Video Marketing – Why You Need It
I read with sadness back in May this year about the demise of Grumpy Cat, the internet meme sensation who not only shot to fame because of a genetically malformed face but ended up netting her owners millions of dollars in revenue in the process. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48308638
Part of Grumpy Cat’s meteoric rise to fame was the viral effect of video and the modern social sharing culture which fuels that virality. Can you use this kind of viral video content to promote your own business? Absolutely!
Video for all
Gone are the days where you needed thousands of pounds per week to cover production of marketing videos. For mid-level promotional videos all you need is a decent microphone, a video equipped digital camera or webcam of sufficiently high resolution and the willingness to get up on camera to promote the products you are offering.
There are fully featured video editing programmes available for very little money online, or if you use Windows 10 or have an Apple computer both have video editing apps available and pre-installed for free.
If you’re in any doubt about the ability of modern low-cost video equipment to record TV ready levels of footage, remember that the hugely successful TV series Gold Rush relies on fairly inexpensive Go Pro cameras to record a large percentage of each programme and to be honest you don’t even need to go to this expense. Many of the latest smartphones have video recording quality that would shame even top end video equipment from a decade ago.
What about production quality?
Of course, if you are trying to portray the quality and trustworthiness of your business then you are going to have to occasionally produce some higher quality, staged videos but for your week to week marketing requirements do you really need a script written by Ridley Scott with George Lucas behind the camera? Definitely not!
It turns out that people trust and have empathy with videos which are a little rough around the edges. If you can portray an honest review of your products or store in a way which reflects the beliefs and values of your viewers then you are actually more likely to get a positive response than a perfectly scripted and filmed corporate video.
If you don’t believe this then take a look at some of the many videos produced by vloggers (Video Bloggers) online. Most are filmed with integrated webcams or mobile phones, use inconsistent backgrounds and are totally un-scripted, but the people producing these videos are able to amass many thousands if not millions of views, with resulting income from monetisation of the videos.
Do you really want quality?
If you do want to spend more time and money producing higher quality videos then this doesn’t need to be expensive either. Modern video editing tools allow a number of effects, transitions and overlays to really bring some impact to your videos without breaking the bank. Again, if you own an Apple computer, you get professional level video editing tools for free pre-installed or you can download Blender or Lightworks for Windows, Linux or Apple for free.
With this level of video editing at your fingertips (after quite a lot of training) you can even do advanced video editing, create and blend in animations and add dynamic lighting effects to rival cinema quality movies. All it takes is time and effort to learn, plus dedication to get the final result you are looking for.
Want to get started?
The easiest way to get started with video marketing is to sign up for a YouTube account and then think of some enticing subjects for your video campaigns.
Get into the mindset of the people who are likely to purchase your products. What would your customers want to see? How about unboxing videos of your products, or a guide on how to un-fold that latest pushchair you’ve just got in stock? Your customers can and do look for this type of information, so get your video camera out and start filming!
Share your results
Once you’ve put up some videos online, get out into the World and share! At Intelligent Retail we utilise CoSchedule for this, however there are free services you can use to share your content across many different social media accounts. If you run a WordPress blog then install the Jetpack plugin and hook this up to your social accounts. This gives you coverage across all of your social media whenever you launch a new post with an embedded video.
David Fairhurst
Head of Creative Online Marketing
Intelligent Retail
David has been involved with Search Engine Optimisation and web development since 1999 and has spoken at many different retail and SEO conferences including Spring Fair and SES London