more than one fits, you can either repurpose the same video or do different versions with the same content, making each unique for the users and followers on those platforms.

Anyone can do it

From large corporations to small mom-and-pop shops, video marketing is advantageous for all business sizes and all industries! Video offers a huge playground for marketers to experiment with, and James Ross will help with each idea you have. With 30+ years of experience, we’ve worked on commercials, social campaigns, brand anthems, and more! Contact us here, or email us at hello@jamesrossadvertising.com and get started on your video marketing today!!