Marketing strategies are ever-changing and this is especially true for the dynamic world of social media, where trends change faster than the blink of an eye. Okay, maybe not that fast, but you get the drift. To keep up with changing trends, businesses have to rework their marketing strategies and identify ways to better engage their customers. One useful technique in this regard is using video as part of your content marketing strategy. You can use videos to generate leads, strengthen your brand image and engage with your customers.
Here are some simple tips on using video marketing as part of your content marketing strategy.
Hit the right notes from the start. When using videos as part of your content remember that you need to engage your viewers right from the start or they can easily move to something more useful or entertaining on the web. Make the beginning truly brilliant and establish the tone of the content within 10 seconds or so and keep the tempo up as you go further. Your video should be such that your viewers not only want to watch it, but would also like to share them on their social accounts.
Keep the length just right. It is important to maintain the right length of the video to engage viewers. No one wants to watch a 40 minute clip of a boring monologue. That said it helps to keep in mind that it is not all about the length of the video, but more importantly about what content you share through it. To identify the right length use the nature of the content as a criterion. For instance, testimonials can be shorter than product demos. Educational content and case studies could be longer.
Use the right type of video. You can create video content in many different ways to cater to different customer interests. Animated videos are markedly different from case studies, but both can be used to convey the intended message. You can use videos to present expert interviews, answer queries, show what goes behind the making of your product, or make illustrations and product demonstrations.
Use the right tone. With the right type of video you also need to use the right tone. Keep the tone compatible with your audience. A formal and serious tone would suit one brand, but might not suit another for which a humorous or informal tone may be more apt. Also, if your video is a presentation or a case study, it doesn’t necessarily need be formal and boring. Let your customer base, your product range and business type dictate the tone of your videos.
Use the web as your content library. With the internet as your source of information, you can use different approaches to identify relevant topics for your videos. Blogs are great sources of information. While you should go through popular blogs for inspiration, don’t underutilize the power of blogs by educators, marketing experts, social media experts, digital marketing companies, content marketing experts and your competition.
You can also utilize content discovery tools to identify topics that are trending or popular with a particular age group. This way you can create more engaging videos helping you attract a greater number of viewers, which in turn increases the exposure your brand receives. There are several useful content discovery tools that you could experiment with.
Try DrumUp to find and customize stories from the web. The tool only requires you to input relevant keywords, after which it will give you a list of suggested posts. This will help you identify some of the most interesting stories associated with a particular keyword and can be used as inspiration for the videos you create.
Use Breakingnews to discover all the latest news in one place.
IceRocket is a search engine for blogs that also lets you tracks trends.
Vellum and Tame.it are tools designed to track news solely on twitter.
Product Hunt curates information about new product launches such as websites and apps.
Try MagPortal to find magazine articles on different business and management topics. You can use these as ideas for your own videos, especially if you own a consulting business.
You can also use music discovery tools like Mixcloud, Musicovery or Soundcloud to select background scores for your videos
There are several other content discovery tools specifically for videos. Use Blinkx to find and share videos or Huzzaz to discover and watch some great videos as per your interests. Try DIYGenius for some creative inspiration or Frequency to collect and watch videos from your favorite websites.