Video isn’t the future of content marketing, video is happening right now.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock and avoiding the internet at all costs, you would see so many businesses now creating videos as a fundamental asset in their marketing arsenal.

Video has quickly become the go-to for many business owners and content marketers. The capability to create video content has become remarkably simple with the plethora of tools available to us, and the platforms we can now use for distribution. Social media has given us the gift of an audience for our video content and smartphones have provided us with the camera.

It’s now easier than ever to create video content for our audience, and it’s only going to become easier as more online platforms are favouring video content and providing us with so many more tools to use.

If you aren’t creating videos in your marketing mix, you are already falling behind in the race. I’m willing to bet some of your competitors are producing video content and possibly even winning the attention of your audience. Uh-oh, you better get on that.

So, if you haven’t started yet and you’re thinking about producing videos, here are some key considerations and strategies to get started and do it right from the get-go as told by 4 video marketing experts.

Tanya Williams – Digital Conversations

“Video marketing is an essential part of the marketing mix in 2018. Some simple tips to make your video content look professional include having a professional top & tail like an animated logo, adding branded Thumbnails to all your video content, creating playlists and keeping your content short (less than 2 minutes).”

Your audience is time poor so having ‘coffee break sized content’ will help you engage them. Also, be mindful of your background when filming and try to keep interesting (Ideally not in front of a white wall) and use a teleprompter to keep you on track.”

One thing I want to point out here is the length of your content. Two to three minutes is the video length sweet spot, so you need to make sure you’re getting your message across to the viewer within this time frame. These days people are extremely time poor, and couple that with the endless distractions in any given day, it’s easy for a viewer to lose interest in your video and move onto something else. Keep it short, capture their attention immediately, and make sure your message is relevant and compelling enough to keep them engaged for as long as possible.

Shea Smith – Incolour Productions

“Understanding who you are talking to is key. Create a customer avatar and get very specific on who your audience is.”

Know who your audience is. Simple, right? It may seem so, yet so many business owners and marketers don’t go into the detail needed to craft content with a message that will resonate with someone and move them to take action.

It’s no longer enough to just think you know everything about your audience and target market. Knowing the job role, turnover and industry isn’t enough these days to create a compelling message. We need to dive much deeper and ask, “what motivates my ideal customer”, “what are his/her pain points”, “what problems are they experiencing in their business/lives”, “where do they hang out and how do they consume content”, “what does their average day look like”.

Jake Kay-Lawson – Next Gen Visuals

“When it comes to creating video content for your business, I like to take the quantity over quality approach. It’s okay to sacrifice “perfection” to get your message out there more often and on multiple platforms. With the current state of social media, there is SO much competition for you to get noticed online, so by posting only one video per day on Facebook you are severely limiting your exposure, as not everyone will see your posts.”

My key takeaway from this is to just start creating video content and worry about the quality of your video less. The one thing that will ensure your video is a success is your message. Don’t get stuck in the production stage like so many business owners and marketers do. They worry about how polished it is, how perfect the editing is and if the framing is great. Forget all of that, as long as your video content is compelling, relevant, consistent, and connects with your audience in an empathetic way, this is all you will need. It’s your message that counts.

Ben Amos – Innovate Media

“Think strategically. When considering video for your business marketing stop focusing only on the tactics of how to make a video, what tool to use or whether to ‘go live’ or hire a production company. Instead, you need to first consider who your ideal audience is, understand the journey they go on to buy from you and align your video content planning to that journey. Allow those insights to define your strategic approach to creating and using video. When you use the right video for the right purpose in the right way online, that’s where the sweet spot is.”

To cut this one down to 3 words: Start with Strategy. Don’t just go start creating a video for the sake of it, have a clearly defined strategy in place first outlining your goals, audience, customer journey and how you are going to reach these customers. Before I even start doing video content, I ask these 5 questions and document my responses:

  1. What will my video content accomplish? (write down your video marketing mission statement).
  2. What type of video content am I producing? (is it educational, interview-based, live videos)
  3. Who is this content for? (Narrowing down the audience/avatar)
  4. What will my audience get out of it?
  5. Do I need to get management buy-in?

If you aren’t producing videos in your marketing mix, start now. Don’t hold off, because the landscape is moving extremely fast and if you aren’t starting now, you will be left behind in the race for audience attention online.