Today, videos are ruling the internet. If you are a business owner, you are definitely aware of the wonders that video marketing can do to increase your reach and sales. Earlier, only big businesses could afford high-end advertising firms to air their promotional videos on television, but now it has become much easier and budget friendly.
People spend more time on the internet than the TV and airing your marketing advertisement on the internet is not as difficult as it seems. You might try Google Ads, and Facebook Ads at much lower costs. But even more manageable is to create your social media pages or youtube channels and post your marketing videos for free.
According to a survey, 92% of marketers consider that video will play a significant part in marketing in the future. A business is likely to survive and benefit over time if contemporary marketing strategies are employed like social media marketing, influencer marketing, and video marketing. So, if you are looking to raise your business profits and reach a wider market, you need to start with video marketing right now. And, if you already have, you still require to focus on the content to improve the stats.
And, if your content is unique and is enjoyed by the audience, you can earn maximum profits even with zero investments. But what are the key ingredients to make a video that makes an impression in the viewers’ minds? If you are looking for the answer to this question, you have landed at the right place. The 5 key elements required to create a successful marketing video are:
- The length, The Message & The Storyline
- A Hook
- Visual Elements
- SEO: Search Engine Optimization
- CTA: Call To Action
1. The length, The Message & The Storyline
Let’s begin by looking at the 3 most crucial components required to create a marketing video of any style. The length, the message, and the storyline are like the body and soul of the video. Determining the structure of the video along with its length is important before even starting to create the video.
1. The length:
There is no “one model fits all” kind of typical length for a marketing video. It would strictly depend on the type of marketing video that you want to create, the type of target audience, and the platform of publishing.
A video like “SPOT Ad” i.e. used for promoting a product or service can have a length ranging from a few seconds to a few minutes. While on the other hand, a company culture video or Brand story video could be as long as 20 minutes. The length of the video is just fine as long as you are able to convey your message clearly in the given amount of time.
For instance, consider the recent exploding trend of Instagram reels and youtube shorts. People are extensively hooked on these short videos of 15-20 seconds for hours and thus many brands are using them for promotional purposes and to gain more followers or subscribers many of which later would convert to their customers.
Instagram Reels have around 2 billion Monthly Active Users and get 22% more engagement than standard video postings. There is certainly no doubt that today, Instagram Reels are the most powerful tool to utilise within any social media marketing campaign.
Looking at the popularity of reels in the marketing domain, Instagram has recently released some updates specifically for marketers to make content creation much easier. Some of these updates are:
- Increase in the time length of reels upto 60-second for more extended content
- Remix feature that can be used to mix a publicly shared reel to produce a new reel.
- Draft feature to design and schedule content in advance
2. The Message:
At the heart of every successful marketing video, there is a clear and compelling message to the viewer which connects them with the brand. A promotional video for a new product launch, or a Behind-The-Scenes video for building user engagement, whatever type of marketing video you decide to create, make sure to align it with the message intended for the user.
The video should start with a crisp introduction such that the audience sticks to watching it until the end and it should convey the exact value that you are trying to offer to your consumers via your brand. It is really important that the audience understands your motivation behind the product and relates to the problem that you are solving, only then they will convert to future leads.
3. The Storyline:
The script or storyline is the soul of your marketing video. It is an element that brings your brand to life. Make sure to choose a story that connects with your audience and your brand at the same time.
Nobody likes to watch a promotional video that only focuses on “selling at face” directly. Everyone loves to watch the bigger and deeper story behind it which connects the dots and persuades them to make a purchase. Adding a great storyline will improve brand engagement and will ensure that the viewers watch the video until the very end.
A video with a creative script will surely stick in the viewers’ minds for days just like this beautiful and heart-touching video advertisement by SamsoniteIndia for the festival of lights, Diwali.
2. A Hook
Every marketing video must contain a hook i.e. a short preview of what’s in it for the viewers. A hook acts as the attention-grabber element of the video and it can either be a question, a visual, or even a promise. A hook could also be something about the brand, product, or service or sometimes it would just be there to grab attention, that’s all.
Basically, a hook provides the audience with a reason to stick around for a while and watch your video until the very end. It should also offer them the consequences of missing out on the video and what is at stake.
A hook will occupy a short length of your total video and will focus on viewer engagement only. It can be placed at the start of the video with the introduction, to give the viewers a glimpse of what’s ahead and why they should watch your video. You can also use a hook in between or throughout the video to make sure the audience knows what’s yet to come and sticks around with complete curiosity.
A hook can be an emotional element that focuses on connecting with the audience at a deeper level such that it creates an emotional appeal of what value your brand has to offer in people’s lives. It helps the viewer to feel connected and invested in your product or service by helping them identify the motivation behind your organisation.
A hook can also be a curious element that keeps them tagged onto the screen just like a thriller movie and makes the audience wait for the climax of the video. Blending a creative storyline with curious elements in between is the perfect recipe to prepare a successful marketing video.
To find the best kind of hook for your marketing video, try to remember the value propositions of your business and then match it with a creative hook. Is it the technology, pricing, customer support, basically what makes you better than everybody else in similar kinds of business? For instance, have a look at this video to know more about hooks for youtube videos.
