Every new year brings around change and one of the resolutions SyncLab Media hears frequently is… I need to find someone to shoot our marketing videos.
The question we ask is..How good do your videos need to be in order to achieve your strategic goals?
There are as many types of videos as there are many ways to produce them. The key for a business is to produce videos they need, without overspending.
Some companies choose to shoot videos themselves and others opt to hire a separate company to handle video production duties. Your goals and resources will ultimately determine which path is best for your company.
Having a video marketing strategy can help clear the fog of exactly what videos your business needs and in what format.
The video marketing strategy usually will result in your business using one, or all, three types of the following videos:
1. Social Media Videos
Videos posted to social media channels like Google+ are a great way to engage your audience viewership. This type of post is considered “heavy content,” because a well produced quality video has more substance than a blog post or a post made on other social networks.
Heavy content provides an opportunity for deeper audience engagement, as well as more branding options. More importantly, heavy content is shared more than text-only content.
Social Media type videos are usually very short — typically 60 seconds or less. They can be videos of a product or an event, or customer testimonials — as long as the video is short, interesting, and relevant to your business. You really can’t go wrong unless you disregard the need for quality production.
Social media videos have a relatively short shelf life — a video posted to Twitter will disappear into the Twitter feed after a few minutes. Even a retweet will only extend the life of the video a few hours or a few days.
Who should shoot it? It stands to reason that if you want to produce a large number of social videos you may want to consider spending the time focusing on quality and improving the longevity of their audiences interest. Lower quality produced videos are less attractive to a growing number of video viewers. Finding a local studio with quality lighting, HD cameras and managed by professionals will help improve the quality of the videos which equates to more viewers which leads to more sales. Doing it yourself is risky business and poorly produced videos will hurt your brand’s image.
2.Video Blogs
Video blogs are another great form of heavy content, and they also make a formulable addition to your social media channels. But video blogs should have a more professional look. Well-produced video blogs usually get distributed beyond your company’s influence. They will be seen in press releases, email newsletters and a video blog section on your website.
More importantly, video blogs typically feature someone whose image is important to the success of a company — the owner, a CEO, founder, or spokesperson. That is why it is very important to make sure the video looks and sounds great.
Additionally, video blogs have a much longer shelf-life than a 60-second video posted on a Facebook page.
Who should shoot it? It’s usually a good idea to hire an outside video marketing company to produce video blogs, unless your staff has the necessary equipment and experience to create professional-quality videos. Alternatively, you might consider hiring a video production consultant to train your staff and help you buy the necessary equipment to create video blogs in-house.
3. Digital Marketing Videos
Digital marketing videos are typically longer than other types of online video, both in terms of running time and shelf life.
They also have higher costs because they incorporate more production elements — interviews, B-roll footage, graphics, photos and music.
Digital marketing videos bring in bigger audiences than smaller niche films.
A good digital marketing video should be one of the first things a potential client or customer sees when they visit your website, or YouTube Channel and it should be periodically reposted on Google+, to remind your existing clients and customers why they use your product or support your brand.
If you need to justify the cost of a well-produced digital marketing video, consider your budget for printed marketing materials. Brochures, flyers, letterhead, business cards, and other types of marketing collateral all need to project a professional image. Your marketing videos should project the same high quality professional image.
Who should shoot it? If you need a well-produced digital marketing video, you should definitely bring in an outside video marketing company. Ultimately, a good video marketing strategy will incorporate two or all three of these types of videos. Likewise, a good video production strategy will combine in studio and on location video shoots, depending on your unique situation.
If you are ever in doubt, check to see what types of videos other local companies , like your competitors, are producing.
Video Marketing Strategy
Not enough can be said on the advantages a business will experience from producing high quality videos. The days of setting up a laptop and shooting a business video in a small poorly lit office using a poor microphone are over. The damage a business does to it’s image for attempting to product a business video will cost them much more to repair than if they had had them done professionally. Consumers are no longer going to view low quality videos..so waste your time. Go for quality and see the change it makes to you business.
Let me know how I can help.
A good analysis of the reasons to use professional quality video production, Scot. Although professional production can be expensive, there are an increasing number of cost-effective alternatives to the high-produced studios. There are even a few niche production companies that can offer very reasonable rates for specific kinds of marketing videos.
Randall
Native Light Video