Patience is a concept often overlooked in business and also in life. The race to the top of the app store or who can get a million followers the fastest. We don’t often take time to appreciate the joys of patience. Not only the satisfaction it gives, but the results this patience delivers.
Failing fast is great and I love the mindset that leads to not being afraid of getting things wrong. But the problem that this philosophy has is that it makes us impatient, wanting and needing everything yesterday.
Have you ever considered sticking with something and not smashing it down and starting again? This might not be the cool Silicon Valley approach, but there is a lot to be said for it. Ok, if something is totally broken then, by all means, start again. But let’s remember that persistence and patience lead to some of the greatest achievements.
This is no different for marketing.
Patience In Marketing
Just like patience in life, patience in marketing is crucial to gain positive results. Within an industry that often promises satisfaction instantly, the internal reality of marketing success is much different. All good marketing campaigns rely on a solid foundation and a strong sense of patience throughout.
Without preaching too hard on marketing as a whole, let’s look at why patience is so vital when it comes to video marketing. The main outlets for video marketing come in the form of social media channels and web landing pages. All social platforms and Google, want quality content appearing on their sites. This is what they aim to achieve through their algorithms and are what they are aiming for with developments such as Facebook Watch and Youtube Premium. Netflix has set the standard for content creation and everyone wants a slice.
YouTube and Facebook really want to attract great content creators to their platforms in order to boost the potential success of their own original content.
The idea of the viral video has skewed many people’s ideas of what constitutes a strong video marketing plan. The idea that we should seek to produce that one video that out of nowhere gains millions of views is nonsense. This may bring in an instant flurry of traffic, but it is nothing more than vanity. A sudden spike will not make a brand, solidly maintained growth over time is the real power driver.
We must realise that even though the big online platforms want us to spend money to gain instant views, what they really want is a consistent flurry of top quality and highly engaging content to be published on their platform. In order to get this, they are willing to reward content creators who consistently publish high-quality content. If you can provide them with this, they are willing to thank you with lots of lovely lovely organic reach.
For the savvy amongst you, you’ll have clocked now that we could be sitting on a winning formula. The big platforms want their users to publish top quality content on their platform. What we want is all our beautiful marketing content to be shared with the world. The Netflix ambitions of the likes of Facebook and Youtube play into the advantage of marketers. If you’re willing to give them the ticket to the top and provide them with tip-top video content on a regular basis, they are kindly willing to use their worldwide marketing power to share your brand with the world.
So, in creating your own video marketing strategy, you must bear in mind what is in it for likes of Google and Facebook and play them at their own game. Consistently putting our high quality, original and creative video content that tells your story in a way that viewers want to keep on watching is the key to seeing your video views increase and the exposure for your brand climb.
Patient Creation
This may all seem a bit theoretical, so let’s break it down into a simple action plan. In order to deliver a strong video marketing plan, consistent content needs to be delivered over an extended period of time. One-off spectacular videos are nice and exciting, but not if there is no other content to back them up.
As much as I ranted against the ‘viral video’ earlier, this doesn’t mean to say we don’t want to attract viewers to our content, of course we do! However, the best way to look at a strong video marketing plan is by splitting it into two segments. Picture them as two best friends who can’t do without each other. One friend is the ongoing video content that appears on a regular basis and appeals to your target audience. Friend number 2 is one-off, set-piece videos that act as standalone pieces of content and are used to grab the audience’s attention. If we separate them they are no good, but together they can take on the world!
Nando’s are a fantastic example of creating long-running video series that have built up attention over time.
These two approaches work hand in hand to boost the impact of the content around it. The one-off, big impact videos can attract attention and generate an instant buzz. But the reason I was calling out the viral video mindset so much earlier, is that these on their own are not enough. This is where the consistent production of an ongoing series of content is important to back up the high impact content.
Working together, the consistent content will slowly build up an audience, affirm your brand identity and develop a great bank of content. This means that when you gamble on a high impact piece and it pays off, your brand isn’t empty. You already have a story to tell and you will capture the newly found viewers and eventually customers much more easily.
This is best done in the form of a series. Dedicated video series that show off your brand or business is a fantastic way to build your brand identity over time. The beauty of this is that the creativity involved has no limits. It can be as simple as a Q&A with a different team member each week, to videos touring the locations your company operates in. Building up a variety of series over time, bit by bit, will grow your reach statistically whilst also expanding the creative opportunities that open up to you.
A Practice Worth Mastering
So is it even worth bothering? If your current marketing campaign is going well, this can all seem like a bit of unnecessary faff that will take forever to come good. Well, that’s one way of looking at it, but the stats alone tell an encouraging story. With 86% of consumers wanting to see more videos in 2020 and with 93% of marketers reporting to have landed a new client through video marketing, it seems like a no brainer.
Video marketing success can benefit in a small way, straight away. Reaching new customers, showing off your brand as modern and forward thinking and communicating your message in a clearer, more visual way are all instant benefits.
But, if you’re willing to be patient, throw your best minds into it and start translating all the exciting marketing concepts you’ve already spent time developing into video content, then before you know it you’ll be reaping the benefits video marketing has to offer. Maybe the Netflix execs will start knocking on your door before too long.
So let’s take some inspiration from the tortoise. Let’s not sprint to the finish line. Let’s not skip to the final chapter. In a society of speed and transformation, there is a lot to be said for the importance of patience. Step back, take a minute and start building for the long term. You might just be surprised where this old thing called patience gets you to.