Ok so to make up for such a boring blog title, I’m going to have to try super hard to make the content of this blog extra entertaining. It’s going to be filled with bold titles, embedded Youtube videos and some of the finest adjectives the English language has to offer. So without further ado, here are three video marketing ideas to help light up your social media feed.
Table Talk
For me, the table talk video is the ultimate way to share your personality with the audience and express the utmost passion for your brand. The premise is simple, it’s you, sat at a table (ok it doesn’t have to be a table, but I’m currently pining for an Ikea endorsement), talking directly to the camera about whatever the hell you want to.
The huge benefit of this style of video is that it’s to the point and you can share any information you want about your brand or business. We find the best format is to pick one topic or information piece for each video and stick to that throughout. This established each video you create as a separate piece of content which is search friendly and instantly informs the viewer on what they are going to learn about. You then can get the sheer joy of creating a satisfying mini-series that can be stacked nicely in your digital library.
These videos work best when the pace is fast. Slow conversational video productions have their place, but not within this strand of social media marketing. Quick jump cuts, bold animated text and transitions to relevant images and videos give the viewer a loaded minute or two of info which is easily consumable.
It will take a bit of presenting confidence on the hosts part, however, if you are passionate about your brand, business or group then this shouldn’t be a problem. Audience’s love seeing faces, not just a bombardment of logos. So the more you can put a face to your brand the more you’re going to grab all those sumptuous digital leads.
Youtuber Style
To people of an older generation, a Youtuber is a job that all whinging millennial brats do these days for millions of pounds. That’s the official Oxford English Dictionary definition by the way, honest. But to everyone else, Youtube is a form of daily entertainment, information and education. Youtube in itself is a great platform for video marketing and should definitely be used as part of your marketing mix, however, it’s not just the platform itself which is beneficial, we can learn a lot from the styles of content that have come from it for our wider digital marketing efforts.
The creative playground that Youtube established allowed styles of videos such as ‘vlogs’, ‘video challenges’ and other out there creative videos to flourish. Although these may seem exclusively like pieces of entertainment, their adaptability to video marketing is almost seamless. If you can combine the engaging qualities of entertainment videos with the irresistible allure of marketing content then you are onto an absolute winner.
Ok, I’m talking a big game here but what do these freaky marketing/entertainment hybrids actually look like? They can come in many forms, but let’s take the Vlog category as an example. What started out as lucky Christmas present receivers talking to their new camera in their bedroom, has provided a platform for individuals across all walks of life to invite audiences into their day to day lives. So when we look at this through a business lens, you’ve got yourself a tool that allows you to lift the lid on your brand and give customers and clients a genuine inside look into what your business does.
Businesses, companies and big corporations endlessly try and show their stakeholders just what they do on the daily, however, attempts through blogs (just like I’m slogging through now), photos and staged video adverts don’t really cut the mustard. With a vlog, you tick the box of humanising your brand in a very real and modern way. Team members share their personality, the business gives interested parties a clearer view of how they operate and the brand gains respectability as a result.
Another fantastic example is one we produced for our own brand (yes I am blowing my own trumpet). This Youtube style race video, pitted two brands against each other. The element of a race or a challenge is a classic technique to draw an audience in that even Top Gear have been utilising for years. With the advent of Youtube and now other video platforms, this blueprint can be placed over a whole range of industries. ‘How fast can you put up a flat pack wardrobe?’ (that ought to secure my Ikea endorsement), ‘How many tins of beans can you find in a cash and carry?’, ‘Whose tax return will a group of 12 year old kids find simplest to understand?’. I really could rattle these off all day and just by typing that I’m getting an idea for a video series of my own, so take these in, think of your own and realise just how much potential there is in this area and I’ll type a full stop before I get too carried away.
These only scrape the surface of Youtuber style videos, but what I hope I have shown is that they give an informal and creative way of opening up your brand to the world. Balance is key in marketing and such informal social video content gives the audience a bit of respite from logos, fonts and colours. What a way to develop your brand’s reputation not only as a top operator in its industry but as a leading producer of video content.
Motion Graphics
Motion graphics are animations and animation is a fantastic way to inject your brand assets with a bit of extra life. Every brand will have its logo, font and colour scheme which have been replicated countless times on digital banners, email signatures and budget pens. The problem with these is they become a bit stale, animation adds some extra excitement to the mix, making your brand more dynamic and attractive.
This can be capitalised on in numerous ways, the most simplest being animated versions of online adverts and promotions. By animating, the adverts firstly becomes more attractive and eye catching, giving the viewer an instant insight to the modern outlook of your business. Secondly, on a very practical level, it allows more information to be shared. With a static ad the designer is limited to the one frame of pixels, however, with an animated ad the frame constantly changes and more information can be translated to the audience. This means a variety of messages can be put across with a range of lengths.
The beauty of such videos is that they don’t necessarily required any video footage. Videos can be created utilising just the company branding and still generate a very effective piece of content. This means they a quicker to produce and are therefore perfect for a campaign that needs to be turned around quickly like a flash January sale or Valentine’s Day competition. The brand awareness is extended and you are left with even more quality content to promote yourselves effectively online.
Practicality aside, creating motion graphic based videos means that your content instantly becomes more versatile. Promotional adverts, explainer videos, competitions, educational videos and corporate reports, the list is endless. Video footage is essential for any effective video marketing campaign, however, motion graphics are a highly effective way of supplementing such as a campaign to further boost the quality of content that your brand is pushing out.
Video marketing is a highly effective way of boosting your online presence and ensuring your brand is sharing it’s message on a regular basis. These are only a few ways to get the ball rolling and to start nailing your video marketing campaign. If you want to grow your video content catalogue to the next level, just get in contact with us and tell us what you want you to achieve through video marketing. We may just have a few tricks up our sleeve.