Here are some other easy ways that you can use to get the audience hooked on your marketing video:
- Ask an interesting question
- State a shocking Fact
- Create a captivating character (just like the Vodafone Zoozoo)
2. Visual elements
Now, you have got that most suitable title, heart-touching storyline conveying the straightforward message, and even a hook concept to keep the viewer tagged on to the marketing video of your brand. But something is still missing!
Obviously, they are the visual components that will give life to your storyline. These components can be chosen according to what’s best suited for your video concept, budget, and target audience. If you have a plenty of budget, do not shy away from hiring actors, preparing a set, and shooting your storyline with a mix of wonderful music in the background, impactful dialogues, and amazing lighting for the best quality.
However, if you are short on budget or want to try something a bit more creative and unique, then you can surely invest in some good graphics, illustrations, and animations along with professional voice-over artists which will make your video budget-friendly as well as distinctive.
Do not forget to include branding tags wherever necessary, including the brand name and the logo. Try to stick with the colour scheme of your brand or get creative with colours and choose the ones best suited for the energy that you want to radiate through your video.
High-quality production is important for both animated and non-animated videos. Make sure the audio and video quality is up to the mark to make the video more engaging and not lose viewers’ attention in between.
A strong visual component will play a vital role in determining the engagement rate of the viewers and driving future sales. Learn how to play with graphical elements to influence a viewer’s mindset and make them go “WOW”.
3. Optimization for the internet (SEO)
Imagine you have created a video with the most promising storyline including a precise and crisp message, an innovative title as well as a hook introductory part along with outstanding visuals. But the video does not pop up in anybody’s feed and gets lost due to so many fishes in the sea of the web and you are never able to make it to the screens of the audience. It would be heartbreaking! All effort would go in vain.
This is where Search Engine Optimization becomes important for every marketer out there trying to make a presence on the internet. To get successful in your video marketing campaigns, you will need to optimise them for the web. This is done using SEO or Search Engine Optimization. It involves focusing on the content of the video like titles, captions, and sometimes even audio voice-overs such that they align with the demand of the market.
Basically, if you include keywords that have a higher search volume on the search engines like Google, there are higher chances that your marketing video will be displayed at a relatively higher rank than other videos. This way the visibility of your brand’s video will increase and people won’t have to scroll down or browse thousands of pages to find your video. They are likely to come across your video much earlier if you use the right keywords for the required target audience.
SEO might look a bit complex at first, but it is not that difficult. You can start by adding the video titles such that they contain the best keywords that you are trying to target. A little bit of searching for keywords can be of help. And, there are many amazing tools available online that can help you with this task. Some of these tools are available for free usage for a limited time and after that, you would require a subscription. Depending on the volume and budget of your video marketing campaign, you can use any of the two.
Also, do not forget to include these rich keywords in the description as well. A title might only be able to address a few of the keywords but using a description or a caption, you can include them all. Another important factor is hashtags. These hashtags that we see so commonly on almost every social media website (like Instagram, Facebook, and even on LinkedIn and Youtube) are really important from the perspective of search engine rankings.
People on social media often come across new content i.e. similar to what they usually search for on the web. The algorithms of these websites work by taking into account hundreds of parameters including the content in your video, the title, the captions, etc. But the major role is played by the tags that you assign to the video yourself.
While uploading a video on Youtube, you might come across an option where it specifically asks you to add the relatable tags for the video before you post it. It is important because whenever the next time a person searches for content similar to your added tags, there is a high chance that he or she will come across your video.
In this way, by effectively manipulating your content according to the needs of the target audience, you can generate more traffic and thus more leads for your marketing video. The more are the number of viewers, the more is the probability of them converting into your potential customers.
4. Call To Action (CTA)
Now, you are almost done with the whole process of creating the video that is definitely going to impact the target audience of your brand. Imagine you publish this video, it gets to the screens of the audience and they watch it until the end with full attention and are very much impressed by the brand. Now, what’s next after the video ends?
CTA or Call To Action is the component that is 100% critical to driving further decisions of the viewers after they are done watching your marketing video. It refers to the action calls that your video should provide them as an answer to what they should do if they like your product, brand, or service.
CTA can be anything like:
- Subscribing to the brand channel
- Following the brand pages on social media
- Like, comment, and share the video
- Browsing the product catalogues mentioned in the video description
- Looking up the brand website to know more about the company
- Sign up for emails or notifications from the brand
- Or even, placing an order
After you are done giving your message to the viewer, it is your job to guide them further and convert them to potential customers. Make sure to inform them about these actions, before the video ends. CTAs can be added in the beginning (Pre-roll CTA) and middle (Mid-roll CTA) of the video as well. However, the most common format is to add a CTA at the end of the video.
I believe that now you possess all the necessary ingredients required to create a successful marketing video that will do wonders for your brand. All you need now is to get started with your own unique and creative recipe to formulate the marketing video that is best suited for your brand and target audience. Remember to be patient and consistent while conducting your video marketing campaigns and keep a track of how it is performing. Accordingly, connect with your audience, or review their comments on the videos to look for what they like and what not and rectify the errors to eventually acquire excellence in this art of video marketing.
