Video Marketing Tools

Video marketing is an ever-increasing strategy used by brands and businesses for almost all targeted audiences.

Unlike still images, videos allow for a combination of stills, audio, video and animation, giving brands more freedom to be creative. There are a variety of ways to utilize video marketing, ranging from animations to silent clips to short films to livestreams.

Video marketing is useful for websites, social media, apps and any other platform that can host video content. Though popular, it is not advisable to use just any video marketing strategy. Choosing a strategy that is entertaining, informing and accurately representative of your brand is crucial to the success of your brand.

Although it is not a new marketing tool, there are a range of ways to use video marketing today than there were 30 years ago.

Explainer videos
Explainer videos do well to tell the audience who you are and what your brand is about. These kinds of videos are commonly animated, but as long as they are fun and informative, they will capture and keep the audience’s attention. Explainer videos can be as short as a quick “get to know us” video or they can be longer, more instructional videos based on a product or service that your business provides. The style and frequent production of these videos is entirely based on the identity of your brand.

Brand videos
Brand videos are one of the most seamless ways to share information about your brand. People like to see who is behind the product/service they are viewing, so brand videos with a more human presence is key. CEOs, employees or customer testimonials are suitable faces for brand videos, as they make the brand seem more personal and upfront. The videos can be sit-down informationals telling the audience who you are, what the brand values and the core reason why the brand would be beneficial to the audience. These videos can range anywhere from showreels to interviews with a strong focus on originality.

Social media stories
Social media stories have proven to be one of the most creative aspects of social media platforms. With stories, you have a limited amount of time to showcase your creativity, as most of the stories segments last from 10 seconds to 15 seconds. Instagram, for example, allows stories to be 15 seconds per segment. Snapchat separates 60-second stories into 10-second segments. Because of the newness of stories, creators have tailored apps to help bring more life to your stories. With the ability to draw, write text or paste images, stories have never been more alive than they are now. Social media stories allow for a fun, convenient and typically handheld approach for audiences to stick with your brand. 

Livestreams
Livestreams can be increasingly impactful in building trust within the consumer-producer relationship. Livestreams show, in real-time, the happenings in and around a business. Livestreams can be planned or spontaneous but work best when there is an event involving your brand that you want audience members to virtually be a part of. With features that allow viewers to ask questions or send reactions in real-time, this kind of virtual interaction also increases brand awareness and draws more viewers the more interactive the livestream gets. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube all offer livestreaming options. Depending on the platform, some livestreams can be saved to your profile so that viewers who were not able to view in real-time can view the stream at a later time.

Vlogs
Vlogging is a term made increasingly popular by YouTube. A vlog (video blog) is a way for viewers to get to know you personally. Vlogs can give a day-to-day look at your business, show a travel journey, answer questions from audience members or share a story. Whatever element best suits your brand that can be shown in a more casual, yet entertaining way would be great for vlog footage.

Product videos
Product videos are an efficient video marketing strategy because the audience immediately knows that the purpose of the video is to persuade them to buy or use something. Because audiences almost immediately know this, they want to be shown why your brand or business is more suitable for them versus what your competitors offer. Even with the opportunity for massive creativity, it can be a misconception that product videos must involve dramatization or over-the-top animations. However, presenting your products in a way that is classic, yet original and honest while also remaining consistent with your brand identity will be one of the most important factors to both maintain and grow your consumers.

How-to videos
The element of how-to videos is in the name: they are videos that show you how to do something! How-to videos are great for step-by-step use of a product or service that your business provides. How-to cooking videos, for example, often show fast-paced, step-by-step preparation with each ingredient, linking a longer, slower version of the clip toward the end of the video. This is because brands know that people scrolling through social media typically have short attentions spans, so a quick version of a longer video that immediately captures attention is more likely to lead the interested viewer to watch the longer video.

Short films
When it comes to a video marketing strategy, short films work perfectly for storytelling. The film can be funny or sad, heartfelt or solemn, as long as it strategically connects with your audience and connects your audience to your brand. Short films can also be a subtle way to showcase a product or utilize a service, and they can also show audiences what your brand values without listing the values word for word.

Classic commercial
If you’ve ever heard the saying “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it,” then it perfectly applies to the classic commercial method of video marketing. With all the different ways to market your brand through video, commercials are not going out of style anytime soon. There are even more platforms today to showcase your commercial than there used to be, as streaming services like YouTube and Hulu have commercial options. Even more so, certain mobile apps provide spaces for ads and commercials either before or after you can use the app. The main thing these platforms have in common is that they are normally tailored to what you would want to watch or buy on a platform that you frequently use, so the key to modern, non-televised commercial video marketing is to ensure that your commercial plays toward a target audience. Otherwise, your brand will get lost in a sea of ads that were irrelevant to the audience’s interests.

Looking to add video marketing to your marketing strategy? Contact PURE on accounts@purecreative.co.za or call on +27 (21) 424 6918 to set up a complimentary 20 minute consultation. Let’s create something great together!