Video is now easy to add to any marketing campaign.
The most common learning style is visual. And most people prefer video to any other media. It requires less thought and can be done "lazily". As a marketer, it makes sense to cater to the audience.
Video is increasingly placing well in Google search results.
There was a time when creating a video meant thousands of dollars of equipment to shoot and thousands more to edit. Now video equipment is "included" free on such things as a Blackberry, iPhone and a normal cell phone. And editing software is pervasive and easy to use.
One side effect of cheap video cost is it can often be bad video. Just because anyone can do it, does not mean anyone should do it. As marketers we know we need quality.
The goal in video production is acceptably good. The cost to get perfect near TV quality video can be much more than acceptably good but the difference for the audience is small. Many people will watch your video on a small screen (perhaps even a device like a Blackberry). The smaller the screen and lower the resolution, the more forgiving the user will be to the quality. Blow it up to theatre size and imperfections are blatant.
8 Tips that can make video marketing easier:
1 - Spend a bit on a real video camera. A few hundred dollars does the trick. Buy a tripod as well. It is impossible to hold a camera still without one.
2 - Shorter is better. Most people will not even click on a video that says 10 minutes. Optimal length in our time starved, ADD society is 2 minutes. Of course this has the advantage to you. It takes less time to produce a short video.
3 - There is a reason why professionals use expensive lights. Video that is well lit looks better. It can be as simple as turning on all the lights to using cheap construction lights.
4 - Plan the story line. No video will be watched if the story line is poor. Video copy is like any other copy. Make it punchy, active, funny, and interesting to keep people's attention. Remember people always have their finger on their mouse waiting to click off your video. Videos that "go viral" always have a great story. The quality of the story beats the quality of the video any day.
5 - Consider adding music. Music adds to the interest and can add to the flow. Think of most TV and news shows. They all have intro/exit music.
6 - Consider doing a music video. I liked the one Organic Meadow produced. I do not know their production equipment or cost but the outcome was great.
7 - Promote your video in your other marketing. Producing the video is easy. But distribution is key. So cross reference it in your blogs, twitter, print, radio, business cards, signage, email it etc. It is the old story - distribution of marketing is key.
8 - Consider doing educational videos. American Health Journal does a great job of medical videos for example. By naming videos by the educational topic like "back pain", they will get good natural search traffic when people search for that term.
Video is easy and economical and deserves to be a part of any marketing program.
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