We are living in the age of the smartphone. Get aboard a bus, stop into a cafe, even just walk down the street and you will see people glued to their phones. After all, why not? Smartphones are a world in your pocket, providing access to your friends, the news and a massive network of non-stop entertainment.
Being able to carry the internet with you wherever you go turns out to be something people really, really like. In fact, it’s predicted that almost three-quarters of people worldwide will access the internet exclusively through their phones by 2025.
So what does that mean for your business’s ads? Well, you can stay ahead of the game by crafting quality video content for smartphones.
It’s a Brave New World for Video Marketing
Even video is smartphone-friendly these days. Social media is such an amazing conduit for brands to get the word out about their products, which is wonderful for digital marketing and brand engagement. After all, over half of marketing professionals worldwide named video marketing as the form with the best ROI (return on investment).
The point is this: using video branded content that stands out to your audience is an incredible way to engage.
Here at our Brisbane brand agency, we utilise video content to its full potential. Below are some of the main things we consider at Soak Creative when we’re brainstorming great brand video content.
1. Optimise your video for mobile
For the creative minds and video marketing agencies looking to bring video branded content to audiences, smartphone-friendly videos are a game-changer. Today, a good video marketing agency can produce short, attractive video content without boundaries.
The best agencies will unleash their creativity through video content that meant to be played on a phone. You’ll have some desktop surfers, but remember that mobile-users come first. They’re always going to be more likely to see your content.
2. Know your audience
Having a great product is only half the battle. If you’re advertising the world’s best roller skates in a retirement home you’re not going to make many sales. The same is true for creating great video branded content. You need to think through exactly who you want to buy your product and interact with your brand. Then, tailor your video branded content to appeal to them.
Doing this makes it far easier to create a storyboard for your brand videos because it narrows down the kind of things you want to include. This, in turn, means that you don’t waste a second of the video branded content making a ‘general’ appeal; every moment can be tailored to your target audience and their interests.
Know what you want to say and who you want to say it to before you launch an ad campaign.
Here’s some tips on how to define your brand’s target audience.
3. Get your video seen in the right places
Pick your platforms. YouTube and Facebook are mainstays, with their huge reach and high rates of sharing. Getting your video branded content onto as many Facebook live feeds as possible is a hugely desirable goal, because this is where a lot of people go looking for something to watch when they’re bored. Make yours the video that breaks their boredom!
Optimising your content’s ‘shareability’ is also a key goal. This means you focus on making the content likely to be shared by a user’s family and friends. Think about what your users are most likely going to want to read or learn about so they’re more likely to pass your content onto their friends.
Advertising across a range of platforms is usually extremely cheap (you can also pay for promotions depending on your budget), so getting your brand’s video content out on multiple platforms is usually recommended. Read more about advertising your brand content on Facebook.
Another great tip is that when using Facebook, publish videos using their video-sharing service rather than sharing a YouTube clip – this will increase the video’s reach tenfold.
4. Set clear goals for your brand
Almost all marketers are aiming for the best ROI, but ask yourself – are you playing a short game or a long game? Adapting the messages in your video branded content to suit your goals is a vital part of your strategy.
5. Go for instant interest
On the subject of the Facebook live feed, capturing your audience’s interest as soon as they see your video pop up is crucial for a good video marketing campaign. Remember that people will often be listlessly scrolling down the feed; that first second or two of the video can decide if someone’s going to check out your brand out or not.
Our Brisbane video marketing agency offers a great service on capturing audience interest. We know how to hook in your target niche immediately with content that sells.
6. Let your product speak for itself
Make sure you’re creative with how you’re advertising – research shows that video adverts with heavy brand inclusion in the first five seconds cause more users to stop watching the video. Furthermore, if you do want the brand to appear early, it’s best to keep it closely linked to the product that the video is focusing on.
7. Choose a snappy title
Having an attention-grabbing video title is also a must. The moment that someone clicks on a video is the time when they have to be invested. A catchy title is one of the best ways to lead your audience to that pivotal moment. Otherwise, they might scroll past your content without even watching the video.
The strength of your video branded content will be what decides if they want to buy from you, but getting that first click is a massive part of the process. It really is your shop window.
8. Make the video!
Yes, of course, it’s the most obvious point, but if you obsess over the planning stages with your video you will delay your launch.
At our brand agency in Brisbane, we know a lot about moving from the preliminary stage to production. You need to decide who’s going to be coming up with the storyboard, and how you’re going to work with that to appeal to your target audience. After that, you need to think about the physical production of the video.
A few key questions:
- Who’s going to be in it?
- Where are you going to shoot?
- What equipment are you going to need?
- Who’s going to edit the video, and how?
- Who will take charge of distributing the video, and monitoring its effectiveness?
Even with very short-form video marketing content, a lot of time, money, and hard work goes into making content that will boost your brand. From our Brisbane studio, Soak Creative offers a high-quality service that helps our clients every step of the way; our video marketing agency offers a comprehensive production service so your video actually gets made.
If you’re looking to put together attractive, slick video content that will get your brand’s name out there and on your audience’s lips, it’s well worth enlisting professional help. You can take a look at our range of offerings right here.
9. Go live
Using live video as a marketing tool can save you a great deal on costs, and it goes straight to the platform: Facebook and Instagram both have their live-video services. Audiences enjoy the realism, and live video can be a great way to make short, sweet pitches to your target audience.
10. Consider SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is at the core of any good online marketing strategy. A good brand video agency will always understand this. O
ne pro-tip here is making sure that any written content is tailored to rank highly on search engines.
11. Calendar Tyme
The frequency with which you’re going to release your videos is very much dependent on your brand identity and your target audience, but it is always worth taking time to plan out. The order of the release is also a really important point.
You can be quite creative with building up your brand narrative by thinking of your video marketing content as many parts of a bigger whole, rather than isolated events. Some of the most effective marketing campaigns have made great, innovative use of building a narrative across many individual adverts; just think of comparethemeerkat.com.
12. Get the right look, get the right sound
Compare the moods and colour schemes of two popular television adverts: household cleaning products on the one hand, high-end fragrances on the other. One tends to feature light colours and positive, reassuring music. The other tends to colour itself much darker or even monochrome, and uses soft, sensual music to sell its product.
Knowing what visuals are appropriate for certain products is how you reel in an audience. Customers want to use a brand that evokes a feeling in them. When you plan to evoke an emotion through your campaign based on visual design, script, lighting, etc., you’re increasing the odds that customers will seek out your product for a specific feeling.
Our video marketing Brisbane agency can help you decide on a visual scheme and optimise your video branded content for a niche audience. Your choice of music and visual aesthetics will appeal to your audience emotionally, helping them understand why your brand is right for them. Set the mood and co-ordinate your video content to maximise its effectiveness.
Seek Help to Produce High-Quality Content
If you take all this on board and plan out your branded videos every step of the way, you have a great chance of expanding your brand’s reach and capitalising on your viewers’ interest.
The future’s bright, and if you’re looking to create video branded content for your business, get in touch with Soak Creative today.
