When it comes to creating content for your business, video has become one of the most powerful mediums for increasing brand awareness and even driving sales. In fact, in 2023, 91% of businesses used video as a marketing tool. So how should you be incorporating marketing video production into your strategy? We share some tips below.

What is Video Marketing?

Marketing to customers through video production usually entails filming, editing and sharing videos on various digital platforms to promote a business. Key video styles include:

• Brand videos (putting faces to names, and introducing or showcasing to customers what it is you do)
• Customer testimonials/case studies (to show how your product or service can add value to their business, as free advice to your current customers, or to build your authority)
• How a product is made (a great concept for businesses who have created one-of-a-kind products, or if the process of how your products are made is a key component of your business, such as a philosophy around only using recycled materials or local artisans)
• How-to videos/tutorials (teach your audience something new, provide free, added value for your customers)
• Event videos (great for conferences, round table discussions or weddings if you are an event organiser/caterer)
• Expert interviews (perfect if you want your audience to gain additional insight or see another point-of-view)
• Short-form social videos (think TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels)
• User-generated content (content produced by followers/customers or UGC creators for you to post on your own social media accounts).

 

Why Should Your Business Use Video?

So, why should you invest time and money into marketing video production for your business?

First of all, let’s look at the stats. Here are a few of our favourites:

1. 81% of consumers want to see more short-form videos from businesses and brands in 2024
2. 90% of people say they discover new brands or products on YouTube
3. 82% of people have been convinced to buy a product a service from a video
4. A video on a landing page can increase that page’s conversion rate by up to 80%
5. Video posts on LinkedIn are shared 20 times more frequently than other types of posts

As you can see, consumers like to watch videos. They also engage more with a business that shares videos. Why? Because they’re the best way to grab attention very quickly. Plus, they are easy to digest and can be very entertaining.

Videos are especially useful for websites. Hosting a video on your website’s homepage is a smart way to effectively communicate your business or brand. Your audience will be more inclined to watch the video, and in turn, spend more time on your site, learn more about your business, and hopefully make an inquiry or purchase.

Video is also an extremely shareable form of content. Uploading videos to sites like YouTube and Vimeo that offer an ‘embed’ or ‘link’ function makes it easier for your audience and other companies to share your content on their blog, website and social channels. The more a video is shared, the more potential customers your video will reach.

Best Practices for Marketing Video Production

So, what are the best ways for your business to incorporate marketing video production into your business strategy? Here are some of the best practices:

Know your audience for a particular video

Chances are your entire audience is not going to want to see the same content. They’ll have different products or services in mind, as well as different questions they want answered. It’s important to categorise your audience into personas and target a specific persona for one video.

Write a script before you start filming

A script is a key pre-production step you should take before filming anything. Regardless of whether or not you have the experience of speaking in front of the camera, it is always a good idea to write a script to make sure you don’t forget any important information. It also makes you look more professional and confident in what you’re talking about. If you need to read notes as you go, you can use a teleprompter on a laptop or computer screen in line with the camera. There are lots of free platforms you can use online, like Cueprompter.

Create a storyboard

Just like a video script, creating a storyboard is a necessary pre-production tool to visualise and map out your video before you start filming. This can be as detailed as you like, but ultimately, it should contain a series of basic sketches that represent individual shots for a video. You might want your storyboard to answer questions about your filming location, or what section is spoken to the camera and what is voice over.

Adapt your video to multiple platforms

It’s just as important to make your video mobile-friendly as it is Youtube and website friendly. For any marketing video production project, consider the size and aspect ratio based on the platform.

• Instagram Reels can be up to 90 seconds (we recommend 60 seconds!) and should be uploaded as a vertical video (9:16)
• TikTok videos can be up to 3 minutes when recorded in-app or 10 minutes when uploaded to the app, and should be vertical (9:16)
• A LinkedIn video can be up to 10 minutes long and either uploaded as a 1:2.4 or 2.4:1 ratio.
• The maximum video length on Facebook is 240 minutes, and the best aspect ratios are 9:16 or 16:9.
• A YouTube video can be up to 12 hours long, however, we do recommend to keep it short at around 3 minutes.

Don’t Forget A Call-to-Action

Never leave your viewers hanging at the end of the video. Logically, you are going to want to lead them to either your website, contact information or to take some kind of action like subscribing to your YouTube channel or following you on TikTok. There should always be a place you can direct your viewers once they are done watching your video.

Need Some Marketing Video Production Advice For Your Business?

If you know you would like to get into some marketing video production and you’re not entirely sure where to start or what kind of content to create, we can help! Our in-house photographer and videographer will work with you to build a video strategy for your website and social channels. To find out more, please get in touch!